One mission accomplished!

Well it wasn’t quite as I had imagined it when we signed up in January for the BlackLight 5k but we did complete it.

As I said before, Phil and I both gave up smoking in 2014 and we had put on the standard issue 1/2 a stone (give or take a little 😉 ) in weight so we decided that we wanted to get fit and lose that weight (and maybe a bit more!).

We didn’t want to set ourselves an unachievable challenge so when we saw this run in October we thought that would give us plenty of time to learn how to run and get ourselves ready to actually run it.  I have participated in a couple of 5ks before but always as a walker rather than a runner.  Some people may be surprised to hear that Phil used to run cross country for the county when he was at school but he hasn’t done any running he’s prepared to talk about since then!

We had begun the traditional ‘run a minute, walk a minute’ method of training and had a schedule planned out by one of my colleagues in Aberdeen.  And then I had my diagnosis.  I did carry on going to Zumba until my chemotherapy started but hadn’t done any running training since then.

I did want to do the course though, not least because we’d paid the entrance fee!  Then my friend Donna signed up and I knew we had to do it.  As you will know, I have been struggling with my energy levels and stamina so Phil took Dude out for his walks yesterday while I conserved my energy.  I know, it’s only 5k but that’s where I am at the moment!  I’m dealing with it and you have to too 🙂  Yesterday was a grey, dull day and as we got closer to our departure time of 17:00 it started to drizzle with rain.  I wrapped myself up in a long sleeved thermal vest, fleece, lightweight waterproof and my official run t-shirt, oh, and of course a purple tutu and we set off!!

There has been a bit of chatter on FB about the organisation and planning of the event, also the fact that the course wasn’t quite 5k…. however, we had to walk a kilometre before we got to the start line and then back to the car at the end so I’m comfortable that we did the distance!!  There was a big slow backlog but once we got across the start line, we reached the finish line in just under an hour which I was really pleased about.  We had also managed to get ourselves covered in magic glow powder so that we looked suitably horrendous in the photos but I promised you photos so…

We did have a lovely time, it was a really fun atmosphere and it did us good although I’m not sure that the celebratory KFC contributed to our wellbeing, we really enjoyed it.

A huge thank you to those of you who donated money to the Big C, I’ll let you know how much we raised during the week.

Talk to you soon

Lots of love Mand xxx