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What a year 2017 has been, the best yet, so many memories made and lots of achievements. Let me get straight into it as I feel it will be a long post. 1. Bexhill XC January 2017 Believe it or not this was my first XC I have ever done (apart from ones at school which aren’t particularly competitive). I have to say that it is weird that... I only did my first XC this year and since then I have done so many, improved a lot and found a new love!
Looking back at it now, I loved that race. Apart from being proud of my performance, I feel as though it revealed new boundaries to break and new goals. I remember the day so well but I won’t go into that otherwise this blog post will be ridiculously long. 2. Loughbourgh XC After only two months of doing XCs I was asked to compete at the British Athletics inter-counties race in Loughbourgh with Alice. This was another ‘milestone in my journey’ as I had never competed with such high competition nor at such a high level. I actually managed to come 109th out of 285. I really enjoyed the day and it was a building block for this season! 3. GCSEs Wow, I think this is probably the biggest achievement of the year as I had been working towards these since 2014/2015 and I had finally finished them. As most of you know I damaged my knee during this period and I was unable to run, which meant I got quite stressed at times because running is the best ‘de-stresser’, I thought this would have an impact on my exams but it didn’t at all and on results day I was over the moon with my results! With over 20 exams to do in 1 month, it meant a lot of revision, which meant a lot of time spent in my room with lots of books, notes, flashcards, posters – you name it, I had it. On the 16th of June, we had our final exams – PHYSICS! The amount of relief everyone felt after that exam was huge. I couldn’t get my head round the fact that we had done our GCSEs. To celebrate we all went to Goodwood three Friday nights (SIGMA) which was definitely a night to remember. The same weekend we also had a party on the beach which was also a lot of fun! I am now studying Biology, Chemistry and Maths A-level, hoping to study medicine at university. 4. Prom 23rd June I have to say I really wasn’t that fussed about prom at first; getting a dress etc- really not my thing. However I actually loved the night and had so much fun. We came as a group on Alice’s tractor which we decorated that week, it was a bit embarrassing because as we got off there were lots and lots of people clapping and taking pictures; though everyone did look gorgeous. 5. Cornwall with chummy Beth and I decided before GCSEs that we would do something to celebrate after and look forward to, we tossed around ideas and eventually came up with camping in Cornwall for a week – a place we both love! My dad had some time off work so came with us although we both did our own thing and then spent the evenings all together. It was a long and memorable drive to Polzeath not only because it is 5hours away but because the car was playing up- at one point we thought it was going to blow. We woke up on the first morning with the rain chucking down on the tent - great! We planned a smoothie and then a run for the first morning but it resulted in sheltering under a canopy and heating up baked beans and grilling toast. We then took shelter in the tent for a bit until the rain calmed down before we headed out for a run. (I was so glad that my knee had healed enough to run in Cornwall – I had to take it easy though) The weather improved massively over the week and we had some great runs, although most of the day we spent surfing. Beth had never been surfing before and within the first day of me teaching her, she got it (a skilled surfer you are Beth). Some amazing memories made that week; we are both totally ready to do it again. 6. Canada A once in a lifetime trip - my parents had been saving for years and we all knew we were going but I never realized how incredible the trip would be – I think you never know until you are there and it is reality. We spent a week in Ontario – visiting Niagara Falls, Algonquin and Toronto city. A week with my cousins at their cottage on the lake; partying, learning to water ski (which I loved a lot a lot) and celebrating my Uncle and Auntie’s 50ths , 25th wedding anniversary as well as my cousins 18th. We then flew to Calgary and this is where our road trip began. Travelling through The Rockies and British Columbia was amazing; the views were breath taking and made you felt lucky to be alive. (Of course I ran at every place we visited to explore which was often daunting as I had no idea where I was going). After a month in Canada it was time to leave and none of us were ready to go, by far the best and most memorable trip I have ever been on. 7. Great South Run I know I have already done a blog post on this so I won’t go into great detail but of course this had be a 2017 highlight. When I hurt my knee, one of my fears was that I wouldn’t be able to take part but luckily my knee healed (although sometimes I do get the occasional niggle) so I could. I am still a little gob-smacked at my PB – only because I was never expecting an 11minute PB – perhaps 2-4minutes maybe. I am pleased that Alice and I were 2nd and 1st overall in our age category! I also really enjoyed running it – yes the whole race – I loved every moment of it- the best part was the feeling when I crossed the line! 8. School Fashion show 2017 Although there was a bit of ‘kerfuffle’ leading up to it, the three performances were so much fun. I loved watching everyone else’s dances in their funky outfits as well as performing ours. Everyone had so much energy and a good boogie. 9. 3500km charity goal. Some of you may know that over the course of 2017 I have been running 3500km to raise money for The Rocking Horse charity: a Brighton based children’s charity that supports sick children in Sussex. At the end of November I attended a celebration in Brighton as a thank you and to hear about where the money raised goes. I smashed my goal of 3500km and have run a total of 4150km this year. I had a target of £1000 and at this moment in time I have raised £865.80 and am hoping that by tomorrow I can get to £1000. If you are able to help please visit the link below…. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/3500km-goal 10. Kean Bean Of course setting up my blog and Instagram has been a lot of fun and I've met so many lovely people through it. A lovely community. So what a year 2017 has been and I wish everyone the best 2018 so happy new year!!! Imogen xx
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