It's been a long twelve months, with some massive highs and some massive lows (read breakdowns aplenty on the Isle of Wight) but I can honestly say this past 12 months has been some of the most rewarding of my life. Not only have friends and family helped me smash my fundraising target for the Alzheimers Society, but I've taken on some things I never thought I would be able to do and have learnt so much about myself. Upsettingly, I think my career as an Olympic distance runner is doomed as I'm still struggling through races towards the back of the pack, but running has created alot of joy and happiness over the last year and is something I'm really glad I started.  It seemed apt, therefore, to finish this Challenge Twelve with a last 5km with some giant inflatable obstacles added in along the way to make it even more fun. The best thing also happened at this event for two reasons.

I love swimming. When I swim I get that feeling that people who love running talk about all the time, that feeling of freedom and ease and more importantly enjoyment! The only part I don't love so much is following that black line up and down followed by the sudden confusion after drifting off in thought as to whether this is lap 64 or 66... did you already swim lap 65 or was that your next lap?!? Open water swimming solves all that. 

I'd never actually swum open water until this event, having been away with work for 6 weeks in the summer in a location where swimming open water would have probably resulted in a visit to the doctor, but for once I wasn't nervous at the beginning of a challenge. I feel at home in the water, able to submerge into my own little bubble and swim my own race, without worrying I'm going to be the last person out there (in hindsight, after 10 challenges and this not being the case once I think i probably need to get over this!). The biggest concern was whether to wear my wetsuit or not. Having just spent a small fortune on a brand new open water wetsuit and feeling like chrismas had come early when it arrived I felt that I should, but it was uncharitalistically warm and the water temperature allowed swimmers to enter not wearing one. I watched a few waves exit the water and decided more people were wearing wetsuits than not, and if I didn't wear it I was required to spend money on a tow float to be allowed to swim... decision made, wetsuit was going on!

I've been wanting to run a half marathon for ages. I had grand plans to be a seasoned runner by now, but 6 months of injuries, crutches, and a 106km challenge less than 4 weeks ago has resulted in me not being in the best physical state. I had even umm'd and ahh'd about whether to pull out and find a new half marathon in a few months, but the good will of everyone who had donated money towards my challenges convinced me to run it. Last week I went on a do or die training run with the intention of running 15km alone. I knew if I could do that and not be in too much pain I could make it round the 21km in Edinburgh. I had come up with an even better plan of paying for Gareths entry fee last minute so he could run with me and help pace, but last minute turned out to be the downfall of that sneaky little plan as Edinburgh Marathon closed the entries...

The last few months haven't gone quite to plan... my ankle had been hurting for a while but the pain didnt stop me from doing anything so it had kind of become the norm. However, turns out all this running hasn't helped and as the pain got worse I found myself on crutches in December with a suspected stress fracture in my foot. Not one to be underterred, a few sessions of physio, a few sessions of accupuncture and a potential different diagnosis gave me belief that I could at least carry on with ChallengeTwelve as along as I was sensible and looked after my foot. The only solution if I was to continue and complete the ultra challenges later in the year was to do three smaller challenges over the winter that my foot could cope with to give it time to heel. Winter is the worst time to find a range of challenges and I was limited therefore to picking running (not great for unlaoding the ankle!) and therefore sticking to a short distance, hence the last 3 months have consisted of three 5km races. Not being able to load my ankle properly has resulted in frustrating training periods and a lack of progression in my running which has really frustrated me. However, my ankle has been getting stronger each week and I had a realisation the other day that I now class a 5km run as a short distance. If thats not a success then I don't know what is!! 

Swimming the channel is an incredible feat. 22 miles of rough sea, shipping lanes and jellyfish separate the English coastline from the French coastline. Currents, wind, and speed of swimmer can all dramatically effect the route each swimmer takes, and realistically, few swimmers will swim 22 miles. Most will swim more, as currents push them away from their desired path and add on many extra hours to their swim. Only a small group of people get to call themselves a channel swimmer, and apparently more people have climbed Mount Everest than have swum the channel. 

I am really not a runner. I'm sporty, I like the outdoors, and therefore everyone thinks I should be a good runner. I'm not. Me and running go as well together as alcohol and text messaging. Ok, I used to be an alright sprinter, but the furthest I ever ran back then was 200m. Its that other 4.8km that kills me. ​