So darn busy I let my seventh 'Runaversary' pass by!
Yep - June 1st, 2016 I decided to try the crazy-promises App I stumbled across on my new cell phone. C25K itself did not fill me with any confidence - it was a post by a newly graduated young lady who described her struggles with breathing, heavy legs, slowness etc...but triumphantly reported she had got to where she could run for thirty minutes without stopping!
It was a revelation to me! I had always thought that running was something you either could or could not do! That it came naturally and without much relative effort to those who were born with good lungs and musculature. Yet - here was someone who sounded EXACTLY like I felt when I tried to run, but unlike me had continued more than a few hundred paces to reach the amazing time of thirty minutes!
Well - I was at a time in life when I needed to do something about the awful rut I was in, and it needed to be akin to Shock Therapy to jolt me out of the doldrums The last thing I thought I could do was actually graduate...but it did seem a bit intriguing to see how many weeks I could knock off.
My considered guess was that I might get through the first three, and possible day one or even two of week four.
I have written on previous Runaversarys the gruesome details of Day One, Week One so won't go into all that again Suffice to say - it was grim. Two forms of asthma, screwed foot bones, way overweight...it truly is a wonder I didn't do myself permanent injury.
Yet, about fifteen weeks later I graduated. The programme works.
I have never managed to do 5k in thirty minutes, over 90% of us haven't on graduation ( we have had two surveys over the years confirm that) but I could run. Since then I have gone all the way to a Full Marathon - far indeed where my huge ambition was to make the 3/10ths of a mile marker in the local park without having to stop ( and the first time I managed to reach that marker I was gasping for breath and thinking I had really reached my ultimate distance
The most important things I have learned in the last seven years are :
Run slow...then slower still. Sounds 'lame' but it works - and you will enjoy it a heck of a lot more than trying to sprint before you can actually run
Pay attention to how your body actually moves when you are running - took me a while to realise I was in the habit of twisting one of my feet out a bit too far, when I broke that habit I had far better runs
The first ten ( the toxic ten minutes are hard - or in my case the first fifteen or so. Your body is kind of going through the 'gears' and adjusting from walking pace to running pace. At a certain point, everything feels like it is smoothening out and then the Run gets better.
Running will never be 'easy' for me - but it sure got a LOT better
'Run at a pace you can hold a conversation at' - unless, like me, you have lungs that barely function when running. The advice is great for 'most' people, but if you are like me - maybe just concentrate on running slowly but as comfortably as you can when it comes to getting the air in and out
Enter a 5k fun run when you have graduated. I am not a 'joiner' type person - I don't like crowds, hubbub, 'fuss and organising' groups etc etc...but I have had some of the funnest times of my life at Running Events There is such a great atmosphere and it is a real blast to cross the finish line Plus - humans being humans, you are going to witness some extrordinary scenes (eg - the batcrap crazy Thanksgiving Run which I wrote about a couple of years ago. The person who swallowed their number pins being not the most bizzarre thing that happened) Having an Event to aim for and look forward to really will boost your motivation on those days when you most need it
MOST IMPORTANTLY - realise that the hardest distance to cover is that from the sofa to your front door. I promise you - if you simply gear up, go out and just start the run you will feel, no matter how it goes, a hell of a lot better than if you give in to the Gremlins that try to persuade you to 'Do it tomorrow'. The loss of a good habit is to put it off to the tomorrow that usually never actually arrives Throw on your gear, go out and at least start the run - that is, after all, what makes you a Runner!
Anyway - it has been, and continues to be, a truly enjoyable and in its own special way the most adventurous seven years of my life. I hate to think what my situation would be today if I had not stumbled across the App to begin the journey, and this Forum and my VRB's who were key in helping me continue it
Wishing you all many happy miles in your future
Written by
Irish-John
Graduate
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Great post as always IJ. I remember tales of a kitchen timer in there somewhere along they years no? Do you still have it?
I am continuously in awe of people that remember their runniversary. I can find my first post here, but I know I didn't find this forum until a good few weeks in and I didn't use the app because we can't use it in France, so I had an Excel spreadsheet that I'd found online somewhere
Thank you BIT 🙂👍🏻The Famous Kitchen Timer was honourably retired and is on permanent display in my Den, a good reminder of those days when running for thirty seconds was damn hard and how stubborn perseverance paid off 🙂
Happy Runaversary, John! Your post popped up in my emails in a health unlocked digest. What amazing things you've achieved in seven years. I remember your first post and following your journey at the time (not far behind my own). I haven't run in far too long and haven't achieved anywhere near what you have since graduating in 2016 so maybe that wayward email from health unlocked attempting to entice me back to the forum is the kick I need to get going again...!
Congratulations on the Runniversary and an inspiring running journey. Thanks for the "loss of a good habit " reminder-. Yoh have no idea how well timed this is!
Happy Runaversary Irish-John! I have just written 'Saturday Early Run' underlined (twice) in the Diary as I have not run for around a couple of months or so, and I am purposely avoiding looking at Strava to confirm how long it has actually been.
A viral infection initially stopped me in my tracks and since then I have been plagued by an increasing number of Vegetable Gremlins (of my own making of course!) and I have to confess bowed to their wailings to be released from the confines of their pots whilst imprisoned in the over crowded greenhouse asap.
The VG's have been feeding me the line that I do not have the energy or time to run as well as tend the allotment. To be fair I have been playing catch up after a very wet early year , but of course in reality just as I juggle my other daily commitments I have today finally faced my truth that I should not have let the VG's get the upper hand. I have been putting off what I know will be a very tough start, even running cautiously and very very slowly. Though as you encouragingly point out I will have the satisfaction of completing them. And yes there are always runs that feel better than others, but I know they are doing me good at some level whatever I feel at the time.
And of course I can regularly schedule in running during the week again just as I always have done in the past (down down VGs, get down VG's), along with everything else that fills my days. And I don't have to queer the pitch as is my nature ( please note VG's are only a very distant murmur now) by putting pressure on myself to get one activity done at the expense of another! I know in my heart how much running contributes to my sense of wellbeing and I too never cease to be amazed that I can 'run' which never in a month (make that two months or p'raps ten weeks) of Sundays would I have ever thought possible.
So thank you again Irish-John for another inspirational nudge to help get me out there and to make running part of my life again. Best regards and Happy Running throughout this coming year. Sara 😀
Thank you Sara 🙂I know all too well the lure of the Garden. It's a sad fact that just as the weather here gets really nice for running, the weed population arrives like a ravening Hunnish horde, and the Perrenial plants need life support LOL
Many happy hours digging, planting "messing about" not only takes time but a lot of energy - it can feel "too much" to run AND garden
But, half an hour can be spent watching a soap or taking an easy run, and after a while the adjustment needed reaches a worksble balance, especially as things calm down in tje garden and muscles unused over winter revive
Of course, my problem is - Fishing season also starts now! Lol
Feast or famine here - rotten housebound winters, fabulously packed Summers 🙂
I, too, have been doing the program again after having stopped running for months due to illness.
Your story is inspirational. When I was at peak fitness in 2020 I was still a slow runner. I was increasing distance sensibly and when I got to regularly running 10K I set my sights on the half marathon distance. A few months later, to my absolute astonishment and pride, I did that. It took me over 3 hours. When my watch showed I was about to start the final km, I was really emotional and managed to pull out the stops for a fast finish. Well, fast for me, that is!
I never even stopped to consider a marathon. Maybe I should think again!
Now - I’m just about to start Week 7, so it’s not exactly going to be tomorrow! 🤣 I’ll have to do everything I did before and then some.
I find it so hard to believe right now that I will be able to even do a 5k comfortably again! It's almost like the first time I did the programme - it just feels like it's never going to get better 🙂But, we know it will Damn Gremlins need to PO! Lol
The FM is something I take a wary pride in having done. It's a brutal distance and took so much time and effort that year to train I really don't have a desire to repeat it. I did enter for another one, but at a certain point realised the "ambition" was spoiling the "enjoyment" of running
My first step after graduating will be to work towards running 5K comfortably. I’ve always wanted to get involved with Parkrun but never been brave enough to turn up! Not from a running point of view - just hate doing such things on my own.
I hear you about marathon training. I’ll see how I feel when I get to half marathon again. Which I didn’t feel I was training for - just continued to increase distance when I felt like it. Then one day decided to do it! Although I’m enjoying doing C25K again, I’m not really one for training plans.
C25k is really the only plan I ever followed 🙂 For the FM I basically increased distance by 5 to ten percent per week, got me there but boy was it tough
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The last thing I thought I could do was actually graduate...but it did seem a bit intriguing to see how many weeks I could knock off.
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