Category: Advice

Danson Runners

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A year ago today – 19th April 2018 – I made what I believe is one of the best decisions of my life – I joined the best running group in my humble opinion – the Danson Runners!

My First Ever Danson Runners Run

So how did it all came about? Well, by April 2018 I’d been working as a fitness instructor/personal trainer for three months – and I loved and still love my job, but between that, the kids and general life stuff I found I was getting less and less time to focus on my own training and fitness, and doing what I did I do feel it’s important to keep myself fit and healthy – it was then I decided I wanted to get properly get back into my running which had fallen by the wayside.

So I did what every sensible person does and signed up for a 10km – oh you mean people don’t normally do this!?! What had I done!?

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Did they find Jo’s trousers?

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So on Tuesday 19th May I got to attend a very exciting media launch in London’s beautiful Hyde Park, courtesy of Helen of HelBels who managed to get me invited along for which I cannot thank her enough!!! I also got to meet the lovely Adele – find a link to her blog here

Hyde Park, Helen and Adele
Hyde Park, Helen and Adele

The media launch was for the Run It campaign by Join In.  It was the first time I have ever attended an event of this kind and I was super excited, probably a bit over excited to be honest!

Courtesy of Join In. https://www.joininuk.org/run-it/
Courtesy of Join In. https://www.joininuk.org/run-it/

So what is Join In? I hear you cry, well I will tell you (even if you didn’t actually cry out or haven’t clicked on the very helpful hyperlinks above! ;-))  Join In are a charity whose mission is to encourage people to volunteer and help support their local sporting groups.  It is a London 2012 legacy charity (thank you very much the Olympic games :-)) which is funded by government grant and their official partners BT and Intersport.

The Run It campaign, to put it simply, is to get more people volunteering specifically in the area of running! Be it for informal running groups (e.g. Parkrun), athletics teams or marathons.  None of these events would be able to take place if it weren’t for people volunteering to help out – in whatever capacity that they are able to – marshalling, coaching, painting the club house, making sandwiches, taking subs… literally, the possibilities for volunteering are endless and make such a huge difference!!!

Who is this half person?
Who is this half person?

This was an amazing first event to attend, even though I personally have nothing to compare it to, I felt it was a very friendly, sociable and inclusive group.  It was fun and informative.  After initially arriving and milling around meeting people and saying “hello”, receiving our very lovely purple Join In t-shirts, there was an introductory few words from Join In’s Director of Sport and former 5km world record holder David Moorcroft.  He brought across just how important volunteering is and one sentence which really sticks in my head is “If you love running, help others run”

David Moorcroft - "If you love running, help others run"
David Moorcroft – “If you love running, help others run”

Supporters of the campaign, who were in attendance, were 10,000m 2014 European Championships Gold medal winner Jo Pavey (a massive inspiration to me!) and second fastest British female runner over a marathon Mara Yamauchi – both again highlighted just how important it is to have volunteers in the sport, without volunteers neither of the them would have had the amazing sporting careers and achievements that they do!

Jo Pavey is supporting 'Run It' a campaign from charity Join In to put more volunteers into grassroots running. For more information visit joininuk.org/run-it

Jo Pavey is supporting ‘Run It’ a campaign from charity Join In to put more volunteers into grassroots running. For more information visit joininuk.org/run-it

After the initial chat, we couldn’t go to a running based media launch without actually doing any running could we?  So we ventured outside, where fortunately for us the weather held out! Here I got to do the most exciting thing which was take a photo of Mara Yamauchi and Jo Pavey together, for Mara on her camera!!! I hope it was in focus!!! Slightly overawed!

So our warm up was led by Carlos from Intersport – this *ahem* gentle warm up  was quite intense for the likes of me your amateur jogger, but was good fun! Then we headed off on a 5km run around Hyde Park – I kept at the back with Helen and a few others and the ’35 minute pace setter’.  There was a couple of people marshalling (see – good examples of volunteering!) but somehow Helen and I managed to get a bit lost and we’re positive we did about 5.5km – but hey ho whatever I WON!!! No – not like that, I was never gong to beat the likes of Jo Pavey was I? – What I did win was a fun little competition. We had to guess how long it would take us to run the 5km, I said 00:34:30 and it took me 00:33:57 – so only 33 seconds out and the closest guess! Go me!!! So I won the bragging rights there – I know how slow… I mean how fast I am!!! 😛

Helen and I after our 5.5km... :-P
Helen and I after our 5.5km… 😛

Afterwards I got to chat with David Moorcroft, who is lovely and friendly, and I mentioned my interest in running – and volunteering – and it’s ability to help those of us with mental health issues.  He introduced me to Will – who discussed with me Hidden Diamonds – Uncovering the True Value of Sport Volunteers.  It is quite overwhelming the difference that volunteering can make – not only to a community but to individual people. In some cases it can be literally life changing!

Volunteering Boosts Happiness and Wellbeing
Volunteering Boosts Happiness and Wellbeing

Right at the end we did get a few minutes to say “Hi” to Jo and we quickly discussed kids and running, but her taxi had arrived and she needed to go, but she was kind enough to have a photo taken with me.

Jo Pavey and me (looking slightly overexcited)
Jo Pavey and me (looking slightly overexcited)

All in all – it was a brilliant event and I am so pleased that Helen was able to take me along.  It’s definitely made me consider volunteering again soon – at the moment my aim is to volunteer at Parkrun each time I complete 10 runs – I’ve currently run 16 so only 4 more and time to volunteer again.  The whole thing is brilliant, as volunteering inspires people to run and vice versa, this leads on to making friends and becoming part of a network of people and the running community.

Now before I sign off, you may be wondering about the posts title, well as we were getting ready to leave Jo was asking the event organisers if they’d seen her black trousers – as like most of us she’d layered up and worn other trousers over her running ones as it was quite chilly, so one of the last things I heard before I left was “has anyone found Jo’s trousers?” and indeed I still don’t know… 😛

There are currently 4,000 opportunities to volunteer on the Join In website – go look now – watch the video – be inspired!!!

Summary of contact details for Join In and their Run it campaign

Website Join In – https://www.joininuk.org/
Website Run It – https://www.joininuk.org/run-it/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/joininuk
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/joininuk
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/JoinInUK
Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/joininuk/

Also, if you’re looking to setup a club Join In can help with that too! Check out Club Hub!

Thank you for reading – please like, comment and share this post – it’s so important to keep getting the message out there! Let’s get more people volunteering! 🙂 xxx

Some images courtesy of https://www.joininuk.org and the rest are my own

So you’ve decided to be an OU student…

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Firstly – well done you!!! You’ve some exciting times ahead!!!

IMG_2491

I’ve been studying my first module (TU100 My Digital Life) with the Open University (OU) since 31st Jan 2015 and one thing I wish I’d come across was an advice list in the few weeks before I started my course! There probably is one out there somewhere – but in the event there isn’t, or like me you’ve not managed to find one – I’ve put together a list of the sorts of things I wish I’d known, from the position of a newbie, nothing scary I promise, just hopefully some advice that will help at least one other person feel a bit more prepared on their new learning adventure!

1. Be organised!!!

2. Take advantage of Freshers week – you’ll be sent emails about them – I didn’t have time leading up to starting, with two young kids and finishing the last few weeks at work I didn’t get the chance to enjoy what was on offer!

3. Take a look around the OU site as soon as you have your log in details – set up your email, your google apps, check out the forums – there’s an early bird forum which I’m sure would be useful! The OU library has a wealth of information (check out Harvard referencing – trust me! This is the referencing style the majority of OU courses use, but do double check, just in case!) I didn’t do this so literally spent the first week or two chasing my tail – trying to setup all these things, read all the paraphernalia emailed to me and the sites that are suggested you look at whilst trying to study my first session and get used to learning again – I ended up feeling a bit overwhelmed and wondering what I’d let myself in for! It worked out in the end, but if I’d been a bit more prepared things might not have felt so manic!

4. Be organised!!!

5. I got all my stationary and study supplies together early (asked for the majority for Christmas – exciting I know, but it was practical!) I got:
Folders
Lever arch files
File dividers
Biros
Highlighters
Fine liners
Post it notes
Pads of A4 lined paper
A year planner – highly recommend this – I put the coloured sticky dots to show me when Tutor Marked Assignments (TMAs) needed to be submitted by and the dates of the ‘school’ days – more on these shortly! I programmed these into my phone calendar too!
A week planner – this is a magnetic one, which is on my fridge, but I’ve not been so great at using this one! Oops!
A pencil case
A ruler
A calculator
A headset – this is useful for any online tutorials that your tutor might provide.

The majority of items were purchased from Amazon and some bits from my supermarket – which in this case is Morrisons (they do erasable highlighters – this made me way more excited than it should, but I have a thing for stationary! What can I say!?!)

6. Prepare your family and friends – this is going to take up quite a bit of your time (I’m sorry to say, probably more than you think) – have an idea in your head of when you are going to do your studying and try and stick to it.  I’m currently aiming to make sure I don’t study on Friday evenings so I can spend sometime with my husband and watch a bit of crap telly (I cannot tell you how grateful I am that we have a 2TB Sky+ box and can Sky+ all our favourite programmes – we’ve got a lot of programmes to catch up on it’s ridiculous!) not quite there yet, but hopefully this will be reality soon!

7. I am not doing paid work currently whilst I am studying, instead I have a full time job with motherhood (the holiday plans and pay suck, but my co-workers are kind of cute) – I am lucky that one day a week my in-laws look after my kids – well mainly my Blue One as my Pink One is now at school – but I don’t know how I would have done my studies without their support.  The Blue One is also back with his childminder one day a week as she accepts the 15 hours from the government, so this covers the one day and gives me some additional hours left if I need them to complete an assignment – if like me you are a stay at home mum and studying and your child is 3, they are entitled to the 15 hours of free childcare the term after turning 3 – it’s worth looking into!  Those who work full time, have children and study – I am in awe of you, that’s amazing and I don’t know how you do it!

8. Did I mention be organised!?!

9. Connect – use social media – the Open University has a Facebook Page, Twitter Page and Instagram (these are the ones that I know of so far – there may be more) and I am also part of The Student Blogcast (which may be where you are already listening to this post) but if not check it out.  Connect with other OU students – it really helps you not to feel alone.
Once you are studying, make use of contacting your tutor, mine has been exceptionally helpful and they are great as your first port of call. The next is your Tutor Group Forum – really useful to know you’re not alone and these other people are in the same position as you.
Also, if you can, as you start studying, try and make the Tutorial ‘school’ days – this gives you the opportunity to meet your tutor in person and other people who are studying the same module as you and you can make some great friends.
Finally if you are feeling at the end of your tether be aware that the OU also have a nightline.

10. Be organised!!! I know I have joked all through this post about being organised, but for me this is the crux of the whole thing – work out how you want to record your notes and do your activities, for me my notes are typed and my activities I handwrite – unless otherwise stated – if you are not organised things will soon run away from you and you won’t be able to keep up – so focus, prepare and be organised!

Good luck with whatever you’re studying and feel free to contact me if you’d like! I hope you have enjoyed this post and it has helped you in some small way!

Also, don’t worry if you do fall behind a little, life happens – the OU will help you in everyway they can.  Finally it is perfectly normal to procrastinate no matter how organised you are – what do you think I am doing right now!?!

What would you have liked to have known prior to starting your studies – or what do you wish to know before you start? Comment below – or email me (You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest!)

As I included some topical lyrics in my last Student Blogcast, I thought it was only fitting I do the same again here so this time we have some words from the Beatles

“Help, I need somebody
Help, not just anybody
Help, you know I need someone, help

When I was younger so much younger than today
I never needed anybody’s help in any way
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured
Now I find I’ve changed my mind I’ve opened up the door

Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being ’round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won’t you please, please help me”

Please like, comment and share this post – it would be much appreciated!

🙂 xxx

Find the audio blog post here