Racing For Life

On June 25th, a balmy Wednesday evening, I took part in a 5k run, for which I sought sponsorship in aid of Cancer Research UK. This is a very important charity to me, because without them, my Dad wouldn't have had experienced the quality of life he did in the final 7 months of his life. Their work involves researching treatments, making advances on diagnosis, prevention and cure. Their work didn't help to cure my Dad from the cancer he had but he did undergo a full course of chemo which helped him to see in 2008, 7 months on from his initial diagnosis. My Dad was very unlucky, as more people do tend to recover from their cancers. More than ever before. And that is largely thanks to Cancer Research UK. So in February, I decided to run the Race for Life. 5 kilometers. 3 miles. Not a long way, and I professed to undertake a training routine with vigour. But life got in the way. I was doing a Masters degree, my Mother was living 120 miles away from me, and for the first time since we started going out together, Ben and I were living in the same city. So I didn't do as much training as I wanted to but Wednesday came and I nervously pulled my running kit out and donned my trainers and set off to Cannon Hill Park to just do it™. I completed the 5k in 43 minutes, which isn't great but isn't too bad either. I guess I was at the midway point, as there were hundreds of women behind me. I ran for the most part, probably 2 of the 3 miles. And I've raised £245. And I did it to commemorate my Dad. To celebrate his life in a way that he would have found hilarious. Me, running = funny stuff.




And I feel really proud of myself for that. It would have made my Dad laugh, but I proved something to myself and to people that know me. I can do it. Doing it made me think some very sad thoughts but more than anything I felt proud and like I was doing something positive. I felt like I was a good person, putting myself through that pain (seriously, I'm injured now) with my only objective being to raise money for a charity. So it got me thinking about myself too... I'm hard on myself a lot of the time. I'm very busy most of the time and I always have things to do. Usually stressful things, like work and studying. So I don't think about myself in a good way very often, and I certainly don't look after myself like I should. So when Gala Darling posted this, it pushed me into thinking positively and thinking about my good attributes and good attributes that I want to have. And then I made this...

... and I felt really good about myself. So now when I'm feeling awfully low and a bit useless, I have something to look at to remind of my good points and be enthusiastic about them, and my low mood will just float away, as , very egotistically, my low moods are often generated by myself. Now, head off to http://www.wordle.net/ and make one yourself!