Did anyone else totally fail at their first 5k after C25K?

Firstly, congratulations! Doing your first race is a big step )

The first time I completed C25k I trained for an extra month, then ran an 8k race. No stopping. I'm doing C25k again now after a break from running, again to do another 8k race!

There's a few important things to remember:

1. Treadmill training is completely different to road/trail. If you are training exclusively on a treadmill, you will find the same distance on the road or a trail challenging - especially if there are uphill/downhill sections.

2. If you trained on the road or a trail, did you include enough hills? Changing terrain can totally smash you - if you're not used to running long hills and the race route has them, then you are going to struggle. Familiarise yourself with the race route and train appropriately.

3. Pacing yourself. When I race I tend to have my headphones in and my running app giving me regular feedback on my pace - when training, I tend to switch that off unless I need it for the particular session. I find that in a race situation it's too easy to start too hard & too fast, and end up running at a pace that isn't sustainable for the entire distance... especially if you feel slow in comparison to the people running around you. Having the feedback in the headphones enables me to keep myself in check.

4. Were you having an off day? Some days it's just hard to to complete a race, particularly if you had a heavy training week or didn't fuel up adequately beforehand... or had a couple of late nights the week of the race. Or you might just get a cramp, or a stitch, or feel unwell. These can all affect your result. I do struggle with this sometimes - off days can be a killer!

The bottom line is - don't let this put you off! Everyone struggles at some point, the key is to adjust your training, give your body time to adapt and then try again! Aim for a personal best each race. Sometimes you'll hit it, sometimes you won't, but you know you've achieved something every time you cross the finish line. You might choose to make your goal for the next 5k to be only 4 walk breaks.... or no walk breaks, but a slower pace. You call the shots!

Best of luck )

So I completed C25K and felt so good about it. I signed up to run my first race and had to stop to walk over 5 times and was huffing and puffing......it was just horrible. The whoIe point was to get me to run the 5K straight through. I don't want it to discourage me but UGH. I feel like I never want to run again

I could only consider my first 5k a failure if I had allowed it to stop me from running. I had to stop and walk, too. But I finished. And I wasn't dead last. I'll bet you weren't, either. And even the very last person to cross the finish line is lapping the people on the couch.

If you've come this far, are you going to let running beat you, now? You'll kill the next one.

First of all I want to congratulate you on finishing the program.

There is one thing that has came up to my mind, but first I would have to ask you some questions. First of all the trademill case. As the preceeding speakers stated it's completelly different when you run outsuide. The air, the temperature, the continuous changing ground level are important, even if it seems that you run on a flat ground. It's different to run 5 km on treadmill in air conditioned room even with changing your platform high than running from example in the summer, when there is more than 30 degrees centigrades, in the full sun and barely with what to breathe.

The second thing is how did you measure your c25k? Usually you take time, so run for some seconds and then walk for some time etc. Depending on your pace, the result will differ, and after c25k program you may have reached the goal to run for like 30 minutes, however you covered a distance of 3 kilometers instead of 5.