This evening, I failed. This is the first time I’ve found myself unable to follow an instruction from Get Running on the C25K.
Specifically, I failed to stop.
Today, I set off on yet another different route. This time, I headed into town instead of out of it, down the harbourside.
That was fine; there weren’t too many people about, and there aren’t any roads to cross. I’m finding that this is a huge advantage of living next to a middling-size river, and close to a bridge: there are plenty of routes for running that don’t involve crossing roads, because people rarely want to drive into the water.
Anyway. I got to the halfway point at 12½ minutes, according to Get Running, and I was pretty much in town. I knew that I wasn’t halfway around the harbourside, but some part of me just thought I should carry on.
So I did. The “stop running” voice prompt came when I was still on the other side of the river, but with not too far to go, so I just pressed on. Feeling like I’d taken on a challenge, somehow, I crossed the bridge and ploughed on back to the place I’d joined the harbour at the beginning, reaching it just after Get Running told me it was time to warm down, so five minutes on from the official end of the run.
According to the GPS (I took it with me because I only realised at the last minute that there was only 20% battery left on the iPhone, and I wanted a backup timer) I ran for 2.55 miles, averaging 5mph, for 30-and-a-bit minutes. That’s 4.1km!
Bearing in mind how I used to slow down to a walk when the PE teacher was out of sight during cross-country running at school, that’s probably the furthest I’ve run in my entire life 🙂
Anyway. Pretty chuffed. You can see my route here, though I’ve (probably slightly naughtily) taken a snapshot of it for the blog below.
I’m going to carry on with the rest of the C25K, of course, and maybe not push myself past that limit again — but it’s a good feeling to know that I’ve already run for the full half-hour that the plan builds up to, and survived!
Imagery © 2009 DigitalGlobe, Infoterra Ltd & Bluesky, GeoEye, Getmapping plc, The GeoInformation Group. Sourced from Google Maps
“Specifically, I failed to stop.”
(Insert sound of me injuring myself laughing) Well, if you’re going to fail that’s one to aim for! Congratulations! I think learning to love it is the real win. Much moral support being beamed your way!
Giggled muchly at “because people rarely want to drive into the water” too. ^_^
🙂 ! Total respect dude 🙂 So that’s it, you’ve made it worth writing Get Running! Cool!
Fab! Everything seems to be going pretty well so far, yes. I’m hoping that the next couple of weeks of half hour-ish runs help me get to the point where I’m regularly enjoying the whole thing 🙂