15,905K in one day ...

[Malcy]

Wowee Zowie. I blogged from my cozy bed this morning that I had taken the last minute decision to join the C25K team for 5x50. Did I get out of bed, or have that cup of tea?

Yes, of course I had the tea. Then got out of bed, dressed up in my POWER gear and set off to pick up number 3 son from Stirling. Parked at his flat, didn't bother going in but set off for the castle, going via the town centre to make the 5km distance. Boy that hill up to the castle was steep.

There's a story about how the Scots adopted the thistle as their national emblem after the sneaky English took off their shoes to creep up quietly on the plucky Scots in Stirling Castle. They didn't see the thistles and when they stepped on them, they cried out. OUCH, they cried. The Scots guard (Wee Eck - later to become famous in Oor Wullie) heard the commotion, called out his mates and, well, the rest is rather dubious history. I do like long blogs, don't I?

So there was Malcy, first run on 5x50, puffing and panting his way up the hill, watching out for stray thistles. And, like the Grand Old Duke of York's men, he got to the top. Mission accomplished. Box ticked. Pause workout to take a couple of pics to prove it. dropbox.com/s/syp199x1tvv9s... and dropbox.com/s/htu5nuz4lpx84... Then a quick run downhill (why can't all hills be down hill?), over Old Stirling Bridge and back to the flat. A smidgeon over 5km in a little under 30 mins. Bearing in mind the hill, I can live with that.

What about tomorrow? Well, I've been parking my car about a mile way from work so that gives me about 3km on a work day. 3/4 days I can get out of the office for a full hour at lunch time, and walk a brisk 5 miles. Then I have my "official" exercise which can be an hour walking on the treadmill of an evening, or a minimum 5km run on a "run" day. Weekends generally include a 5km Parkrun recently, and either a run or a walk on the Sunday.

So there we are. My personal goal of keeping up the 5x50 seems to be achievable. The challenge takes us nearly to the the end of May, and that will lead me neatly into the Great Trail Run(?) in Keswick at the beginning of June. I think the 5x50 challenge will be great preparation for that. At least I hope so.

So where exactly does the title of this blog come into play? Well,with five minutes to go until the end of the first day of the challenge, 3,725 challengers had covered an amazing 15,905km! Now that's what I call .... (not sure exactly what I'd call it, but I think we'd all agree that we should call it something)

[Poppy2010 Graduate]

Yay! And we all contributed to that total! Your run sounds fantastic, well done! Many years since I've been to Stirling but I remember it well and will revisit one day!

[Malcy Graduate in reply to Poppy2010]

Yay indeed - I saw that you had done well today. If you need a reminder about Stirling, I've added links to a couple of pics. Just promise you won't wince when you see the pic with myself in it. My babe told me that if I uploaded it, she would disown me. Job done!

[TJFlute]

Isn't it great?!So many people and so much activity. And I don't feel alone anymore! I can see that the profiles are now showing our recorded entries too. It's great that we can write a short comment next to it, it'll be something to look back on. I'm glad you decided to join the challenge; a last minute decision that I think will have a big positive impact on life (it has for me anyway)

[greenlegs Graduate]

Now where did you get those huge numbers from? Can't see it on the webpage, or in an email, or on a quick look at facebook or twitter...

Loved the Stirling pictures. We visited a few years ago, in a very heavy rainstorm, and it was really atmospheric, looking out at that view, with bagpipes playing in the square behind us. Wonderful stuff. We were soaked but it made it memorable!

[Malcy Graduate in reply to greenlegs]

Hi

I can see it right at the top of every page in the 5x50 web. Right now (14:52 Monday 01/04/13) it says "5x50 Challenge 2013 - 50 days to fit · Day 2 of 50 · 22,114km tracked by 3796 challengers"

Hope that helps