I ran my first 10k!

 

 

On Saturday I managed to run my first 10km and I couldn’t be prouder of myself. I know 10k isn’t a lot to many runners, but considering 6 months ago I couldn’t run for a minute without getting out of breath and feeling like I had to collapse, 10km is a big achievement for me.

As mentioned in my Zombie 5K training app review, by the end of that I was able to do 7km, so since then on my long weekend runs I have just been adding a km at a week until I reached 10km.

For the actual run itself, I started in the forest that is quite close to my house. I did the first 3km in the forest, including running up a giant hill, and then the rest of the run was done on the streets, on  relatively flat pavement, all whilst listening to a pretty intense mission of the Zombies, Run! app, which I do think helped keep me going because I was dying to know what happened in the story next.

I really enjoyed the run, and found the first 8km where easy, but after that things got a bit harder. I was still running comfortably but my mind just wanted to reach the 10km. Normally when ever I run I fantasise about what life would be like if I was rich, or switch off and listen to my music, but in those last 2km all I could think about was completing the 10km, wondering how much further it was and how much longer it was going to take me. After the 9km mark I started to feel a bit tired, and my feet where a bit sore, but I kept on going knowing I was so close. At the last half km I ended up pulling off my armband and watching the distance clock up because I was pretty darn tired and just wanted to stop. And then it happened, after a hour and 8 minutes I hit the 10km mark and it was over!

I genuinely never thought I would be able to handle this sort of distance, and I must admit I felt pretty epic afterwards. I have the Spooky Sprint coming up in three weeks time, which is a 10km race for Parkinsons. It will be my first proper timed race so that will be my next challenge!