I ran my first park run on Saturday.
My husband does them most weeks. I used to go with him but run a different way to do my C25K podcast.
I was very nervous as I've never run with so many people. I hadn't told my husband I was going to do it, so when we got there and I told him he was really excited. I honestly felt like a rabbit in the headlights.
Once we set of and most people left me behind I settled into a rhythm and started to enjoy it. Once I'd done 3 minutes walking I started to jog and I passed a few people which felt good.
It's a 2 Lap 5k so I was prepared for people to overtake me at my steady plod. The first guy came steaming past me and finished in 16 minutes (show off!).
My plan was to run for 30 minutes and then walk the rest, but when I got to 30 minutes I thought I would carry on for a bit until I needed to stop. I knew where the finish line was and that it wasn't that far away so some how I found myself running right to the finish line where my husband was waiting to cheer me on.
My time was 41.29 - not too shabby for my first time.π
We drove home and when I got out of the car I had a massive knot in my right calf. It took a lot of stretching throughout the day to get it to go but it's been fine since and my next run was absolutely fine.
I'm planning on running my normal 30 minutes every time and then when I go to park run if I'm feeling good I will run until I get tired or reach the finish line.
I feel absolutely fantastic for doing it and my husband keeps telling me how proud he is of me.
Keep going people, the feeling after your first park run is definitely worth the hard work.