Way back in January, when I was approaching 2025 with a fresh face and a fresh set of motivational challenges and goals for the year, I allowed myself to be suggestible. My wonderful PT, Michelle, was the culprit… suggesting to me that maybe by April I might be up for a charity 5k ‘fun run’.* (*I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again, these are not two words that have any place next to one another in a sentence!). I can’t remember why on that day I was brazen enough to say yes, but in the twinkle of an eye I had paid my entry fee to the bigmoose event and the countdown was on. bigmoose is a charity based in Cardiff which does wonderful work to make mental health therapy accessible and timely – you can read more about their work here.
Back to my story.
I guess the runners amongst you would now imagine that I would continue, nay increase, my running schedule. That would be the sensible thing to do. And I did run. In January. Then I went to Thailand for most of February. And in March, my get up and go had got up and gone. April arrived. And so did my participant’s t-shirt and timer-chipped bib. My legs were heavy from gym workouts. I joked that kids, dogs, and grannies with zimmer frames would run faster than me. It would have been easy to cry off…
But that’s not me. And so, last Sunday (13th April) I donned my orange-spotted bigmoose t-shirt, pinned on my bib, tied up my hair and made my way to Cardiff’s Bute Park. Thankfully, the sun was out and it was dry but not *too* warm. The event village was absolutely buzzing – the day had started with ultra runners, then marathon, half-marathon, and by the time I arrived the 10k was at full pelt. I took my bag to the bag drop, wandered around the field for a while, then headed to the start area to warm up. It was heaving. In total 6069 runners took part in the day (that number reflecting the number of people lost to suicide in England and Wales in 2023), of whom almost 1700 in the 5k.
I am a very reluctant runner… a non-runner in runner’s clothing… a tortoise not a hare… you get the idea. However, what I am proud of was that I really did run my own race. I was there on my own, ran on my own and paced myself according to a pattern that I was confident would work. That meant a combination of running and walking (‘jeffing’ if you want the technical term), keeping an eye on my timer to ensure I didn’t get too engrossed in walking in the sunshine ‘forgetting’ to run!
I found the first 30 minutes very doable. As we crossed Blackweir bridge to the opposite side of the Taff, the path was narrower and unshaded – it was hot and busy and difficult to run. This was around kilometre 3, and I found it tough. (Running over bridges was a no from me too, as they bounce badly!). I took advantage of the shade behind the SWALEC stadium to run a bit more, and then by some miracle we were into the final kilometre.
I was pretty tired by this time and the sight of the event village coming back into view was welcome. Checking my watch, I found that final push of motivation in the possibility that with one last burst of running, I could make it over the finish line in a sub 50 minute time – This would be marvellous given that at the outset, my head had been convinced that anything sub 1 hour 15 (which would have been me at walk pace the whole way round) would be good.
And there, my friends, we have it. My first 5k, in my 50s. I came 1075th out of 1700 odd runners. Not the best… but MY best. #proud. Will I do another? Ask me next January…
50shadesofbrave 