It’s all in the interpretation

Email from the lovely organisers of parkrun after today’s 5km event. 

(It’s OK if I edit to my own liking only pay attention to the important bits, right?)

Sure, I came last. 

I also still struggled with the whole breathing thing again, but there were definite improvements on last week’s effort:

• I jogged for 2.5 km before Smoker’s Lungs and Legs insisted on stopping for a time-out
• I reduced my time by almost 3 minutes
• I actually talked to the volunteers / officials as they passed on their encouragement at each checkpoint (instead of nodding and panting breathlessly). Admittedly they were only one-syllable responses, but still…

…and most importantly:

• my track pants stayed up unassisted
• my lungs were thanking me (quitting smoking is still a work in progress, but there’s definitely been a big improvement).

 

Being the last person to cross the finish line does have its benefits though.  In this case, in the form of a can-we-go-home-yet crowd cheering and clapping and generally making you feel like a rock star.

That bit was pretty neat.

In reality they were all probably thinking, “Thank goodness!  It’s cold / raining out here and now we can leave”.

But in the spirit of it being all in the interpretation (ie positive spin), I like to think it was more: “Yay to you, stranger we’ve never met!  Great finish, good on you for taking part, and hope to see you next week”!

So overall, it didn’t suck as much as last week, and my goal of actually being able to run 5km is looking more achievable.

It’s still early days (and there’s a long way to go) but I guess it’s not a bad effort for someone whose exercise 6 months ago used to be limited to walking the dog, occasional energetic bursts of can’t-find-the-TV-remote-so-have-to-get-up channel changing, and this:

So here’s to persevering, to making slow-but-steady improvements, and to ‘chipping away’ at achieving goals. 

Good luck to you and to whatever yours may be!