The last few months have seen a fair bit of change in my life.
I was playing around with the idea of moving away from Bath (having been there for nearly 6 years!), to new pastures up north. No I wasn’t thinking about Cheltenham, although that is north of Bath, but Leeds.
I had heard there was a good triathlon squad up in Leeds and felt as though this could be the next step of my journey. So, after a few months thinking and praying about it, and a couple of long day trips (to look at houses and training facilities) later, I decided to move!
The time seemed right and I was quite inspired by a quote I had read:
‘Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown’.
How awesome is that?!
I hadn’t been able to find a house as easily as I wanted (being 220 miles away makes it a bit difficult), until one basically fell into my lap on a visit up north. If you have faith in God, you tend to find He provides things when you need them, not when you want them!
This happened with me buying a car as well. And is now happening with me trying to find a job! Faith stretching - it’s a good place to be, although it doesn’t seem it at the time!
Anyway, I moved upto Leeds 4 weeks ago, and it’s even better than I expected! I swim with a masters swimming squad, who quite simply destroy me pretty much every session. Biking is unbelievable. The Yorkshire Dales are within a 30min ride, and then it’s just hills, hills and more hills in the middle of the countryside; amazing. I’m still exploring new run routes at the moment, but there seem to be stacks of off road trails.
All in all I’m very happy and in the place I’m meant to be.
However, there are a bunch of great guys/girls still in Bath trying to continue towards their own triathlon ambitions and goals. One of my former housemates and training partners Tom, qualified for the World 70.3 Elite Championships in Florida which took place a couple of days ago. Check out his latest blog here, to find out how things are going in Bath and how his race went. He’s originally a Yorkshire lad, and I think he should become one again soon!
This is usually the worse time of the season for me as the winter seems so long! But Christmas really isn’t too far away, so make the most of the rest of 2009 while it’s still here. It’ll be 2010 before we know it.
I shall be racing for Team Tri UK again next year, but if anyone would like to help support me financially for 2010, please get in touch via my sponsorship page.
Take care,
Hocks