OOOH OOOH! *raises hand*
I'm a C25K graduate. I do a 3-3.5 mile run 3 times a week. I'm thinking now that maybe I should do a 2.5-3 mile run twice a week at a faster pace and try to stretch out to 4-5 miles eventually at an easier pace. Like to do real tempo runs and long runs like a real runner.
But yeah, I've always HATED running. Even when I was a kid. I was the person in gym class that would call out sick on physical fitness day when we had to run the mile. By high school I would stop between laps and have a cigarette behind the dumpster.
I started couch to 5K because I thought it would be like a mental thing, as in "if I can conquer running, I can conquer anything." At first I HATED it. I couldn't run 30 seconds without feeling like I was going to die. But by the time I finished the 9 weeks, I thought, hey...I can do this.
Now I run three times a week and enjoy every minute of it. Well maybe except the last three or four. I try to go one lap (quarter mile) more than the most I feel I can do. I also cross train with the elliptical or arc machine, do some lifting and take a kickboxing class to keep all my muscles developed.
But I consider myself a C25K success story. And i also feel like I owe the bulk of my weight loss, and my ability to follow through on it to the C25K plan!