Discovery Award Bronze

I shared some achievements with you all last year and I was challenging myself quite hard for a reason - I was trying to work towards my Discovery Bronze Award.  The Discovery Award is essentially Duke of Edinburgh for old people.

It is divided into 4 Quadrants :

Service in the community  (for 24 hours over at least 3 months) - as a Guider clocking up Community Service hours is never going to be hard and especially in the year of Charnmud!

A Hobby/Interest of at least 50 hours over a minimum of 6 months.  I trained for, and finished, my first Half Marathon.  Over the year I ran 500 miles in training and races.  I don't find it easy and a lot of the time it is a huge mental effort to get out of the door.  Race day nerves nearly broke me and I pulled out of (didn't turn up for) 3 races in the Autumn because of my nerves.  But I did the half and I did the hours and I did the miles.

A recreational pursuit of at least 24 hours over a minimum of 3 months: I went walking - lots of it - with a club, on my own and taking friends on walks I led.

The Journey of Discovery over at least 2 days and should involve at least 12 hours of planned activity. I went to Scotland and walked up BenNevis (and then fell down it!)

It was a trip full of new adventures that I found mentally and physically very taxing.  This award pushed me to do it and I loved it, even in pain.

So here we are, I have an award and I'm especially proud of it.

I'm having a think now about doing Silver.  If I do I'm likely to want to use Running and Walking again but they are going to have to come with extra challenges to push them that bit further and push me that bit harder.

But for now, I set out to achieve something and I did it. 


It Counts!