Time for another spoiler alert: if you don’t want to know
whether or not I ran 5km, quickly invent a time machine, go back to about ten
seconds before now and smash your laptop before you get a chance to read the
title. Also, don’t read the next paragraph because I’m going to tell you there
that I did run 5km this morning. Oops.
But yes, I finally managed to travel 5km using only my
legs and without vehicular assistance, for the first time in my life!
To celebrate this occasion, allow me to give you some fun
facts about 5 kilometres:
·
It’s far.
·
Really far.
Well, that’s it for fun facts about 5 kilometres.
Today’s run was quite exciting, if nothing else because
everything was shrouded in fog which made it feel a little bit like I was
jogging through a horror film. Maybe Romero’s “28 Minutes Later” would have
been fitting; a fairly short film describing how one man jogged through the
zombie apocalypse in a place where there weren’t any zombies, thus it looked
just like somebody running through fog. I think that’s a great idea for making
any film into a zombie film – just pretend that it’s happening elsewhere in the
world and it just so happens that everybody we’re seeing in the film is immune
or something. And then when the camera stops rolling you assume that’s because
everybody’s been eaten by zombies. Depending on the film (I’m looking at you,
Aeon Flux!) this could be somewhat of a relief.
As I mentioned in my last post, I did this route on
Wednesday to try and pace it out, and as I was running it again today I
realised that I’d remembered more than I thought I had about where I was at
various times. I know I started faster yesterday because 5 minutes in I was
about 50m further back than I had been then. I didn’t let this dishearten me,
though, because I knew that I’d worn myself out quite a bit on Wednesday, so as
long as I didn’t wear myself doing something stupid like trying to run 5km, I
should be OK.
Somebody asked me once what I think about when I’m
running. I considered this question a bit as I was running, and it turns out
that either I can’t remember what I’m thinking about because I’m not paying
attention to that, or I’m paying attention to what I’m thinking and I’m
thinking about wondering what I’m thinking about. So hopefully that answers
that.
At the 10 minute mark, I reckon I must have been in
pretty much the same place, and I don’t remember where I was at the 15 minute
mark on Wednesday so that wasn’t much use for measuring. I do remember today
being very tired coming up to 20 minutes in, which I realised when I started
crossing a road and wasn’t really sure if I was moving or not. I didn’t really
seem to know what to do with legs, which is odd because I’ve had legs for as
long as I can remember and don’t generally have issues with knowing what to do
with them.
The final ten minutes, I felt I was going stronger than I
had been on Wednesday, which was a good sign. I even managed to overtake the
same people that I overtook on Wednesday, in roughly the same place, as an omen
to keep going.
My optimistic target coming in to today’s run was to
finish in under 30 minutes, but that seemed very unlikely right up until the
final 5 minutes, when suddenly it seemed possible for a brief moment. It’s
amazing what oxygen deprivation can do to you; I couldn’t quite finish in that
time, ending up with a final time of 31:05. It’s practically glacial, but I
finished. I’m counting that as a win.
Alas, this brings me to the end of my journey with Laura.
At the end, she still resolutely refused to suggest recommending this to a
friend, instead opting for “anyone else you know who wants to make the same
progress you have”, which is a bit different. She also casually suggested that
in future I could either run with my own music or relisten to old podcasts – she’s
not prepared to let go yet!
Unfortunately for her, I think I am ready to let her go –
after all, I can’t hold her back any more, I’ll just have to turn away and slam
the door. Hey, that would make a good song!
With thanks to James Blunt (possibly the world’s least
common start to a sentence), here is my departing thought to Laura:
Will I disappoint
you
If now I say
I don’t want to
listen
To a fake Coldplay
For ten weeks we
ran
Through thick and
thin
Though I put most
of the effort in.
But now we’re over
And I will stop
there
Oh, I’ll still be
running
But you’ll be
elsewhere
You shared my
tears, you shared my smiles.
You made me run
three point one miles.
You criticised my
running style
I’ve been offended
by you
I have felt joy, I
have felt pain
You’ve driven me
slightly insane
And now you’re
gone, I have moved on
I have to say this
to you:
Goodbye, my Laura
You’re not my
friend
But you made me run
And you made me run
for free
Goodbye, my Laura
This is the end
I’d say it’s been
fun
But I don’t lie
easily
In all seriousness, though, despite my constant
complaining about Laura, she has managed to get me from a couch to running 5km
in ten weeks (with a break in the middle) which is quite impressive. So if you
decide that you fancy trying the same thing, you can do a lot worse than her.
(And if you do, let me know if she mentions me).
Thanks is also due to anybody who’s read this blog over
the past ten weeks. It makes it a bit easier to get motivation to run if you’ve
got to write about it afterwards, and it makes it easier to write about it if
you know that there are people who will read it.
So where now? I haven’t completely decided yet, I have a
few ideas floating around for what to set as my next target, and I also don’t
know whether I’ll write about the next one yet, so I don’t want to commit to
anything yet; but I’ll post on here if I decide to keep going. I feel like I
should leave you with a deep, insightful comment to cap off the couch-to-5k
plan, so here it is:
5 kilometres is a long way!
Des Finish Line-am
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