About Bo

Dog lover. Runner. Although very slowly. Keeping up with the stresses of running and life...

Taking my slippers off

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Bo

To say that I am feeling miserable is putting it lightly. I’m in a dip, a low point…

I woke up on Sunday morning to the tweets of fellow runners who had just completed the Pirates 10km running race. I remember the race from last year when a great running tweetup had been organised. This year, I lay in bed sleeping, feeling sorry for myself. Worse is that I had promised a fellow tweep that I’d run with her and seeing her joy as she finished her first 10km race really made me feel crap.

The fact is that I haven’t run for ages. My last race was the RAC 10km in June. Firstly, I’m not the biggest winter runner. I hate getting cold. (My ears ache). Secondly, like most people, I was hit with flu which set my training, both running and gym, back for a couple of weeks. Thirdly, I hate my body at the moment. I’m overweight and I feel heavy, irritated and downright miserable.

It’s a vicious cycle. The less I run, the worse I feel. If I don’t get to gym, I feel guilty (and then I eat). It’s a bad place to be. So, Monday is always a good time to make a change, which I did. I got to gym lekker early and decided to do a ‘light’ run before the spinning class started.

To my surprise I managed to run 2kms around the running track without stopping. I was hot, drenched in sweat, aching, out of breath. OMG! It felt fantastic!

Yeah, so it’s only 2kms. But it’s exactly what I needed to do! It’s as if I needed to flick that switch in my head.

I may not be the best runner in the world. I know that I don’t run very far compared to most other runners. I know for a fact that I may even be the slowest runner I know. But I’ve come to realise that running makes me feel good. It makes me feel fit. It makes my body work and my mind work even harder. And that’s what matters.

In life, if you find something that motivates you, pushes you and makes you get off that couch and work towards a goal, don’t ever stop. It doesn’t have to be running. Just as long as it’s a passion that lifts you out of that dip and keeps you going.

Three photos which made my week

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Bo

It’s been another tough week for the people in my life and in particular for those that surround me at work. Another week of watching them “live” a life where stress is the norm. In amidst the pressures of work, the rushing around, the meetings, the reports, three photos lifted my mood this week. Three photos that made me forget about everything going on. Three photos which made me stop and think differently about my day.

This photo was taken by @HayleyM_ (http://www.everything-inbetween.net/). She has the amazing ability to see the beauty in all things. The moon looked absolutely stunning this week. While some of my colleagues are hanging on by a thread while they struggle with stress, both at work and at home, I wish they knew that just like the constant moon which rises, comfort will come and that people around them do care.I love whales. They are magnificent creatures! So when I picked up on a tweet in the week pointing to this awesome photo taken by African Dive Adventures during the Sardine Run, I could not stop staring at it. It’s mesmerizing. This whale spoke to me too. As I stared into its eye, I realised that even though I have lost steam on a specific project, I need to push through because it might make a difference to someone’s day. Sometimes, it’s not only the big things that matter, but the little things too.

I learnt something about myself this week. I learnt that it’s okay to be proud of myself and to speak highly of my successes. I need to stop allowing others to steal my thunder. This last photo belongs to @sikspens, one of the first people I followed on Twitter. Her bio includes the words ‘happy snapper’ but as you can see, her photo is far from it! If I close my eyes, I can feel the sand in between my toes after looking at this photo. She tells me this is one of her best photos. I agree! It’s one of many that she proudly shares on Twitter and which I wanted to share with you.

Happy Weekend to all my friends and readers of my blog! Make it count!

Living in a world of darkness

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Bo

I remember when I was a little girl and we used to play this game, “would you rather be blind or deaf.” I think at that young age, I had no idea what I was talking about, it was just something we used to think about at school. But turn the clock forward 30 years and I got the opportunity to visit the Dialogue in the Dark exhibition at Sci-Bono in Newtown which put things into perspective for me and enabled me to give it some serious thought.

In a nutshell, the visitors are led by visually impaired guides through a series of specially constructed and totally darkened galleries, where sound, temperature, wind and texture in the completely dark environment allows one to learn to interact by relying on other senses.

Sounds easy, right? Wow! Nothing prepared me for the experience. In the first few minutes of entering the exhibition, my whole body screamed inside and I wanted out! I was frightened. I panicked. Nothing prepared me for the experience. I was quite surprised how I was forced to rely on my other senses. It was completely dark. Even with my eyes wide open, I could see nothing. Nothing…

It’s an experience I cannot describe. It’s an experience that only once you’ve been through the exhibition, can you really understand what it must be like to be blind. It was an eye-opener (eish!) to see (yikes!) what blind people live with every day of their lives and how we take the smallest things, such as a walk through a park and buying a drink at a bar, for granted. Try doing that as a blind person.

The experience was so humbling too and I have a renewed appreciation for my sight. I learnt something about myself. Being forced into a situation such as that, I realized how quickly and easy it was to rely and trust others, something I don’t typically do. But being blind, you have no choice. I also found a sense of comfort in holding on to someone and constantly hearing their voice – Completely opposite to how I cope.

In future, I’ll think twice when seeing a blind person because their lives are a lot more challenging than what we realise. They’re also a lot stronger and braver than I am. That’s for flippin’ sure!

Running through my week…

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Bo

1. Needing a new left rear tyre due to a puncture. 2. Returning 2 days later and replacing the right rear tyre as well due to puncture. *ouch* 3. Healthy lunch at my desk. 4. The birds manage to finish everything in this feeder in one day. 5. Annie dozing on the floor in front of TV. 6. Sunset from the staff parkade. 7. Cup of tea. #bliss. 8. Catching the Gautrain to work. 9. Gautrain buses – Magic!