(and no-one is more surprised than I am…)

After threatening to do couch to 5K in my new years’ resolutions in 2020 (2020!!!) - and finally getting started last year… on Saturday… I did it.

Which means I’ve “completed” running (thanks Brid)

As I’d predicted in my last post about this - yes, as the weather got colder and wetter, and the longer runs left my right ankle in tatters… I stopped running.

The Couch to 5K approach of gradually building up distances had worked well enough - but 25 minutes in one stretch was just too much… and so the runs tailed off and I got out of the habit. And of course, I was also back at work, which didn’t help.

But now, with the weather just starting to improve… I decided it was time to get back to running. This time I ignored the Couch to 5k app (although I remain grateful to the app for existing, and even now feel a bit bad/odd not going for a run with my Couch to 5K virtual run buddy Sarah Millican) and decided to focus on shorter runs based on distance rather than run time. I figured this would at least get me back into a running/exercise habit.

I’ve also discovered I can take Spotify tunes (or podcasts) with me on my Apple Watch - which means my phone can stay at home.

So starting at the end of February - a few weeks of running 2K once a week. At which point I’m proud of myself for getting out there and running again… but actually also a little bit depressed, as 2K is really just 500 metres more than running 1500 metres… which doesn’t sound anywhere near as impressive. (And was the distance that I really struggled with back at school…).

As the weather has improved, and with it, my running confidence, I wound things up to 3K… and even 3K a couple of times a week.

Then - last Friday, I pushed on to 4K. Kilometres three and four were horribly slow (the perils of leaving Sarah Millican behind, and having an Apple watch as your trainer - the watch is a lot less cheerful and a lot less forgiving.) but I did it.

FOUR KILOMETRES.

Then on Saturday… I just needed to get out of the house. The plan was to try for 4K again… but as I got to the end of 4K - I was feeling… OK, and certainly not as slow as I’d been the day before. And I also knew that psychologically, pushing on for one more K - just 1000 metres more, to make it all the way to 5K was easier than finishing at 4K - and then taking a few days off before trying again.

In fact - once I’d made it past the magic 5K mark - I kept going for a few hundred metres more.

I’d done it.

I know that 5K is nothing to real runners. And that it’s supposed to be attainable for mere mortals, which is the whole point of Couch to 5K…

…but I think back to asthmatic wheezy 12 year old me… who didn’t “do” running… and I can’t believe how far I’ve come.

Although, it’s not that far - it’s five kilometres.

I have, of course, upgraded my trainers in celebration. And I guess the trick is proving I can run 5K a second time. And also, can I get my time down to under 30 minutes… as I notice that’s the end goal of Couch to 5K…

Wish me luck.