š Can we make it two premierships in a row?
The Bulls take a crack at another premiership, things falling into place at work and an update on Alfred and Running Rare
Hockey
Tomorrow is the Grand Final of my local ice hockey league. My team, the Bulls, are seeking to claim a back-to-back premiereship. Our spot in the Grand Final was all but secure a week ago. With one game left of the regular season we found ourselves in a do-or-die situation, requiring a win over third place Rebels to progress into the post season. With a full team at the helm, not a common occurrence for the Bulls, we managed to hold our nerve and secure a 7-1 victory. This cemented our ticket into the Semi-Final played last night against the second placed team, the Jokers. In a tightly contested game, not reflected in the 7-4 scoreline, we have edged ourselves closer to lifting the league cup again. The Grand Final will showcase a repeat of last yearās match up against minor-premiers the Blades.
On a personal front, this season has been quite similar to last season as Iāve struggled to make consistent appearances, managing to only play 8 out of our 20 regular season games due to numerous bouts of illness and Stillās fatigue flares.
Being unable to build up a baseline of fitness over the season, and more generally being unable to commit to things consistently due to illness, has been increasingly discouraging. This winter was not short of setbacks and struggles and I am glad that winter is officially over. With the weather starting to warm up again, and the days slowly becoming longer I feel a renewed optimism that has eluded me for several months. I know that during the game tomorrow I will likely not be able to play as well as I might like, but I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of a team. After my diagnosis I never thought I would play hockey again, so to be present and to play in another grand final, even at a local level, is a memory to treasure and a milestone to celebrate.
Work
At the studio, a lot of the things that the team and I have been working towards for over two years are finally beginning to fall into place. We have had an uphill battle as weāve sought to redefine, rebuild and transform our team. But despite the challenges, the team have continually persisted. I am tremendously proud of our efforts and the team culture and practice that has developed. I am excited for what the next chapter of digital at Swell will hold as we put into practice all that we have learnt and developed.
Alfred
For the past year or so, I have been working with
on Alfred ā an app designed to help people track their energy balance more easily. Although Alfred first started to help people manage their weight, I became involved in Alfred because I know just how precious energy is; having lived with chronic fatigue for most of my adult life.When youāre time poor or lacking energy you need simplicity. With Alfred, I can outsource the calorie estimation of my food to a team of dieticians and track my energy expenditure in just a few minutes each day. With a daily energy āfuel tankā bar, I can ensure that I am fuelling my body sufficiently. To be involved in the development of Alfred has been tremendously rewarding. We have made significant progress this year, and I am hopeful with the improvements we have made we can continue to make a positive difference in peoplesā lives. You can learn more about Alfred here and stay posted for more updates!
Running Rare
Things have been a little quieter on the official Running Rare front due to illness, fatigue and just managing life ā but Iām still continuing to be involved in the Rare Voices Australia Ambassador program. This provided me with the opportunity to take part in a Rare Disease Mental Health research study last month and to share my story in an upcoming RVA communication piece.
The Snow Foundation
I am also grateful for the invitation extended to me by Matt Breen (Snow Foundation Partnership Manager, Running for Resilience founder and all-round legend) last month to take part as a panel speaker for a Snow Foundation marketing seminar held for local charities and not-for-profits. You can watch the seminar in full in the video below.
Running Rare Health Fund
Earlier in the year I shared that I had partnered with Hands Across Canberra to setup a Running Rare Health fund to support rare disease charities in Canberra. I havenāt managed to put sufficient time into raising enough awareness of this fund as I would have liked, but I hope that I can start building up some momentum again around this very soon. You can learn more about Hands Across Canberra on their website: handsacrosscanberra.org.au and a link to the Running Rare Health Fund donation page can be found here.
Find a Run
Finally, with the help of some foundational code written by Andy M, a great friend and colleague, I built a beta community run directory for Running for Resilience over a period of two weekends.
https://findarun.community/canberra-community-runs/
I hope this will be a helpful resource for people in Canberra to find a local community run near them. I have aspirations to scale this up to more locations one day. But until then, if you know of any free community exercise programs in Canberra please fill-out this form.
I am so thankful to be a part of the Writing 4 Resilience team. Weāre a community of writers, runners and humans who are striving to build resilience in our local community with the goal of making Canberra suicide free by 2033.
Oh I wish I knew about last nights game, I would have come š.
What time is your final tomorrow?
I hope it goes well Tim. It's amazing that you've managed to play 8 games of ice hockey. I love that you got back there but I love even more than you listen to your body when it's telling you it needs rest. It's a very important skill and one that may just keep you playing the game you love well into the future š.
Have very much enjoyed our last few walks and talks at R4R.
Itās all happening!! Go well tonight mate!