A Single Step - Start running

They say that any journey, even the longest, begins with a single step. With that in mind, I thought it sensible that my first post recount that first step, as a means to cover the journey thus far, especially given that I am now six months into this running caper and only just starting this blog.
Here goes - back on Australia Day, 26/1/06, I decided it was time to get my finger out and do something to improve my fitness and lose some weight. In my younger days I had always been reasonably fit & healthy but got slack in my late twenties and have been carrying varying levels of excess weight for most of the last decade. So when I hopped on the scale and it said "One at a time please!", I figured the time was now. So that day I sent off a membership form to join the SARRC, our South Australian Road Runners Club, and participate in their Start Running 10 week program. At that point, I was 128kg and could not run more than a kilometre without stopping or walking.
Our first group session was Sunday 3/2 and I had done a couple of run/walks in the week leading up to that. Our coach outlined the training program, which was essentially began at a 3k run/walk and concluded at a 10k event in 9 weeks time. The fact that there was an expectation to run 10k in that time frame from our starting point seemed ambitious to many of us at that time and caused a bit of nervous laughter around the crew. The plan involved 3 weekly run/walks on our own and a 4th with the group each sunday morning where we would progress from 3 to 10k across the weeks. Only 15 min run/walks were required in the first week, progressing to 30mins by week 5 and almost an hour by week 10. I followed the program religiously and whilst progress was slow, it was steady and by week 5 I was ready for our first event, the Glenelg Classic 5k run. A bit daunting but keen to get through it, I was just hoping to be able to complete it without stopping. I ended up running the whole way, a great course along the esplanade at Glenelg and managed to complete it in 33:29, an average of 6.66 minutes per km. We then progressed slowly through the next few weeks with the grand finale and our 'coming out' race to be the Carisbrooke Classic 10k in early April. Whilst my running was reasonably on track, unfortunately I had a shocker of a cold on the day and really should have stayed in bed. I dragged myself up and out however but only managed to finish the first 5k loop, I had absolutely nothing left in the tank at that point and was feeling very ordinary. I suffered for it over the next week or so as the cold/flu really lingered as a result of me using up all my body's germ fighting energy on that Sunday when i should have just stayed in bed. I was disappointed not to have been able to complete the program as scheduled but knew there would be plenty of opportunities later to complete in my first 10k event. I'll take up the rest of the journey in the next post as at this point the beginners program was over, even though I still had rookie status in my own mind, in fact probably still do! Apologies for the length of these posts, but as I say at the top this blog, it's as much for me to recollect and keep track as for anything or anyone else and this is the best way I know how to do it. As a rookie blogger I'm not sure about protocol on these things so I'll keep plugging away but welcome any feedback or comments.