Graduation!

Alrighty folks, pass me a cap and a gown because it's graduation day and

I. Am. A. C25K GRADUATE!!!

Woohoo! Seriously, it feels AWESOME to finish the program, I still can't even really believe I did it! ME!!! Finishing something! To the very end! I know!!! 

Here's a blurry picture of me after just finishing the five-minute cool-down walk.  Excuse the blurriness of it, I didn't really think it was an a-okay thing to take a picture in the gym, but I couldn't let the moment pass without marking it, so I made it a fast one.  But there it is folks, the face of a half-hour runner!

I was putting in some updated pictures of my progression in the program on FB and it was fun to see the pictures from the beginning - just like it was really fun to start at the beginning of my C25K journal entries and read about how I progressed.  I'm not trying to sound bad when I say that it's amazing!  From seeing spots in front of me, to wanting to quit multiple times a day, to imagining getting hit by a car just so I could stop running, to just setting up the runs and knocking them down as I complete them! 

I know for a lot of people, running half an hour straight is no big feat, but still, this is a success story for me!  I'm used to reading about other people's success stories and thinking, "Wow, I wish I could do that," and now I did!

It's weird, just writing it all down and how I'm feeling, I'm having a moment now where I'm thinking that finishing this was really no big deal.  I haven't actually run 5K...(YET!) and I haven't really lost much weight since starting it so I don't know why I'm making such a big deal about it.  But instead of downplaying what I did, I am now all too well aware of the evilness of my mind sometimes! SO SHUT UP you in there and let me enjoy my moment for crying out loud!  If I had listened to you, I wouldn't have finished at all so *sticks tongue out* Nyah, nyah, na-nya-nyaaaaaaah!!!

Anywho, here's the rest of the graduation day festivities:

 

The FINAL check mark on my C25K chart! WOW!  It was definitely a good feeling to get that checked off!

Ta-daaaa!!! There's my completed chart!!!  

You can't let the whole thing go by without acknowledging it and there was no way I wasn't going to get a certificate!!! *LOL* I made these ones using Publisher!  It is now hanging proudly on my work bulletin board where the rest of my running stuff is!  That's right, everyone walking by can totally see that I finally finished something I started!

Tara didn't want to be in the picture with me at first, but after I told her that there will never be another time where we'll finish this program AGAIN for the FIRST time, she caved!  Plus, apparently, I can be really annoying when I want something! BWAHAHAHA...but here we are, looking pretty damn proud!

It's CELEBRATING TIME!  After we finished the graduation "ceremony" and went out for lunch, both Tara and I said there was NO WAY we were going to be forcing ourselves to eat a salad today! *LOL* So we went out to Crabby Joe's and had vegetable stuffed RAVIOLI! *swoons*  And my celebratory drink is a VIRGIN! *LOL*  Tara said no one would know the difference, but trust me, if I had alcohol in mine, everyone would know the difference.  I'm a lightweight when it comes to alcohol!  But that's not really the celebrating part anyway.  THIS was what we promised ourselves when we first started running:

Oh YEAH we did!!!  This was the BEST reward EVER!  See that little cluster there by the spoon? Those are chunks of PEANUT BUTTER! So obviously it's a healthy reward.  Peanut butter I eat for a snack with bananas for protein and I heard that cocoa  (cacao? coco? meh!) is also good for you for the antioxidants so there. HAHAHAHA...somebody here mentioned once that I have an uncanny ability to justify anything I want.

Anywho! So that's that with the Couch to 5K program.  It was a pretty awesome experience finishing it and feeling accomplished and now I've just got to work on actually covering 5K when I run.  I've got the half an hour part down, so I just need to speed it up or something and actually get a distance of 5K all in running!!!  I'll be starting my miCoach training program for that and hopefully I'll kick some butt in October!

Anywho, I thought it would be fun to go back to FB and get the picture of myself that was taken in the first week when we started running and compare it to the picture that was taken during "graduation"...

(after, before)

I almost didn't put this up because upon close inspection...I kind of look the same as when I did 9 weeks ago *LOL*  I'm also noticing now that it's up that I put them in the wrong order.  The first picture of me in the jeans was taken today, Friday, August 13th and the picture of me all in black (and sweaty!) was taken nine weeks ago!  Is it just me or does it look like I'm skinnier in the before photo!?  *grumbles*

Ah well!!!  Celebration time is over, gotta get back to work! 5K here I come!