C25K week 9 round up

We've come a long long way together

So the day is fast approaching; your last session of the C25K course. Your opportunity to try your first full 5k as a new runner.

Don't let it worry you though. You've already done the hard work during the previous nine weeks. The most important thing is that you try to enjoy it!

You've all come a long way. Just think about it for a moment. Nine short weeks ago you may have struggled to run for 1 minute, but last Saturday I watched you all run 15 minutes without stoping. TWICE! That is an amazing achievement and sets you in good stead for life as a runner. Whether you run regularly or just the occasional parkrun, you will continue to benefit from what you've done so far.

As a self-confessed run addict however, I would encourage you to continue pushing yourselves. A weekly parkrun is a great way to measure progress and there are plenty of races out there that are suitable for all abilities. Signing up for a race is a great way to stay motivated.
I'll make a few suggestions for future events in next week's final blog, but for now ...

Let's talk about parkrun

You will run your first parkrun without the whistle on Saturday, so I thought it was a good opportunity to take a closer look at what parkrun offers. At the risk of gushing, I'm going to share some of my thoughts about this most wonderful event.

For me, parkrun offers so much but asks for so little in return. I wrote a list of some of the things we can get from parkrun.

1. Well there's the obvious - a weekly 5k, timed run (not a race)!
2. It costs exactly nothing to join up and run.
3. It's well organised, safe and inclusive.
4. It is a community event.
5. It offers the opportunity to wear fancy dress for no particular reason.
6. If gives you an excuse to eat cake. 'I earned this cake!'
7. It allows you the smug feeling of having run a 5k before most people have even got out out of bed.
8. It's a chance to get together as a family to do something active (and free).
9. Allows you to set a good example to your kids.
10. It gives kids the chance to grow their confidence in a supportive environment (actually that applies to adults too).
11. It's a chance to meet people from your own community as well as those who have travelled from further afield.
12. It's something to be proud of.
13. It's a not very secret, secret club. A bit like the Free Masons but without the silly handshakes.
14. It's a chance to show yourself what you are capable of and then exceeding it.
15. It gives you targets to aim for - that all important 50 t-shirt that proudly declares how many times you have run around our muddy course.
16. It gives you a focus, motivating you to get out and run.
17. It gives you the feeling of belonging to something bigger.
18. It gives you the perfect excuse to buy new running shoes (well you need shoes for mud, shoes for the road and shoes to just look good in).
19. It allows you to wear hi-viz clothing in public, without feeling like a berk.

OK so that's my list. Maybe you could add a few more. What is obvious though, is that there is a long list of things we get from parkrun.

And what do they ask for in return? 

Your time. That's all.

So now that you are runners and have been welcomed into the parkrun fold, it is worth thinking about all of this. You can give back by joining in and volunteering. It's great fun and you get a lot of the things on the list without even running!

Bargain! 

The only way parkrun can keep going is by people like us giving up a bit of our time on a Saturday morning to enable and encourage others to run.

Of course you don't have to do it right away. You'll want to get a few runs under your belt before volunteering and that's great. This is something for the future. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Session 9

What we did:

Drills to warm up.

(run 15 minutes + walk 1 minute) x 2 (31 minutes)

Session 10

Next session we will be:

Running parkrun! Woooohooooo!

Homework

Don't forget to get a few sessions in during the week. It will be particularly important if you want to be ready to run the whole 5k in one go.

Register

We'll meet again at 8:40 on Saturday. Try to get here in plenty of time before the start. We'll do a quick warm up before we join the other parkrunners on the start line.