Second Chance Summer

Last week, having been signed off placement early, I was free as a bird to enjoy the unusually warm weather.

It felt like a second chance to do lots of things I somehow hadn’t got round to doing in the summer, like cycling home to Rutland, and going wild swimming in the Peaks.  Having unexpected opportunities when I had been preparing myself for shortening days and cold nights makes these things sweeter and more special –I berate myself for not grabbing the first opportunity I have to do them, but then somehow it wouldn’t quite feel the same and I wish I could adopt the ‘second chance’ mindset even when I take the first opportunity.

A far more extreme version of this has become apparent to me this week whilst researching spinal cord injury for an essay I’m supposed to be writing. Melanie Reid, a journalist for the Times, has been blogging her rehab after becoming tetraplegic after a riding accident. Her portrayal of agonising loss of mundane things most of us never pause to think about has made me think very hard, and I can’t help but feel if she were to regain nerve function she would savour these things much more than you or I ever will. So today I very purposefully delighted in the feeling of wet grass under my bare feet in the garden, picking raspberries for breakfast, making biscotti, cycling to the market and even putting the washing out. It has changed my attitude to my race on Sunday from apprehension to excitement – so I may not perform my best on no training, but I can run! And it feels wonderful! I want to bottle this feeling of gratitude and awareness, but I know that all too quickly it’ll fade and I’ll forget that not everyone is able to enjoy these lovely things that so many of us don’t realise we are blessed with.

Sunday is a half-marathon and part of my lack of excitement was to do with its complete lack of the two best bits of triathlon. Secondly, I know it’s going to hurt, and one half of me is standing by my calculated decision not to smash it but run comfortably, the other half of me is irritatingly competitive and doesn’t really understand the meaning of this. The thing I’m most excited about is my sister running her first half (I’ll have her into tri soon, and she won’t look back!) and she even has a bottle of NouriSH waiting with my parents at the finish – so she’ll still be able to bounce around the classroom on Monday morning teaching algebra to year 10s. Or at least not hobble.