Fit enough to actually do Fun Stuff again!
So there you have it, I admitted right there on the first page of my Blog I didn’t sit down and worry about what I couldn’t do anymore. I just knew that somehow I had to re-boot my life and aiming to become a Firefighter @56 certainly helped me to do just that. It really fired me up to get back to doing fun stuff again.
When I say Fun Stuff I mean the activities that make me feel good about myself and help me connect with my family and the wider community. Of course there are connections on many levels but my focus here is on the activities around physical health and fitness.
I was so excited when I could finally go Running again!
I might have set out walking because that was all I could manage at first. But it didn’t take long to start running again. Then that crazy idea of becoming a Firefighter actually happened and everything took off.
Obstacle Course Runner, Mountain Hiker, Indoor Climber, Rower, Dad – I got my life back
The Firefighter thing was the catalyst to re-boot my whole life. I have gone on to do things I thought I would never do again..
..and things I had never done before.
Clockwise from bottom left: Obstacle Course Racing 2015, Racing the Vets Head on the Tideway 2017, Indoor Climbing 2018, At the top of Snowdon on the way to completing the Three Peak Challenge 2016 with my daughter and friends and finally A fine view on the way back down.
I served 6 years as a Firefighter and now I can describe myself as any of:
- Obstacle Course Racer – well Runner. I’m still working on the Racer bit!
- Rower – I got back in a Rowing VIII again, there is something special about an Eight that clicks
- Mountain Hiker – back in the mountains with friends and family
- Indoor Climber – something I’d wanted to try for years. Next maybe proper rock climbing? The seed is sown!!
- Dad – re-connecting with my family through shared interests and activities
It’s a strange feeling but whenever I’m doing fun stuff I just have this sense or feeling that the real me is back. I’m back in the boat, I’m back in the mountains, I’m back with my family, I’m back trying new things.
It just seems that I’ve got my life back in so many ways and with a few adventures thrown in. You can read about the fun stuff here.
My Fun Stuff was quite tame to start with
Well it’s fair to say my activities and my idea of fun stuff have evolved over the last five or six years. Things were definitely a bit tame to start with and it took a while to progress to more adventurous activities like RatRace. But…
…these days I definitely include RatRace in my Fun List.
Held in May until the final event in 2022, RatRace wound it’s way for 20 miles or so around the grounds of Burleigh House, with water sections, hills, plenty of mud and 200 obstacles along the way including the 7m Water Jump, my favourite!
Yee Haa, RatRace 2019 – 20 miles of running, wading, swimming, climbing and of course jumping. What’s not to love about all that?
Unfortunately RatRace had to be cancelled in 2020 and again in 2021 due to the Covid situation. It was held again in 2022, but sadly that was the last RatRace at Burleigh House.
The organisers have expanded their horizons and things move on. I was checking out a couple of their mountain marathons but have decided to go for their Man v Coast Run around the cliffs and moors of Cornawall. Everything is set for the first weekend of July 2024.
Age Group Racing or Half Marathons?
Going back to the Obstacle Course Running thing. I was so looking forward to one event in 2020 that I was going to step up and try racing my age group. The event was canned but I think I may have the racing bug again.
With so many events cancelled through 2020/21 and even early 2022 I started setting my own “Hilly Cros-Country Half Marathon Courses”. I’ve enjoyed them so much I have entered a couple for this year and am looking for other events that mix things up a bit.
And I’ll be joined by a couple of my kids. It seems that we do even more stuff together than I could have dreamed of just a few years back when I set out on my journey back to fitness and health. Life is good!
Striving for a new balance in my life
There are times when all this is easy and fun and other times when I I can still lose my way again as work and other life pressures gets in the way. But the benefits constantly outweigh any extra time or effort and now being pro-active about my Health & Diet is just my new normal.
Over the last few years I have developed a little protocol that helps me do “Just Enough Training”. This simple protocol means that I train to live rather than living to train.
It helps me maintain the balance between life, family, work, training and getting out to do the fun stuff. I’ll be writing a little booklet on this very soon, so check back here if you’re interested.