Saturday 7 June 2014

Juneathon Day 6 - My First Running Event

Today was rather busy so all I managed to fit in was my Round-the-Village walk. Over the last couple of days, I have bumped into Council workers who have been out with their strimmers etc., so it was a real treat to walk along a couple of paths that didn't have me either avoiding a jungle of nettles at ankle level, or ducking to avoid vegetation at eye level!

As a follow on to yesterday's post, I decided early on that I would need to give my running a focus, so I entered for a 3k "Mini Marathon".  As the date was getting nearer and nearer, I was still only running continuously for 3 or 5 minutes. My anxiety levels didn't diminish when these arrived.

 
I tried to keep a grip on my nerves and as luck would have it (!), I completed Week 5 Run 3 (20 mins running) 3 days beforehand.  I was delighted that I managed to finish the whole session but knew that as I had only managed 2k in that time, that I would have to run for quite a bit longer to finish the "race".

The day of the Mini Marathon dawned clear and bright and it was 25 degrees at the start time of 9am! My Little Miss was keeping me company, and we joined 498 others at the starting line.

I knew that I was going to be slow, trying to keep from being disheartened by being overtaken by toddlers and pensioners, I focused on just putting one foot in front of the other. I decided to listen to the training podcast as I ran, as it would keep me up-to-date on how long I had been going.

At times I was ahead of Little Miss, but once we had rounded the half way point, she shot on ahead and was waiting for me as I crossed the finishing line.

I completed the 3.3k course in an official time of 33.56 minutes (438th / 450). Little Miss was 416th and finished in 31.15 minutes. We were a long way behind the winning time of 12 minutes but we have the knowledge - and sense of achievement - that we RAN the whole way!


We rewarded ourselves with a well deserved ice cream from Bluebelle and have already signed up to a 5k Color Me Rad event at the end of August!

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