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
Two years of Running 
I Graduated yesterday!
Still Running
Ten things I have learnt about running...
