Start lines...Finish lines

So then gang, I am on the sprint to the finish line!! Friday was the end of my time in school, I'm glad it's over because it was really hard work, and to put in so much effort into something that you're not sure about, is quite a draining experience. I've still got a load of work to do to complete the course, one assignment and a mammoth essay. Had the dreaded PDP evidence folder interview, that could've gone better but I passed. Anyway, the teaching is over and I am still, as yet, undecided about whether teaching is for me. Apparently I'm alright at it and all my friends can see that I'd be a good teacher and that I enjoy it, but for some reason I'm still uncertain.

I did my first ever open water swim race on Saturday morning, I'm definitely recovering from that! It was a harrowing experience, despite having swum that distance before in the pool under race conditions, when I got in the lake I panicked. It was cold, it was unknown, it was murky and scary. I thought I'd be OK, I had a mantra to repeat to myself (I'm just going for a little swim, that's all it is) but as soon as I put my face in the water I freaked out. Thanks to my wonderful friend Nic, I got round it, but only because she didn't leave my side and encouraged me the whole way round. I'm going to do it again, of course I am, I'm no quitter and one bad experience will not hold me back.

On bank holiday Monday I did my first 10k run! It was brilliant!! I absolutely loved the experience. My furthest training run was only 7k so I really went for it on Monday and my time isn't too bad, did it in 1:10:40, plus I went for a wee half way round (not Paula Radcliffe stylee, I actually ducked in to a portaloo) so one could say that was about 3-4 minutes so race time could be brought down to 1 hour 7 minutes. But anyhow, adjustments aside, I'm totally stoked with a time of 1 hr 10 and it's totally spurred me on to do more. I'm already entered for the Tunbridge Wells 10k in September but I need to do more in between, maybe even a half marathon?!

That's quite a lot of achievements I feel and to top it all of it was my birthday on Tuesday, I turned 34. I hope that my 34th year is going to be much better than my 33rd. 33 was full of heartache, loss, loneliness, stress and lots more bad stuff, only towards the end did I turn a corner and have some good stuff happen. I can be proud of that good stuff because it was all my own doing as well, and that's one valuable lesson I've learned over my annus horribilis, that is actually about me, about my strength and my power and my decisions that make the good stuff happen! I am finally learning that I am actually the master of my own destiny and if I want something I have to put in the hard work to achieve it, and now I know that I am actually capable of it! So it's been a year of self discovery through all the bad stuff, and I'm ready to put that bad stuff behind me. Eyes to the front, the future is beckoning me and who knows what that future might hold?!