Earlier this morning I went out for my one year anniversary run. A year ago, the day after my 46th birthday, I was so lacking in confidence about my ability to run (thanks to hideous memories of PE at school) that I came home from W1R1 and burst into tears because I'd actually completed it.
My graduation run in June saw me bursting into tears again (I'm not normally a crier you understand) because I hated it so much. I was just recovering from a cold and it was just one of those bad runs. I was determined not to stop and walk because I was equally determined that when I was done with C25K I was never going to run again. EVER. Of course I was back at it a couple of days later.
So, after a year of running I still haven't run for 5K and most of the time I run for 25 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes. I'm not really interested in races, timed runs, 5Ks, 10Ks etc etc. My aim has been to keep running regularly. I have run 3 times a week all year except for December and January when it was too dark for my early morning runs before work. To me this is amazing. This morning I ran 30 minutes in lovely sunshine and I was so happy - happier than my graduation run as to me a year of running is a greater achievement.
On Monday I'm off to get my gait analysed in an attempt to find out why my right leg always gets tired first and hopefully I will be treating myself to new trainers.
To everyone out there on the C25K path, please don't feel you have to run faster, further, better - just running can be enough..