Did I graduate from C25K early?

spearfox

I completed week 6. What was supposed to be a 22 minute run I stretched it to 36 minutes.
My reason for doing this was I had a 5K race coming up in 4 days.
That was Tuesday May 1st.
I did not start week 7. Instead I rested for the upcoming race.
My main focus was to complete a 5K without walking. A secondary focus was to finish with a time of 37:15 or better.

I ran my first 5K this morning.
Ran (jogged) the whole race.
I haven't gotten the official time yet but I think it was 36:27, not sure.
I placed third in my age division.

I will continue with running to improve my time and lose weight. I have seen where many people restart C25K with the emphasis on speed which is what I will do.

So did I graduate early? Should I continue with weeks 7, 8 and 9 then restart the program for speed?
Just kind of curious what the opinions might be.

_Bob_

I would start over and go for speed. I have a race on fathers day and I'm on week 3. a few days after the race I'm starting over and going for speed. I'm a bit bigger so right now my focus is just to be able to jog the entire time without walking.

opus649

Well... Couch to 5K... you've run a 5K... so I'd say you've done graduated... congrats!!!

courtneymal17

I kind of did the same thing, though it still takes me considerably longer to do the 5k lol...but I ran a 5k at the beginning of week 7 and from then just kinda followed the days but kept running the 5k, but used it more to keep me on a schedule of running than to actually 'do' the program. But I'd say if you can run a 5k a few times, then yes you havve!