I'm a 25 Minute Runner

C25K Week 6 Day 3

Time - 5.30am, Weather - Cloudy and Dull 10.2 degrees C, Wind WSW 6mph

It's a curious feeling when you're about to push a frontier. That may seem to be a curious sentence, considering that I'm only running, not launching into space or conquering a mountain, but I do see a level of parity between the pursuits. The only difference worthy of mention is the matter of scale rather than achievement. No doubt it is a particularly noteworthy experience to scale Everest or make it into space - some would say a lifetime's achievement - whilst my 25 minute shuffle can hardly compare. Yet it is in the comparisons that truth tends to emerge. For example, if I compare what I was doing in my life two months ago, six months ago, a year ago, to what I am doing now there would be little comparison. In fact, If I go one step further and compare myself in the present to myself 6 years ago, I would essentially be comparing two different people living two different lives.

I'm sure most frontiersmen felt something similar when they compared their lives before and after their achievements. They made a decision that they wanted to do something, achieve something, which would require sacrifices and commitment. And so have I.

Now, after all these grandiose statements, I have to put this all in some sense of context. It was a 25 minute run with no walk-breaks; a marathon it was not. But if you'd suggested to me that I run for 25 minutes 8 weeks ago, I'd have called for the ambulance before I set off. Yet, by following a training plan, trusting that plan and my body, and remaining disciplined, I've achieved something that I last did in my high school days. By continuing on this plan, and subsequent ones to be decided, I hope to go well beyond this achievement to attain many of the goals that I have set for myself.

Today was hard, but I never felt like quitting. I maintained a steady (almost sedate) pace and heart-rate and made it to the 25 minute mark. The only disappointment today was that it took me 3 minutes to catch and overtake a man who was walking the same route. To be fair to myself, it was near the end of my run, and on a steady incline, but it really did take the cake to find that, when I finally passed him, he was smoking a cigarette! I wonder if that happened to Sir Edmund Hilary?

Remember folks, all you have to do is believe that it's possible.

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