Urgh. Fantasy running is very different from the reality jog.
Part of the reason I began C25k was that my 8 year old son, out of the blue, signed up for a cross country run with his school. He did so well, bless him. 1km up and down hills, on grass, no training, in a time of about 5 1/2 minutes. He nearly threw up and cried a little at the end, but within a couple of minutes was running around cheering on the next group. He has done another two races since and signed up for junior athletics.
So I thought... blimey, I’d better try and run a bit, see if I can encourage this.
This morning in a fit of optimism I signed us both up with Park Run. Son was leaping about at the prospect of running 2km (he has NO idea!) and asked if we could go for a run. It’s a rest day but... what is a mother to do?!
So off we go. I thought week 2 would be good (challenging enough for son but not self-sabotaging my own progress) with Michael Johnson on speaker telling us when to run and walk.
It was soooo hard! Whether it was the fact I hadn’t rested, didn’t have music, had to run on the spot/in circles, encourage/chat to child the entire time, try to stop child sprinting/try to get child to run, have to stop to climb a tree, I don’t know. But I was pretty boggled by the time it was over and a little less confident about starting week 5 tomorrow.
In the grand scheme of things it is great that my child is enthused and up for doing a Park Run, but boy, was it hard work!!!