May Day weekend sees us off down to the Forest of Dean for some more orienteering. This time Jordan is with us, so we have two rooms in the Travel Inn.. the boys and the girls.

Mark is seriously debating buying a tent for these weekends away. Julie is not so sure about it…lack of sleep, grumpy kids and too much noise….how can that be a holiday, and more than that, how can you run well on no sleep !

Saturday saw the Webster Orienteering relay team, of Mark (long leg, 4.5k), Jordan (medium leg, 4.1k), and Julie (short leg, 3.1k) taking our first relay challenge. It was around a part of Lincoln University; a lovely area with a lake, and lots of open running…. only for the fittest…!

We finished a creditable 10th out of 18 teams, with the star performer on the day being Julie who managed to romp home 7th in her leg !

Keep up the running Julie, it is paying dividends.

Tuesday night now see us orienteering training at West Notts college in Mansfield. It is run by Catherine Hughes who puts on an enjoyable hour and a half combining fun, fitness, orienteering skills and chat about our recent runs. With the lighter nights it has been great for getting outside and practicing around the college grounds

My New Year resolution was to try to become a more proficient runner, and I set myself a target to be able to run 5k by Easter. I managed it. With a little help from my hypnotherapy friends and the motivation of seeing slight improvements each week in my orienteering times, I did my first 5k run on 7th April. Since then I have run several times, and it is making a massive difference to my ability to keep going in my orienteering races.

Today we decided we would enter the Robin Hood marathon fun run. It is only 3k, but the day is a fantastic event and any friends and family that care to join us can take advantage of the Experian marquee, with all the perks of the day.

Who knows, by then I might be up to running 10k !

Sunday April 26th… the final day of my hypnotherapy course. All the case studies handed in, practice hours complete, and now we wait to find out if we have passed, and can work on the unsuspecting public !

It has been a fantastic year that has changed all of us in many ways. The three main changes for me have been having the confidence to go and get a new and exciting job, changing my eating habits and therefore losing quite a bit of weight, and losing my anxiety over Christmas.

Next year’s course starts on 14th June, covering counselling and psychotherapy, so a few weeks off before I start that.