The Gallery : Birth

This is the first time I've entered 'The Gallery' and I'm quite excited and a little nervous!

Naturally when I saw that the theme for this week was Birth I automatically thought of the births of both of my children, I will probably get around to telling you all about them but for now they are stories for another day!

This story is about me. The birth, or should I say re-birth of.. me!

I've had an interesting year really. I knew exactly this time last year that my marriage was falling apart and I pretty much gave up. In November we decided to live separately and for the first few months I was a wreck. I'm almost embarrassed to think about the mess I was in, but in February something clicked and I decided enough is enough.

In February it was the 15th anniversary of my Mums death, she was 49. All this wallowing and self-pitying I was doing was wasting a life that I had, my two beautiful children were seeing the very worst of me, and during the few days that month when I don't want to see the world, it was like she visited and gave me one of those looks - just like she did when I was in trouble! And something in me woke up.

Instead of feeling sorry for myself it was time to make changes. So I did!

I made a list of things I AM going to do, and the first was a marathon. Every year my lovely mum would sit there and watch all the runners finishing the London Marathon and promise that one day she would do it. Well she never got around to it, and I promised that that wouldn't be the same for me.

So I convinced a friend that although I wasn't ready for running one, I could probably walk one and with that we signed up for the Shine Marathon in Manchester raising money for Cancer Research. Training was so much fun. I lost three stone and I was feeling like the person I was 15 years ago, O & L had the mum they deserved and I literally haven't been happier. I trained every week, meaning that my husband had the children more and as time went past we got to know each other again.

When the weekend of the marathon came, we were back to dating and falling in love again. It was amazing, and when I crossed that finish line, in more pain than I have ever been in, the only person I wanted to see and speak to was him.

So my photo this week is of my medal. Its not a great photo, but it means the world to me! It reminds me of how far I have come, how far we have come and it reminds me of my amazing achievement. Not only that but I raised over £334 for Cancer Research!

When I finished that marathon I was the person I had always wanted to be, and I haven't looked back!