Hello!!! Hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend, making the most of everything that spring has to offer 🙂 We've had a gloriously sunny weekend - perfect for cycling 🤣
How are you doing? How’s the running? What are you up to?
I'm actually writing this week's chat post on Sunday 17th April. Five years ago today I started C25K, having never run before, having never even contemplated running before (with the exception of a failed attempt 6 weeks earlier which was brought short at W2 with a simple case of runner's knee!).
56 years a non-runner, 5 years a runner 🥰. Yes, I've been running long enough that I even think of myself as a runner these days!!! 🤣
Who knew how much the decision to start C25K would change my lifestyle, certainly not me! I won't be running today - I have a sore leg and a race tomorrow - so instead will spend my 'runniversary' happily reminiscing; over the last five years I've gathered lots of lovely memories and feel younger, fitter and more positive than ever (though not quite the 20 year old Mr Garmin compares me to!!!). Hard to pick a highlight, but if I had to, I would go with completing my first ever Half marathon back in 2019 with my son (picture above). Just a wonderful and incredibly special day (although finishing the virtual London marathon is pretty high on the list too).
I'm not sure what lies ahead, but I'm absolutely sure it includes more happy running - starting with our local 5 miler this easter Monday (kit all laid out ready) 🤞😍
How about you? How long have you been running now? Did you start with C25K? Could you single out a highlight so far?
Tell us your thoughts. We’d love to hear them 🙂
Have a great week everyone!
From The Marathon Team x
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🥳 If you have a race coming up in April then let us know here and we can give you a pom pom send-off:
Many highlights and we cannot really do too much of it really sum running up nicely! That's a fabulous amount of running since C25K - you too are well and truly hooked it seems 😊
Happy runniversary 🏃♀️🙌. I started C25K January 2019 after never having run before. Didn’t find it easy and couldn’t say I loved it straight away! Three years later I can’t imagine not running as it has brought so many benefits to my life, both physical and mental. As for highlights there have been so many, but if I had to pick one I would say my first 10k race in September 2019. Happy running everyone 😊
Oooh, I didn't love it for quite a long time either! That's the amazing thing really - how we stick it out through the tough times. Still, it was all good practice for the occasional tough run that comes along to throw me still! But as you say, I simply can't imagine not running now either.
Wow, only 5 years since you started running Linda? You’re a pro in my eyes - what you’ve achieved in that short time is incredible! 👏👏 Happy runniversary and reminiscing, and I hope your race goes well. 🏅🏃♀️
Well I started C25K in June 2018, graduating in August. I was hooked from day one, and like you hadn’t ever run before, not even at school. My highlight so far is meeting, and running with, so many wonderful people from HU, including you! ❤️ Our little posse is forever growing, and the more the merrier! 😀
I often rue the fact that I hadn’t started years (decades) earlier, but I know one thing for sure, I’ll be one of those elderly people at PR in years to come (*touch wood* of course 🤞), still having a blast. 🏃♀️😀
It took a lot longer for me to get hooked (W5R3 almost had me, but I think it was probably W7 before I was really hooked 😊). You have been amazing darting around meeting people, great fun! And as such a dedicated parkrunner, I can definitely see you trotting round for many, many years to come, egging everyone else on 😍
I started with C25K at the beginning of January 2020. One of those wake up moments when someone commented over new year that I’d ‘clearly had a good Christmas’ 😂😂😂
There was no malice I’m sure but it did make me stop and think.
It was the perfect time to start and when lockdown came a few months later - I already had something to get up and out for. Running!!
Highlights for me are the HUHM in October 2020. The run up to this (pun intended) gave me a real sense of the running and HU community, the support and encouragement that this forum is amazing for, and it showed me that with a lot of effort running goals that a year earlier would have seemed unlikely were indeed possible.
A second highlight was in the same month I think, the 2020 vitality virtual 10k. I ran this with a friend and it taught me how good it can be to run with others which I now do whenever I can.
For what lies ahead? Well I’ve entered a HM at the beginning of June so I guess what lies ahead is the same for me as all of us, putting my trainers on and getting out the door……
I reckon I could've been a couple of minutes faster last weekend without my current extra ballast!!! Working on that now 'carb loading' is no longer an excuse 😍
It's funny how many people begin C25K on the strength of a throwaway comment, or idle chat; yet that totally belies the enormity of the step you take! You got from C25K to HM amazingly quickly! Having another one in the diary will certainly keep you keeping on. Great job!!!
Hello Linda, A lovely pic of you and your son. It was January 2018 that I started c25k, although I restarted after a skiing holiday in March, and graduated in May. My first race was the Bristol 10k 2019, which I ran with the lovely cheekychipmunks . Most fun run - Santa Run 2018 along Southsea prom, and the reason I started running. My favourite race - the New Forest Marathon 10k 2019 for the beauty of the area. UpTheStanley and I haven’t been able to run it since because of Covid cancellations, but it’s back again this year. Greatest achievement must be the Great South Run 10 miles, 2019. I found it so emotional as I crossed the finish line having watched this race for 20 years and never even considering that I would be able to run it.
Like you, Mr Garmin thinks I’ve got the fitness age of an excellent 20 year old 😂😂, which is pretty incredible.
The surprising bonus is the friendships made through running, both via this forum and parkrun. Running just keeps giving.
I too took a break for a ski holiday between my first and second attempt at C25K - the logic was I couldn't restart running in case I damaged by knee for skiing. These days that logic is totally reversed - everything has to be protected for the running! Running GSR must have felt like an amazing achievement - being on the inside not the outside, one of the runners! I could not agree more, running definitely just keeps giving 🥰
What a lovely post Linda, congratulations on your Runiversary 😀👍. Love the photo of you and your son, how wonderful.
I graduated Easter 2016! Highlight - finishing Bournemouth HM last October. never imagined I could run 5k when I started jogging instead of walking with the dog. 21k surely impossible, but I did it! 🏅
Thank you! The very idea of still running five years on seemed impossible! I remember always running 5k so that I wouldn't let my distance slide - I thought it would be a slippery slope to giving up 😍. As for running further than 5k - well that seemed utterly impossible. Here we are, proving ourselves wrong and smiling about it 🥰
Funnily enough it's exactly 23 months today since I started C25K, immediately after the first lockdown here in France. Although I enjoyed walking, I was definitely a non-runner - I only tried C25K because a similarly non-sporty friend had and I figured that if she could, I could! I'm still not sporty and remain very much on the fringe as a runner, being an event-adverse solo runner who loves hills and hates training.
Highlight? Obviously the Trail du Gévaudan marathon in October 2021, such a great experience.
Trails are for me too. Love them! I like solo running now there’s no longer my local run group going, and my running hound is now too old. I like it just fine as I can go as and when I please. I like events though. I think they’re huge fun. I do the training as much as possible but have fun on the day. At my age it’s all I can do 🏃♀️🍰☕️🏅 There’s not many running for money and times at these gigs 🙂
I spend all my time looking at my feet on trails, very hesitant - really had to make myself lift my head and look around today, but it was definitely worth it 😊
I was getting slapped in the face by broom bushes that were growing across the trail. I was watching my feet too as I was running on the undulating MTB path to liven myself up 😀
Although our running preferences are very different now, I started out just the same. Walked a fair bit and watched a slightly older, non sporty friend complete C25K. At the time I very naively thought walking and gardening would mean i'd be fit enough to run. Well that was an eye opener 😍. As I ran my race today - undulating, grass, wooded paths - I thought of you (not that 90m elevation over 8km is anywhere near your league, especially that amazing marathon ... but from small beginnings and all that ... anything is possible - right? 😍)
Belated congratulations on your first runniversary 🥰 Ten miles in your first year of running and a half marathon so soon after are amazing achievements to be very proud of 🤩
Happy happy runniversary dear Linda, and I hope you enjoy your race today 🥰🥰🥰
I started with C25K in November 2014, and became a runner very quickly! It's really hard to pick a highlight, but I was buzzing for days after the London Triathlon last year, so I'll go for that 😂 My life as a runner has been packed with highlights 🤩💯
Happy Runniversary to my running “twin”! 5 years yesterday for me too, and although I’m not quite running marathons, I’m still out there, last week running a very nice 10k race. Glad I am still able to get out and run😊
Thank you Miss W! It was a one and only run with him as it happens, but I have since managed a parkrun with my younger son too. I was of course bringing up the rear on both occasions 🤷♀️😍
I’ve run a 5k race,with my niece and an 8k training run She’s asked me to run the same race this June. My young great nephew will be running in the children’s event I’m looking forward to it. The race starts outside the hotel door. Handy 😀
Highlight was running my first marathon on my 60th birthday which is now a tradition. Done 5 so far on or around my birthday
Running on the gorgeous Isle of Wight and meeting up with Aliboo on a beautiful summer’s evening on the seafront 😃
Running on the beautiful island of Jersey. Also Cincinatti riverfront, Ohio. I dipped my feet in the Ohio River. I think there’s a song in there somewhere 🤣
I want to just keep running til they nail my coffin lid shut 💪🏃♀️🙂🙏
Aw, what a lovely photo Linda 😍 Definitely a special memory there and one to recall for always.
Happy Runniversary to you! You’ve achieved so much and your running happiness is obvious in your posts, it’s always a joy to hear about your running adventures 🏃♀️ And here’s to many many more to come.
I think lots of us were caught out from that very first run and didn’t for a second think we’d become so passionate about running. But here we are 🤗
I just turned the nine year corner in March and can’t quite believe I am the same person who very cautiously took the first step of that first C25K run. I’ve changed in so many ways and all for the better I think!
I have so many highlights from races to everyday runs but the one I’ll go with is when I ran my first 10 mile PB. It wasn't a race and I hadn’t planned to run it that quickly but everything came together on the day and when I finished I burst into tears! I didn't realise I would be so emotional about it all 😿
In other news, I’m still not running and have had a bit of a nightmare week with my back and medication issues but it IS getting better. This patience thing is hard ☹️
Nine years is amazing! You know, I actually believe I will hit my 9 year runniversary too - as you say, how things change. Impossibilities become dreams and then we make them possible. And we grow so much from those achievements - and also from the journey on the way to the achievements. I agree, running can be so emotional - it doesn't even have to be my own running, I can swell at someone else's achievements, at the atmosphere at an event ... I just love it!I do hope your back heals quickly for you. Patience is the one thing I suspect every runner could do with more of 🥰
A great photo. I can see why you'd use a crop of it as your profile photo.
Many years ago, the BBC released the Couch to 5K app. I downloaded it to my phone then promptly forgot about it. It survived me changing phones, and lurked there in the app drawer sulking at me.
The day after the PM announced the first lockdown I saw the daily 30 minute exercise allowance as being the sign that I ought to actually do something, and the app came out of hiding. I did not succeed on that first attempt, nor on the second, but I persisted and started a third attempt in June 2020, completing the course at the end of August that year.
I got hooked in week 3. I don't think I've ever had a runner's high.
There are trudge runs. There are good runs. There are runs where I've set a new achievement (eg. PB or distance). There are also amazing runs like today's 10km trail run which I did on a whim, at a slower pace in ideal weather, and had great fun doing it.
That app was stalking you! It was clearly meant to be. I'm impressed at your being hooked so early - I still remember being terrified at that point, convinced I wouldn't make it! Having fun is definitely the key - today's run sounds perfect 😊
Happy Runniversay Linda! 😀🏃♀️👏🥂What a roller coaster of a five years it has been too - and you achieved so much both in your running and the wonderful support you give to everyone on here. Thank you so much for all you do! 🙏🙂Great photo of you and your son - I remember you doing that race. Is he still running?🙂
Thanks Sandra. He has barely run since - certainly no more HMs. I still dream of catching his time ... only 5 minutes to shave off 🤣 An impossible dream? Maybe, maybe not 🥰
Happy runniversary Linda! Just a short post as we are on holiday in hilly Tuscany (hooray!) and I'm planning to go on a run shortly - now those are words I never dreamed I would be writing a few years ago!
I'm another one of the 'class of 2018' - I was heading towards retirement, read an article about c25k and thought 'that would be good to do when I have more time'. Post retirement in March 18 and I hadn't got round to doing anything about it, but then came an unexpected diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, which spurred me on to start and complete c25k.
Four years on and I continue to run 3 times a week, with the highlights being parkrun - the gift that keeps on giving - and the friends I've made through running and this forum.😀
Ooh that sounds lovely (although the word 'hilly' is still a little daunting 😀). Have a wonderful time. Running certainly does keep giving, I often wonder at just how much I have gotten back for the effort that went into C25K - it's been worth every bit of huffing, puffing and gremlin bashing that went into those first 9 weeks 😍
Hi Linda, congratulations on your runniversary. 🙌 👏👏👏 I’m terrible with dates but I know I also started some time in 2017. At that time I was a smoker with asthma (I know right 🤷♂️) and could barely breathe on dusty days in Bahrain. Here I am today a non smoker and I have cut alcohol out completely for now (I definitely intend to return to my glass of red with dinner at the end of the season)!
There have been many highlights along the way too. One of my favourites is being able to run with my brother at my first ever Parkrun. He’s been such a mentor and inspiration for me and although we don’t run together now as he’s ill, he still encourages me and gives me self belief.
How an ex smoker with asthma can manage your speed is beyond the boundaries of science 🤣 What a change in lifestyle in the last five years. Now that's inspirational. Sorry to hear your brother is unable to run though, that must be tough when he has been such a big part of your journey.
Yes, it has been hard not having him there running with me, but I hold out hope that we will run together again in the future. I’ll be running in his club shirt at the Battersea Open on the 30th and I’m sure it will inspire me.
I didn't start with C25K, but my own home-made version about 13 years ago, and I'd say I've been a regular runner for the past 10 years - not much faster, though. Becoming a runner and learning to run outdoors in the winter has vastly improved my relationship with living in as cold a country as Norway!
Early morning runs on the Isle of Wight, and getting to meet Aliboo several times, is a definite highlight.
I'm quite excited about what I'm up to: I'm launching a parkrun in May. Maybe I could start a thread about it? I'd love to lure as many of you as possible to Oslo.
A veteran runner! I want to be running in 13 years time, though I doubt I'll be doing anything quite so amazing as setting up a new Parkrun! That's awesome. Not to mention very tempting ro visit. Retirement beckons, who knows ... I will have time to fill and could very happily put Oslo parkrun on my wish list 😍. Wishing you all the very best with that venture - yes, please do keep us informed, it would be fascinating to hear about parkrun from the inside 😊
Hi Linda, happy runniversary!! I am yet another graduate of the class of 2018. My c25k journey started with my recovery from a fractured vertebra. Highlights are my first sub 30 minute 5k ( thought that would be impossible) a 62 minute 10k and my first HM (again, never thought that I would make it). The other highlights are lots of virtual encounters with lovely people on HU; a major source of knowledge and encouragement. 👏👏👏👏
2018 was clearly a great vintage 😍 Those are fabulous highlights and all the better for being seemingly impossible. I had forgotten my first sub 30 5k - although outwardly chuffed, I was convinced Garmin had messed up GPS in the trees and given me more distance than it should have 🤣
That sub 30 was the start of a Park Run streak of successively quicker sub 30s which ended with a 28:17. They were the days! It was Tasha99 who got me to my first Park Run !
Happy runniversary Linda! Five years! Congratulations! 🥳🥳
Did any of us really think we’d still be running years later? I had no pre-conceived ideas whatsoever. I wish I could remember the date I started C25k, it was all a bit of a mess at the start as my trainers literally disintegrated after the 3rd or so run (they were 25 years old and I left an embarrassed trail of bits of rubber from the gym treadmill to the changing room 🤣). I also made a mess of the timings (How?! 🤷🏻♀️), so I didn’t really get going until I found Laura and bought a new pair of trainers. Then I found you lovely lot and this lovely place. I do know my parkrun anniversary is May 12th 2018 and that’s about 2 weeks after I graduated, so I just go by that now.
Highlights 🤔 too many but meeting all the VRBs over the years and finding new friends are a biggie. This place and parkrun have changed my life in so many ways you both have to be highlights. Racewise, last year’s Compton Verney HM was such a sweat soaked endorphin rush I don’t think that will be topped until maybe 2nd October this year…
You're right, I think we've pretty much all been surprised at our staying power, but as you say the sense of community that comes from here, parkrun and simply being a runner too, really help keep us on track. I am quite sure 2nd October will become THE highlight 😍
Hello Linda, Many congratulations on your 5 years!! What a lovely photo of you and your son! You have achieved so much and also had to overcome injuries. I have forgotten how long your fracture stopped your running and yet you have still achieved so much. I was looking out for a report on your local 5 miler, but I don't think that you wrote one. I do hope that you enjoyed it.I started c25k on24/3/18, so four years ago and with breaks for both injuries and other reasons too. I haven't quite decided whether I am someone who runs or a runner.
Lots of highlights: the amazing help, encouragement and inspiration of others on the running forums, my first 10km, the joy of exploring new routes and so enjoying the views and joining in our local hilly race on a warm June evening running down a hill shouting to lads with supersoakers, 'Get my face, get my face!' Surely not what 60+ year olds do! But such fun!
I think of running as an investment in my health and aim to keep going. 😊🏃🏻♀️
Thank you - and happy belated runniversary to you too! I didn't get round to race reports for Kew or the 5 miler, but I enjoyed both enormously. Being injured has only increased my appreciation of being able to run. Fun is definitely the name of the game, and that we are simultaneously investing in our health is a huge added bonus 😊
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Weekly chat October 24-30 ☕🍰