Couch to 5k - FINISHED!!!!!

WOOOHOO! "IT IS FINISHED!"

Today, Gypsy & I headed out to Bay Creek park (the nice, FLAT track that makes it easy to calculate distances for me, lol) for our graduation run. We got there at about 5:50 a.m. It was really nice out this morning - a pleasant 64 degrees, low humidity. There was a whole bunch of crickets, frogs, and even one whipoorwill singing their chorus this morning. It was such a nice day, and the crickets, etc., sounded so cool, I decided to listen to them rather than podcast this morning. I hung the earphones around my neck and had the volume up, so I could still hear the podcast and verbal cues & stuff, but also could hear the crickets, etc. (Besides listening to the neat early-morning sounds of the day, I also have to get used to running without an ipod for my 5k coming up on halloween, which is an iPod-free run, darn it, LOL).

Anyway, not much to tell - we went out and ran. There was a great big deer wandering around the parking lot this morning who kept us company. She must've been used to people, because everytime we circled by, she just looked up from her breakfast and watched us watch her as we went by, LOL. I tried to get a pic of her, but it was too dark and she was too far away to get a pic on my phone. Oh well. :-) Anyway, when podcast announcer dude said, "Congratulations, you've run for 30 minutes! Now on to our 5-minute cooldown walk!" I was still 1.25 laps away from having completed a full two miles. So, instead of going on my cooldown walk, Gypsy & I kept jogging thru that last 1.25 laps and made it exactly a full two-mile run! I had wanted to try for distance today, to see if I could go the whole 3.1 miles of a real 5k, but didn't have enough time to do so cuz I got there later than I wanted. x-( BUT, we did get in a full and complete two miles! Took me a total of about 40 minutes to do that two miles, give or take a few minutes. I timed how long it took me to go around the track one time - one loop was 6:09 minutes - and since 3 loops equals one mile, that means my running time is 18:27 for a mile. ack. Very slow. Practically crawling, in fact. BUT... a heck of a lot faster than I was 9 weeks ago, I can tell ya that!!!! 9 weeks ago, I woulda NEVER thought in a million years I would be able to say that I'd run a full two miles - much less that I ran a full two miles in only 35-40 minutes - and still more amazing, that I did not die - or even fear dying - while doing so! Whod'a thunk it??????

So now what? On to the one-hour runner program, AND training in earnest for my Halloween 5k.(Which just might take me a full hour to run, LOL! )Thank you all for your support - couldn't have done it without ya! Will still be posting my progress as I go thru the OHR program, cuz i need the accountability and encouragement to git-r-done.

Week 9, Day 3 Done and Graduated. ONWARD & UPWARD!!!! *high fives all around*