Goals # 23, 24 and 25 – See a play at the Globe Theatre, do a night-time sponsored walk for charity, and have a moonlit picnic

So, I am just over two weeks away from my 30th birthday (eek – bit scared about this!) and it’s safe to say my list has pretty much taken over my life in my desperate attempt to tick off the final things! This is mainly because I left reading Clarissa quite late and it’s unexpectedly thick and quite hard going! I also got way behind on my daily page count for reading the bible so have a fair bit left to go!

However, last weekend I managed to tick off my goal to see a play at the Globe Theatre! I saw King Lear, which was really good. I thought there was maybe a little too much singing and dancing for a tragedy, but on the whole I really enjoyed it.

Then yesterday I took part in a 10k evening walk for charity. Here’s a pic of me ready to go!

Ready for my 10k

It was a great atmosphere and I really enjoyed the event, and afterwards I got to tick off my goal to have a moonlit picnic.

Originally, when I came up with the list, my idea was to have a romantic picnic, as I was optimistic (kind of) about the idea I might find someone to do this with in the course of a year, however this turned out to be not the case. But in the spirit of being an independent woman I figured I could do this without a man 🙂 And the sponsored walk provided the perfect opportunity for a group picnic in lovely surroundings with live music, surrounded by lots of people celebrating the completion of the 10k walk and funds raised for a good cause. Here is a pic:

Moonlit picnic

It turned out to be a lovely night – and now I only have 5 more goals to tick off my list! 🙂

Goal # 7 – Run a 5k in under 30 minutes

After running a 5k two years ago in 38 minutes (I’m quite a slow runner, but also I was running with a friend and we took it kind of easy), I was determined to run another one in under 30 minutes. So, for the last five months, I have been running about 3 to 4 times a week to help me achieve this goal.

As I hadn’t run for ages I started off running for just 10 minutes then built up to 30 minutes in 1 minute increments over several weeks. After I had made it to 30 minutes, I then tried to increase my speed (red-faced and panting most of the time as serious runners overtook me with ease!). Although I achieved a 5k distance in under 30 minutes a few times, I still had to do it in an official 5k race… which I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do!

However, last Friday night, I headed out to take part in a 5k along with approximately 599 others – and I completed the race in 28 minutes, much to my amazement! Not only had I never ran the distance in this time before (it was always over 29 minutes) but I had absolutely no idea how far I’d run for most of the race as my running app (which measures time and distance) went crazy and told me after 6 minutes that I had already run 2 miles and was running three-minute miles … if only! 🙂

So to my shock and delight I ran through the finish line after just 28 minutes, enabling me to tick another goal off my list! Here’s a picture of a wet and windswept me happily showing off my finisher’s medal: