Project 20 - Season 1 Finale | The Shoe Came Off... Literally

Welcome back to Project 20!  Season 1 of this journey has come to an end in the most unexpected way. Today’s final time trial started strong—358, 356 splits—and for the first time, I felt like sub-20 was within reach. And then... my shoe fell off.

Yes, you read that right. After over 4,000 runs, my shoe literally came off during one of the most important runs of my life. I managed to recover briefly, but the effort to catch up took its toll, and I finished with a time of 21 minutes.

This marks the end of Season 1, but not the end of the goal. I’m taking an 8-week break, then coming back strong for Season 2 in 2025. Sub-20 is still the mission, and I’m determined to make it happen!

#Project20 #RunningGoals #Parkrun #Sub20 #RunningCommunity #FitnessJourney #MoretonBayRoadrunners #FitnessMotivation #SeasonFinale #TheShoeCameOff #SeasonTwoComing

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Well that's, that's it. Season one's done and, um, and, well, yeah, I called it season one because there's gotta be another one'cause the wheels fell off today. Um, literally the wheel, I lost a shoe. We went out, I, I really thought, ah, let me, I really wanted to make it happen today. And so I've. You know, eaten well all week. I've slept well. I can't remember the last time I touched alcohol because I love a good glass of red wine or an old fashioned and so that's been a while. Um, and, and right, and, and I did even some extra things like Last night before I went to bed, I took a Nurofen just to, you know, help with the recovery of, you know, relaxing the muscles. Um, not something I would just ordinarily do. I rarely take Nurofen, but I took a Nurofen to go to bed. Uh, and then on my way to warm up to the run this morning, I took a Nurofen. Uh, Panadol, um, because one of the things that really is a trigger for me during these, you know, hit outs is, uh, the pain, the hurt locker, I, makes me want to quit, so I went, well, let's take some Panadol and see if that, you know, when I get into that hurt locker, if it's a little less, maybe I've got a little less motivation to quit, um, and, and I took a good, you know, I, I measured the pain, Pre-workout ride. I took some, you know, fuel X gel. Uh, I warmed up slower than ever to, you know, so I wasn't using up energy and it just was all feeling good. Um, thank you very much to Carl and Aiden for pacing, and I, and I told them what I wanted in terms of, I don't want to go out too fast. I just wanna really, you know, clockwork, this. So I said, it'd be nice if we're sort of, you know, somewhere between 355 and four in the every kilometre. So we did 358 for the first kilometre, which was great. Um, and usually that first kilometre is where you're like, Oh man, this hurts. I don't know how I'm going to do all this. I did this first kilometre and it felt good. The second kilometre is then when, you know, I start questioning why I even had this goal and it felt pretty good. And we did 355 or 356, I think for the second kilometre. And so for the first time. I was actually, instead of like, Oh, let's hang on and see what happens. I was like, I think I can do this. I think, I think. Sub 20s happening today. I was listening to a priming podcast on the way down there about I am. So I had this whole, I am a sub 20 runner in my head. I, I w you know, when it hurts, I'm not going to quit, you know, just priming everything come into the turn and, uh, and you've got to remember I've been running for over 10, 000, uh, 10, 000, 10, 000 years, uh, 10 years, um, 365 days a year, 10 years. Sometimes double runs. So I reckon, you know, it's more than 10 years now, so I reckon I've done over 4, 000 runs. 4, 000 runs. And what happened next has never happened to me, ever, in a run. And I went into the turn, and I was ready to, you know, push off right on the turn. And my shoe fell off. Literally, I just rolled straight out of it. And, and Just the wheel, literally. I don't know. I watched the shoe, you know, because not only did I sort of roll out of it, but I still got the legs turning. So I watched the shoe take off in front of me, overtake Aiden, my pacer, and I'm just like. What the hell is happening right now? Like, what is it about this that is just, like, there is no, I could not even in my wildest dreams tell you that that was one of the things that could happen on one of my hit outs. Something that's never happened. 4, 000 runs, never lost a shoe, but today I lost a shoe. And I mean, I lost a shoe. Like it was like, the shoe was thinking if it got rid of me, it could do the sub 20. Like, let's get rid of this heavy passenger. Off it went, overtook my pacer. So I just, and now, I mean, I don't, like, I'm 49, so to bend over fast, it's, you know, you've got to put thought process into that before you break a hammy. So here I am, middle of the fastest 5k I've done, uh, bending over, chasing and picking up a shoe, throwing it back on, uh, watching my paces start to disappear, and I just gassed it, I hit it, because I'm like, I, no, no, no, and. I hit it, I caught back up to the paces, and then I think very quickly it was that I just, that, that all caught up with me. Somewhere, my left ham, my foot was fine, I mean it's the one that rolled out of a shoe, but my foot was fine. Um, my hamstring on my left hamstring was just like, hey, um, no. And I just, that push to catch up I think just cooked me. And, just, it was, it was over. The wheels fell off the project, and uh, And that's that. That's end up with 21 or something, 21 minutes, but you know, whatever. Uh, so I was on 358, 356. Um, it felt good. I felt like for the first time I was in that second kilometer, instead of like, I just, I felt like it was coming together and yeah. Chew, Off, and that's it. That's it. It's all over. Season, Season 1. Done. With, it's got to be a Season 2 now. Uh, so I'll figure that out with Coach. I'm going to have some time off. I need to have some time off. It's tired. It's been tiring. It's been great. Uh, I'm enjoying it, but I'm tired and I want to do some freedom running. So we're going to do that. I'm going to have like 8 weeks off. Um, and next year I'm going to come Season 2. Maybe we'll tweak some stuff. Maybe we, maybe, maybe this is the right path and I've just got to tighten my shoelace. I don't know. I use speed laces, but I've only ever used speed laces. So it's not like. I shouldn't have them. I just, yeah, I don't know. Um, so, season one, she fell off. Season two, we'll come up with new ways, there is no season three. There'll be season two. We're going to make it happen. Season one done, season two coming to you in like eight to 12 weeks. And we will continue. Sub 20. Project 20! Taking way longer than I thought. And that's okay.