🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️ London Marathon day! Goals and inspiration! (April Catch up Corner week4) 🏃🏃🏃

[MissUnderstanding]

How could today’s Catch up Corner not be about London? The biggest running event in the UK. I’ve been watching the coverage and loving the stories of real life people who started running and are taking on the 26.2 miles, often raising hundreds of pounds for charity. I should have had a box of tissues ready for all the emotional tears! I’m a sucker for an inspirational story.

So many of those on the starting line began by doing Couch to 5k or something similar. Maybe they saw it on the TV and decided to have a go. Maybe they wanted to do something positive for their health after a tough time in life. Maybe it was wanting to raise money for a meaningful charity. Whatever it was, it’s an amazing achievement just to be there.

Whatever the journey, it began by taking simple steps like committing to run regularly and trusting a training plan. Just like you if you’re here!

So todays’ Catch up Corner is all about big goals! Those bucket list dreams. Anybody wanting to run London in the future? Maybe there’s a local event you want to enter? Perhaps you’re a solo runner who hates the idea of running in a crowd, but there’s a beautiful route you want to run? It doesn’t matter what it is, long or short. Fast or slow.

It takes a lot of guts to even say your big goal out loud. It can be scary to say “I’d like to run a marathon/half marathon/10k/5k/whatever” in the future. Sometimes it’s too far away to feel like you could ever get there, but every goal is achieved by ticking off loads of little goals along the way. Keep it in the back of your mind and you never know when suddenly, you’ll realise that starting line might be within your grasp. Set some small goals that will take you in the right direction. It might be a long journey but there’ll be lots of fun and celebrations along the way!

So my big goal is a marathon one day. Maybe London! Maybe a different one if I’m not lucky in the ballot. What I’m focusing on now is running consistently, getting stronger and slowly building up my distance by following a training programme I trust. That’s something we can all be doing, whatever stage were at!

So come and share how your running is going this week and where you hope it might take you one day!

We’re all here to cheer you on!

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate]

Excellent post from you MissUnderstanding, I am now back home from my regular Sunday morning walk and now watching coverage on TV of the London Marathon and guess what? with all that talk of runner's in the marathon starting with C25K during my walk for around 20 minutes I reran run 1 of week 1, that's 8/1 minute runs with 7/ 90 second walking breaks, after 20 minutes I continued with my walking, good luck to you for your quest to run London in the future.

[MissUnderstanding in reply to AlMorr]

Thank you! I saw those runners too-it was such an encouragement that Couch to 5k really does make a big impact on people’s lives!

Congratulations on your run too. It must have been nice to go back and think about how far you’ve come since you did week 1 for the first time!

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate in reply to MissUnderstanding]

Yesterday at parkrun I wore light running clothes, I had my running belt and proper running shoes and juice to drink after I finished in a time of 33:05, this morning which was part of my regular Sunday morning walk, although a bit shorter I wore my normal clothes, trainers and didn't have any drinks, felt fine when I got home and ate another ice cream swirl, 😋 yummy.

[Tessie66]

Well I did it broke the 30 minutes 5k barrier I've been after ❤️ 😍, I've run 10k my aim is to start running regular 10ks. I have one local parkrun to do Bowling park before moving further a field to Leeds and Manchester etc. I love to do the great North Run and London Marathon but lot's of training to do before I can contemplate this. (Sorry for mentioning my 5k time again)

[MissUnderstanding in reply to Tessie66]

I was going to do the Great North Run last year but was injured. I’m recovered now but have realised my knee doesn’t do well with long journeys of sitting so it’s out of my reach for now. Someone (probably Coach Bennett on Nike Run Club) talked about keeping the goal but adjusting the time frame. Hopefully one day I’ll get there and you will too!

You’ve achieved so much so far. It’s brilliant to celebrate every step along the way. Looking forward to hearing how your new plans go!

[Reggit Graduate]

I’m still recovering from Manchester last weekend, I’ve been told that was my one and only marathon - however…. So tempted to enter the ballot for London 2025, although the logistic of getting there and running would be interesting.

I was told if I keep up the ‘longest long run’ about once a month that should keep the fitness more or less upto FM level - it’s the constant running I’ve been getting moaned about - from the same wife that wanted me to get fit 😛.

Post recovery, I think I’ll work on speed, would like to knock a couple of minutes out of my 5k and 10k PB’s. Before concentrating back towards half for Manchester in October.

So many choices 😛

Sorry for the ramble!

[MissUnderstanding in reply to Reggit]

Love a ramble here. You’re amongst friends so no need to apologise!

I’ve seen Manchester and London are on the same day next year. Big weekend for running. How did you enjoy Manchester? I hope the recovery is going well! I had great intentions of keeping my HM fitness after Bath but I just needed a break. The year I did it was in October and we had horrible winter weather so that probably contributed!! You might have a better chance than me. It’s tricky fitting it all in! I’ve got my husband running now so we do some together but there are still a fair few “see you in a few hours” moments! Running makes me easier to live with so I think it works out for the best.

Really good luck for whatever you decide to do!

[Reggit Graduate in reply to MissUnderstanding]

Oh no! That means I can’t do both 😂

I’m really lethargic and tired - had a chat with one of the guys at the local running club, he felt the same a week or two after his one and only marathon. Guessing it’s the come down after all the training and adrenaline has gone.

Manchester crowd was great, it’s huge and really encouraging- especially in the last few miles when it’s really needed. It is the 2nd biggest marathon in the country so sort of expected I guess.

Still can’t believe I can run that far and keep looking at the bling in amazement - not done that with any other distance.

[Koala679 Graduate]

I was at the London Marathon yesterday, volunteering for BHF. It was an awesome experience, anyone who takes on that distance is a superhero to me.

[MissUnderstanding in reply to Koala679]

That’s such a brilliant thing to do! I bet the atmosphere was amazing. I had a few friends running this year and they had a wonderful time. All the volunteers are superheroes to me!

[Kjb04 Graduate]

All so true! I started with 5km now I’m nearly at 9km! Honestly can’t believe I’m nearly at 10km! It does make you think you could almost do any distance if you put the training in. Truth is you can!! I’ll pass on a marathon but a lovely new route would be nice. 👍😃

[MissUnderstanding in reply to Kjb04]

That’s such amazing progress! 10km is a wonderful milestone to hit! It just a shows where C25k can take you! Hope you find your lovely route…we always love run pictures here!