I can't believe it's been nine weeks already. It seems like a week ago that I was trying to get through week one and gasping for breath after having to endure the 60 second intervals of jogging between two minute recovery periods. Week two started off with huffing and puffing again and week three I thought I was going to die when the intervals jumped from 90 seconds to three minutes and five minutes.

Week four and week five stretched the intervals out to twenty minutes straight for the last run in week five. I never thought I would even get that far.

Week six started with intervals and ended with a twenty-five minute run. Ay carumba. When I finished that week without puking I thought I might actually be able to finish the program. Week 7 was the first week with non-stop runs... no intervals at all. 25 minutes on day 1, 25 minutes on day 2 and 25 minutes on day 3.

Week 8 was a bit different in the sense that I was in Tampa last week and did the 28 minute, 2.75 mile runs on a treadmill in the hotel's fitness center... That led me back to the roads of West Bay for week 9 where the runs extended out to the target time & distance of 3 miles.

Monday night I hit the road for the first run of week 9. I survived it. I set the clock for 30 mins and tried to keep it at 10 mins/mile. I skipped Wednesday and did the second run on Thursday. This is where the insanity kicked in.

I've "inspired" a few people to try the program by yapping about it on here. Giles tried it out, Heather's been running, Matty's been running and Jen's been doing it too. She wrote on her blog in October about week 2:

There is a camaraderie among runners. Those people I used to glance at the few occasions I was out and about at such an ungodly hour thinking “they must be insane” are now nodding and smiling and sometimes even saying “hello” to me in the mornings. You know the saying “if you can’t see the crazy person nearby, you are the crazy person nearby?” I’m now the crazy person.

Here's my crazy story: The big news this week in the Caribbean was Tropical Storm Olga. A tropical storm in December? What the...? As it made it's way across the Caribbean, weakening as it went, it took Cayman in it's sights. The remains of it was projected to pass right over Grand Cayman sometime on late Thursday. Right when I was going to be going for my run. When I got home, I changed into my running gear and hit the road. I looked west and saw the last light of the day, I saw the moon straight above me, and to the east... dark, dark, almost swirly black clouds. Yeeesh. I looked at my watch, back at the clouds again and thought "well I can squeeze in a 3 mile run before the tropical storm arrives!"

I made a fatal error that night, and trying to squeeze in a three mile run before the tropical storm hit wasn't it! I set the "clock" on the Nike+ iPod to 5k. That meant all the voice prompts were in metric; "one kilometer completed..." "two kilometers completed..." which wasn't too bad, considering that 5k was 3.12 miles. No, what came around and bit me in the ass was the pace. I had no idea what 5.5 minutes/km was compared to 10 minutes/mile. With a calculator, Google or the ability to think of anything other than getting oxygen into my bloodstream, I may have been able to figure it out.

I never did do the conversion, but I ran out of gas just after 4km and fell over on the side of the road. I staggered home and laid down on my yoga mat and listened to my body throb. My whole skin was heaving with each beat of my heart. Fortunately I didn't puke. Eventually I got up off the floor, took my my running shoes and gear and was able to get into the shower and continue on with the rest of Thursday night. And that tropical depression? I missed it. When I took the trash out later on that night, the carpark was wet, but I could see stars out, so it came and went without even noticing it.

Tonight, I stretched out, geared up. Set the clock for 3 miles instead of 5k and hit the road. Five minute warm-up and then I hit it. I kept the pace right around 10 mins/mile and finished the three miles not without huffing and puffing, but without feeling like I was going to absolutely die.

Week 9 is over. The Couch to 5k program is over. A success. I never thought I would be able to run for 30 mins straight or 3 miles, but I've made it. What got me through it was a series of podcasts by Robert Ullrey who was doing the same program and made up some podcasts with voice prompts for when to jog and when to walk and when you're done. Fan-fucking-tastic. No running with one eye on the watch, just put on the headphones and go. I stopped using them once I got to week seven as there were no more intervals.

I don't think I'll keep up on the 3 miles, 3 times a week pace... I think I'd fade away to a shadow if I did that. For now I'll try and do at least 5 miles per week and that should help me keep my girlish figure :p