Help, I need some support please. Confidence is going, running is not :(

[Spinosaur]

I started running in March. I am 41 and needed to lose baby weight after surprise baby (dd nearly 2 now so no excuse!). Rather foolishly I said I would do great south run. I am only up to 7km on a good day and I have had a rubbish cold this week so running has not been happening. Please can you let me know if It might be possible to do the run or should I stop setting myself up to fail? Thank you.

How many weeks have you got, and how long is the run?

Do you do any other exercise and do you spend a lot of time on your feet?

Have you run this distance before?

Got to run to Tesco now but will be back......

Can you trade down to the 5k? I quickly googled and think the full distance is 10 miles which is 16k - right?

If not, then stick with it. It doesn't matter if you walk/ jog slowly for several miles in the middle, you will still HAVE DONE IT!

7km is not at all bad! You should make sure you are having rest days though as they are equally important. If you are not feeling up to running then simply do some core exercises (situps, planks, pressups) as they will do you nearly as much good. Ideally, for confidence, you need to have run half your race distance some time beforehand - you are nearly there! No need to have done more.

You can't fail! Just do it and be proud of yourself (? when is it?)

You have 2 months? OK it is possible. Do you belong to a running group? I recently did a 5 mile race and my group were really supportive as I found it a struggle. The woman who runs it organised a lot of our sessions to help me achieve my goal in the lead up to the race. Perhaps you could find someone who could mentor you? I know my run group leader could support you by email - but she would probably charge you to write an individual training plan.

Hello, thank you for the replies. I am running with a friend who can run! I have entered for this race before, 4 years ago, but got flu the week before. This was a challenge I set myself as had not managed before and wanted to feel good after having baby etc. I am feeling better today so will go out tomorrow and see how far I get. I am just running as have 3 kids and running is my way of getting a break :) maybe I should do some lunges etc. to break it up a bit. No I am not in a club but have a running buddy.

We've been doing interval runs this evening. 30 seconds fast, 1 min steady for 20 mins with 5 mins steady at beginning and to finish.