Nearly there!

It’s just fifteen days from my first, and probably my last, attempt at the Brighton Marathon.

The training is going really quite well considering, and the heel problem has stabilised. I’m still in pain between runs and often walking with a limp, but I'm able to do the ten mile runs so my training has not stalled. 

On Monday I will do a 15 mile run that I call the twang test. I call it a twang test because if some muscle or ligament is going to go twang then I’ll be close to home.  This is a dress rehearsal where my kit is fully tested. Two years ago I was surprised at the difference between a ten and fifteen mile run, where a seam on my running top was comfortable at ten miles, but it became a bloody chafing mess at fifteen!

In the last few days before the big day I’ll just do a few short runs just to keep the muscle tone up but really it’s about recovering so that I’m fully up for the big day.

The arrangements for the Marathon are coming together and there’s a special to-do list of what I need to carry and another for my recovery team AKA Fliss as we'll be staying in Worthing in the only hotel that was available and busing across to Brighton on the day.

I am both excited and nervous in equal measure. This is a genuine test of body and mind and an achievement that will, I believe, remain significant for me for the rest of my life. It’s also a significant ending for my four years of study as both projects have sat along side each other like strangers on a bus, sharing the good and bad times.

Last Thursday was my last counselling group supervision and therefore the last official engagement of my humanistic integrative counselling course. I since received my signed off final report and submitted my portfolio thereby completing my training.

I’m sure for many on the course this is a scary step into the unknown, but I’ve been self employed on and off for well over 30 years so that's offers no surprises. I’ve been marketing myself online since 1996 so that offers no surprises. Most importantly, I have accrued over 300 hours of client work and I have confidence in my counselling skills.

I’m continuing to counsel at the Nightingale Cancer Support Center in Enfield as they are a lovely organisation. I’ll build up a small private practice whilst maintaining Streetbeat Salsa and moving forward with the Mambalsa project.

My new counselling website goes live next week:

the counsellorforyou.co.uk and I invite you to share this with your friends.

Meanwhile there’s a few days left to sponsor my marathon! You'ld be daff-ed mnot to!

Please take a mo to visit my justgiving.com page to sponsor me which is a wonderful way to donate to The Nightingale.