I RAN A 5K FOR CHARITY |STRUGGLES AND SUCCESSES

If you’ve been keeping up with my Facebook or Twitter you’ll know that on Saturday 25th of May I took part in my very first 5k. Completing a 5k was one of my personal goals for 2019 and I can proudly say that I did it!

Let’s start by talking about the elephant in the room…. ME, I’m the elephant. Fat and Lazy. Basically what I’m saying is I didn’t train for this whatsoever. I literally had 6 months to do some sort of training and I did 2 3k’s on a treadmill…

I had literally everyone around me telling me they didn’t think I’d go through with it – literally everyone. If I’m honest, I wasn’t sure if I would go through with it myself. Even on the drive down to Edinburgh, I had so many thoughts about just not running and heading back home.

For the first 2k I really really struggled. My knee was incredibly sore despite my best efforts in strapping it up. I was out of breath and my legs were bloody aching. I kept saying “what am I doing?” “I can’t do this” “Why did you do this?!”. I truly contemplated speaking to a Marshall and asking to go back. I stopped by the side of the road and stretched for a couple of minutes and thought about how I would feel if I didn’t carry on with the run, how many people I would disappoint and with that I ‘manned’ up and started jogging.

Half an hour in and I hit the 3k mark. More than halfway there – I started to believe I could genuinely complete this 5k in a relatively good time! I managed to run 3-4k without stopping – granted a fair chunk of this was downhill but still! Honestly, the downhill was my biggest downfall. The harsh impact destroyed my ankles but I was getting so close.

Coming up to 4.5k (ish) and crowds of people started to form, all of which were cheering each and every runner on. Some made a point to shout individual people’s names which created such an upbeat and positive atmosphere and it truly spurred me on to run to the very end!

At 44 minutes I crossed the finish line and I felt so flipping emotional! Partly because I’d actually finished the 5k and partly because of the pain I was feeling. Either way, it was so worth it.

I didn’t just run a 5k to complete my personal goal, I ran in order to raise money for Ronald McDonald House Charity. If you want to read more about them click here to see the post I did about everything that they do. My target was £150 and I am incredibly pleased to say I managed to raise £265!!  >> https://buff.ly/2CRDP9k

Despite feeling the most pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life the next day I hopped back on my laptop and looked up what I can do next and I found Race at Your Own Pace, a monthly challenge website. I’ve decided to challenge myself to run a total of 25 miles across the month of June. I’m not raising money for this challenge – I’m using it to push myself to get fit and lose some beef. I’ve currently completed 4 of my 25 miles and it’s only the 3rd!

Do you have any fitness goals at the moment? How are they going?

Until next time,

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