I accomplished my goal of completing my first 10K, but not without the constant encouragement from my fellow friends and runners. Thank you all!

I enjoyed the cool night air, saw airplanes fly over our heads in the night sky, and prayed and thanked God throughout my whole walk/run. Though a shoulder and hip ache threatened to bring me down when I hit the 7km mark, I looked up towards the distant lights, enjoyed the presence of fellow lady runners and soldiered on.

Near to the Finish line, I pushed myself to run faster, and heard the shouts and cheers of the volunteers, then saw and heard cheers from Matt, then Graham, and got a pleasant surprise seeing my parents at the sidelines. Mum got so excited, she wanted me to stop for pictures!

Am definitely encouraged to run more than ever now. 

WE DID IT! Hazel, Team Choo Power (Matt, Daniel, Graham, Jon), Timo, Sherman, Tian En, Joel Quek, Wei Loong, Bird. WE ALL DID IT!

Collected my sundown marathon race pack, which includes some freebies and my women’s 10k top and tag! Was encouraged to see other ladies also collecting their packs :)

A week away to the big race. Running with fellow brothers and sisters is definitely a big encouragement. Jia you!

Need to recover and rest from my current flu bug first. Sigh, got it again from the kids. But I’m excited to continue training in the next few days with rests, proper healthy meals, and lots of fluids.

Run, run, running at sundown :)

I’m in the midst of compiling portfolios for each of my kids for Term 2, and I spent almost the entire day today doing so. Was very reluctant to, as I hardly get an official monday off work, but I got through it. Yay!

I slept in, had a late brunch with my parents to start me off, and a good tea time break with Dad in between the compilation, so it’s true that food does help you work better! At least for me it does, gives me much needed energy :)

What’s in a portfolio you might ask:

- 3 photos and captions of what each child has been doing in class for a term.

- Observation summary reports for each child

- 2 areas of child developmental domains, also for each child

Due wed, the portfolio has to be vetted first by my boss. Then typed, printed and filed up. So this is only the beginning.

Trying to think of phrases to describe kids is tough, even if your command of the language is good. Too general, and you get questions.

“What do you mean he’s cheerful?”

“So he can read, but how many words?”

That kind of thing. Do it for four school terms every year of your teaching career, and well, you might as well write a book on children. LOL.

As much as I dread each term when it comes to writing reports, thinking of each child and how they’re progressing, with their own individual personalities and habits, is interesting and amusing. I’ve come to a deeper realisation how different they are, in speech, thinking etc. And how important a figure I have to be to them.

A day away, and I miss having conversations with them. Well, in a few hours, I’ll get to hear them again.

Little lives, little people, little minds to inspire.