What a Long, Strange Trip it’s Been

FX: Fanfare. Brrrrup-pa-pa-pa-pa-paaa-paaaah!

Whoo-hoo! Tonight was Week 9, Run 3 of the Couch to 5K. Earlier on, I made a decision about tonight. Instead of the time, it would be about the distance.

Because I don’t think, in all honesty, that you can say you’ve completed the Couch to 5K until you’ve actually, you know, run 5K.

So, for my final run I made the hard decision to put aside Get Running and instead dig out RunKeeper. Because while Get Running has been my steadfast companion, and while I still hugely prefer Clare’s voice and Ben’s fab user interface, Get Running won’t measure your distance, and RunKeeper will.

So I set it up to give me a five minute warm-up, a five minute cool-down, and two 2.5km stretches of running in between (so I’d know when to turn around at halfway.)

And I got running.

Tonight I went out along the main road on the other side of the river from my normal towpath route — a good choice, because it’s getting dark early now, and the towpath is unlit.

As I’ve noticed before, a rubbish night of struggling running, like Tuesday’s effort, is often followed by a nice easy run, and tonight was no exception. I just ran, and it felt pretty easy, and there was never any point at which I felt like I wanted to stop. I ran all the way out, I turned around when RunKeeper told me my 2.5km was done, and I ran all the way back. Job done!

So, I can now in all good conscience say that I’ve completed the C25K! And I’ve run 5K for the first time in my life. Yabbadabbadoo!

Anyway. Must go get my celebratory pizza out of the oven. More running to come on this blog at some point soon, but in the meantime, I’d like to say a quick thank you to Benjohn, Arline, Tiff, and anyone else who’s helped out, commented, or just been reading my running witterings as I’ve done this.

For posterity, here’s the route (including the warm-up and cool-down.) Hit the view details link for all the stats:

Chequered flag image by nionx, on stockxpert.com.