Skechers 6K Run Wrap Up

Today (Sunday) I took part in the Skechers 6K running event for the second year in a row. I have been talking about it on social media a bit but I thought I would do a bit of a wrap up post about it.

Last year I very dubiously registered after some encouragement from my friends on Twitter who managed to convince me that six weeks out from the event with absolutely no running experience at all I would be able to effectively train for the event. I started running that week and haven’t looked back.

One of the tag lines for the event is, “Everyone can do 6K,” and they are so right. One of the things I love about the event is the range of women in age, size and fitness ability all taking part and encouraging each other. The event has a really nice vibe about it and if you run, walk or do a mixture of the two you are just as much a part of it as everyone else is.

This year I had set myself two goals as I talked about in this post here. These were to beat my time from last year and to get my running pace comfortably under 7 minutes a kilometre again. My training was going really well but I didn’t train as much as I would have liked to as life got in the way a bit. Then I got sick in the week leading up to the Skechers 6K and I only got one run in.

I was wondering if I was going to even be able to run this year but unless I actually couldn’t get out of bed I was going to do the event. Even if it meant I ended up walking the whole way. The combination of a cold and conjunctivitis has really had me feeling worse for wear this week and even this morning I still didn’t feel too great.

I knew coming up to it that it was unlikely I was going to be able to better my time from last year and that really disappointed me. I’m very competitive with myself and I take my goals seriously. I decided not to push myself too hard and not be too hard on myself if I didn’t meet this goal. In the end I didn’t do too badly at all and I managed to do it in 40 minutes and 48 seconds which is only 18 seconds longer than my time from last year.

I forget how easy it is to run on totally flat courses and I was able to run much more than I thought I would be able to. I train on really hilly roads so running on the flat is like a dream! Of course I couldn’t help myself running and in the last 500m or so I knew I had pushed a bit far because I started feeling a bit sick but you know what, I made it to the end and when I stopped I felt okay again.

My other goal of getting my running time comfortably under 7 minutes per kilometre has kind of been met and kind of not been met. For the Skechers 6K event I certainly met it with my average pace working out at 6 minutes and 39 seconds per kilometre. One of my training runs beforehand was under 7 minutes per kilometre but all the others were around 7 minutes and 15 seconds. I met the goal for the run but it’s not a consistent thing yet so I’m still working towards that.

What’s really apparent though is how far I have come mentally. Before my surgery I looked for literally any excuse to get out of exercise. Dark clouds, slight possibility of rain? Oh well I better not go out then since I MAY get rained on. This time I was more concerned about the fact I wasn’t going to be able to run and go fast enough to beat last years time. Before bypass Melissa would certainly not have run if she had the slightest sniffle let alone with a cold and conjunctivitis combo!

I really encourage all of my lovely female readers to participate in this event next year if you didn’t this year. You could make it your first big post surgery exercise goal or use it as something to train towards if you are in the stages of trying to get your weight down before surgery. It’s a great morning event and if you need a buddy give me a yell!

Did you participate in this years Skechers 6K? How did you go? Comment below I’d love to hear from you!