I did it! I Survived the Couch to 5K Program

I think my blog might need a name change. I am now a graduate of the C25K program!

Well, sort of.

The program is designed to have you run 5k in 30 minutes. But as it seems for many of us new runners (and even some seasoned runners) running 5k in 30 minutes is extremely hard to do. Some runner friends have piped up to say they have yet to meet that illustrious goal, and it is one of the major downfalls to the C25K program, making you believe that you should be able to make it with no problems in that 8 week timeline..

In any case, I have in fact run what the program said I should be able to. I have now run for a solid 30 minutes total, no stopping, no walking, no nothing. Regardless of the fact that I am not near 5k yet is a moot point. I have made 30 minutes. That is an entire sitcom...I can make 3 batches of cookies in that time.. at one point, 30 minutes was all the napping my children would do. So to be able to say I am now part of an elite group of people who can run this long is incredible for me.

My running partner joined me this morning for our usual Sunday run, something I think we both look forward to. Thankful for a beautiful sunny morning, we headed out knowing what was in front of us to complete. My partner was a little nervous since her last run was a week prior, and like me, she had a very unimpressing run which included way too many walking breaks and hurdles. But we agreed to go for it and see what happens.

We both started off a little sluggish. It took a good full 5 or 6 minutes for us to get in the groove and get past the morning haze and get the legs working. Once we hit our first minor downhill segment, the tiredness faded and we were in stride. I found somewhere around the 15 minute mark, I hit my first wall. Since I am still trying to find a pair of shoes that fit properly, I had to run in my "old" pair, which gives me a bit of discomfort on my right foot. I started to "feel" my foot around the halfway point and had to focus on getting past it and continuing on. Thankfully my wall was short and I was able to break through in a minute or two.

We continued on, conversation starting to slow down as we both focused on just moving along. At one point I think we both started muttering "Just keep Swimming, just keep swimming" (for any of you parents out there that have a Nemo fan, you will understand:)) We just kept pushing through, stride by stride, knowing we were getting close to the end. When I thought we were nearing the 5 minute mark, I decided to take out my phone to get an official time left on our clock. To my surprise we had half of that time left....And then I hit my second wall.

I don't think it was about actually making the 30 minute mark that my wall rose up. I struggled because we were now running our last 2 minutes uphill. Something I have done very, very little of since I began. It was a huge shift mentally to run uphill. My legs were tired, my had to slow my pace down considerably, I could "see" the end and yet it still felt so far away from me. But quitting was not an option.

Just keep Swimming...

That last minute was very hard. I knew I could do it. I knew I wanted it, could taste it, could smell it.. Push push push...
Finally the timer sounded and we had completed our 30 minutes.

It felt wonderful!
I had done it. 30 full minutes. No stopping.

I had used my GPS tracker to see what our distance was, so I had an idea of how much more ground I need to add in, in order to make that 5K mark.

3.56km in 30:21

So while my Couch to 30minutes Journey might actually be over, my quest for that 5k mark is just ramping up. I have a month until my first 5K race and I want to run that full 5K.. I NEED to run that full 5k. I WILL run that full 5k.

So my focus now is increasing time so I can increase the distance. I may never be able to say I can run 5K in 30 minutes, but I certainly will be able to say I can RUN 5K!