I graduated from Couch to 5K on the morning of Friday 28th August 2020.
I actually did 5km in 30 minutes and 5 seconds. I also twisted my left ankle about 500m from the end trying to avoid the slippery mud in a puddle, and did a long walk home on the injured ankle.
I foolishly ran on the sore ankle on the following Monday, and by the Friday of that week could barely walk without pain. Three weeks and two physio visits (OUCH!) after I was back gently jogging again.
Three years later and on Saturday I ran a parkrun (5km) personal best of 25:55 in my bare feet and a long slow 22km (14 mile) run (in shoes) on the Sunday morning, one of over a dozen half marathon distances I've done in the last couple of years.
But what started me on this? Me who had never ever run more than a few steps before, who got wheezy at the thought of a one mile cross-country at school, who as a child ran with his legs going out sideways behind him, and who took ten minutes to recover from running for a bus?
It's all the fault of that C25K app. I got it on my phone a little after the BBC started to promote it, but it lay there unopened for several years. It would glower at me every time I opened the app list.
Then near the end of March 2020 the world turned upside down. A blond man in a suit who spoke to us on the TV told us we all had to stay at home and we were only allowed out for half an hour a day for exercise.
I wasn't a stranger to working from home. I'd done it for many years before. What I did have was a sudden chance to make a virtue out of a necessity. I decided I'd use that daily half hour profitably.
My first attempt was the day after the announcement. I got through the first week of C25K but got ill with a tummy bug, and that put things back a bit. I started again a couple of weeks later. I got to the end of week 2 by which time I realised something was wrong. What I hadn't remembered was that the leaflet for the medicine I was on (for several months) said I shouldn't do any strenuous exercise. What I suspect was happening is that it was interfering with the muscle repair mechanisms, and I was making things worse for myself with each run I did. Also I wasn't hydrating enough, but I didn't realise that until much much later.
I had about six weeks more of the medicine to take, so I waited until a fortnight after I'd finished. That turned out to be four weeks instead as I got some nastily infected insect bites from red spider mites whilst clearing a corner of the garden. They needed treating with some antibiotics which the GP prescribed after a phone conversation and photo upload.
I then started C25K again in July 2020. I found this forum after week 3 and it was a huge help. There are still some regulars around from that time.
As I said before, I graduated, got injured doing so, healed, then started again. I completed C25K again in the middle of November 2020. I did my first ever 10km run in Feb 2021, 10 miles in late March 2021, strained my hamstring trying to do a Half Marathon distance in April 2021 (saw a physio about the consequences of that). I did my first sub hour 10km at the end of May, my first ever parkrun in late July 2021, and my first HM distance in September 2021.
I've been regularly running ever since. I ran every day in January 2022. This year I ran every day in January, February and all but the last of March (I tripped during the warm up walk). I've been through many pairs of shoes.
I'm not the fastest. I'm not the slowest. I'm usually in the middle of the finishing table at parkruns.
I've run at home. I've run on holiday. I've run to work. I've run in sweltering sun. I've run in hail, snow and rain. I've run in heavy shoes. I've run with no shoes. I've run on streets. I've run on grass. I've run on gravel. I've run on sand.
All it took was that trigger to get me to start: that incentive to take that first step across that bridge and into what lay beyond.
🏃 Running update from me - C25K really works!
************* Graduation *************
Finally ran 5km after 15 months! 
Graduation Run done
1 Year Graduation Anniversary
