What a difference 10 months makes..

[AAON77]

Yesterday, I posted about hitting my first ever 10k in the ‘Bridge to 10k group’. Some of the lovely feedback reminded me that I would have been encouraged by the achievement back when I was doing C25k. It’s by no means dramatic or inspiring, I’m just a very average Mum of youngsters who wanted to carve out a bit of space for myself to clear my head a bit. I thought I’d share it in here too, incase it resonates with anyone. Never has the ‘if I can, anyone can’ saying been more true:

I was a life long ‘non runner’ card carrier, but secretly used to run in my dreams.

Hoping it might help tackle anxiety issues I downloaded the C25k app in February. After a bit of stop start, I graduated at the end of Summer. With my furlough period ending and school starting again in September I worried I would not have the ‘me time’ available to keep up with the running. As the mornings got darker, knee injury and the work/life juggle kicked in again my fears were being realised - I was needed at home before school, work was too busy to have lunch time run and then when the anxiety kicked back in I could feel myself kind of giving up. But then I remembered how good you feel after a run, and I dragged my slow ass out again.

I’ve been able to add 1k a week on my week’s longest run. Last week I managed 8k and I practically floated home I was so happy. Today, (my last childfree day until Jan 6th) I sooo hoped I could crack my goal...I got to 9k and knew I could do it, so pushed on for the 10k. I was tired, but I’d actively tried to slow slow slow down, and I did it!! In March I struggled to run for 90secs. Today I ran for 1hr 19mins (slow I know! 🤷‍♀️). When I got home I promptly snot cried on my husband because I was so proud of myself!

[NusiaFab Graduate]

Congratulations on your 10k run!!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You have worked hard on your achievements and should definitely be proud of yourself! Im only about to start W5 of C25K but find that running gives me such a confidence boost and helps clear my head for day ahead. Its not easy to juggle home, work and daily challenges with running but it was the realisation that i deserve that time to work on myself and am able to progress even when it gets hard that was the most beneficial. I hope i can achieve one day a similar result as you AAON77, keep on running!!😊

[Silverfox1943 Graduate]

Well done, now your really a runner1he 19 mins is a great time. Carry on with plenty of consolidation runs, variety is the spice of life so its said.

I did 1hr 21mins 3 months ago but still had some more in store. Dont know if I ll do another 10k as my old legs are starting to feel it. So for now content with 5ks.

😎🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️