This Girl Can: Jackie's Story to falling in love with Basketball

Hi! 

My name is Jackie and I have the great privilege of writing a guest blog post for Melissa about my favourite sport – BASKETBALL!

I thought that it was such a shock that Melissa asked me because she wants ‘Women in Sport’, I thought she had a made a mistake! I was NEVER one of the sporty girls at school, frequently being on the ‘D’, ‘E’ or even ‘F’ team at school, preferring volunteering to games lessons and even winning a wooden spoon for being the worst at badminton! 

Jackie's women basketball team at university.

However, when I got to university, I thought that nobody knows how rubbish I am at sport, basketball is something I have always wanted to try and it was only about two minutes away from my halls. They advertised it as ‘something anybody of any ability can try’, no need to try out and best of all? It was free. So I thought, why not have a go? 

Much to my delight, basketball was very fun and easy to grasp; the other women were also extremely kind, supportive and welcoming and it was great for both my mental and physical health. Not only was I exercising regularly and becoming fitter, but it also gave me an opportunity to make new friends across subjects and years. It even managed to get me out of my room – something that I always tried to avoid doing at university. 

This Girl Can Social Basketball - Leazes Park

Three years later I moved back to Newcastle and I am now raring to join another club – a big city with two universities and a great city team – how hard could it be?

However, I couldn’t find any that were suitable – either you had to try out (be a certain ability to make the team), or they were too expensive, at the wrong times, exclusive to certain age groups, difficult to get to, just a series of irritating barriers that prevented me from playing.

I knew some people in Newcastle who played basketball and I would sometimes meet up with them to play at a local park but our busy lives often mean these opportunities are few and far between.

When playing on my own at a local court I thought that there might be women around Newcastle who might feel the same as me; who wanted to try a new sport but couldn’t due to some obstacle or that they used to play but couldn’t find an opportunity to do so.

This Girl Can Social Basketball - Leazes Park

I was nominated as a This Girl Can Ambassador through some volunteering for Streetgames and Factory Dance Academy. I had just taken part TGC activities previously, but I thought –why not do something about this?

With the TGC Play Basketball Club I hope to create a fun and social atmosphere where girls and women of any age and ability can come and make new friends, and learn something new or even share tips with each other. It’s free, with no gear or experience needed and easily accessible in the middle of Newcastle City Centre. 

I know that basketball isn’t for everyone but I really recommend you do some sport or exercise, even just 30 minutes a week or walking/cycling/running/jogging/table tennis or football. There are some wonderful local parks with great facilities you can use for free. Bring a friend, get some fresh air, take in the view, get the heart pumping a bit – it’s good for you mentally and physically.

This Girl Can Social Basketball - Leazes Park

Hope this has interested you and if you want to play some basketball - male or female – let me know. Hope to see you at Leazes Park Basketball Court soon!

This Girl Can Play Basketball Club meets every Saturday from 3-4pm at Leazes Park Basketball Court. Just wear some comfortable clothes, bring some water and get ready to have some fun! For more information please join the This Girl Can Play BASKETBALL group on Facebook (here). 

If your interested in trying out basketball, Don't be afraid to join the Facebook page or if you fancy trying out something different why not check out the Active Newcastle Facebook page to see what other This Girl Can activities are happening in Newcastle. If you would like to see other women's only activities happening across Newcastle you can check out Active Newcastle's Website for tones of other activities happening in Newcastle.  

10 good things that happened in 2016

2016 was a bit of a rubbish year, many celebrities died, we had the whole Brexit problem (it's ok I'm moving north if Scotland goes independent) and I feel like sometimes I live in a society that isn't understanding of others. There is hope for 2017 I think but I thought I would start 2017 with a post about 10 good things that happened to me in 2016. This is a carry on from my 18 things I've learned in 2016 post if you haven't read that one you should. Here are 10 good things that happened in 2016:

1. I helped organise the first This Girl Can award evening in Newcastle. 

I was really lucky and got asked to help organise Newcastle's first This Girl Can award evening after being an ambassador for over a year I couldn't have been more excited to help. It was a great event with over 200 women all there to support each other for the work they had done in their community.

2. I got my first real job.

When I say real job I mean a job that is related to my degree. In April I became Newcastle's Ping Activity Officer, my job involves me looking after table tennis across Newcastle and developing a free program across the city. I love it, I've had my moments with it but I think I've found my feet and can't wait to start 2017 program. 

Me and my colleagues at the launch of Ping in Newcastle

3. I passed my driving test the first time and I got my first car.

This was a big step for me in June I passed my driving test and got my first ever car. Driving for me was more of a necessity than a pleasure. I have a love/hate relationship with cars I'm on to my second car after my first one decided to break 2 weeks after buying it and as I'm writing this my second car is in the garage after breaking down. Who knows I might have a better year when it comes to cars in 2017 but I do like driving and I'm glad I've done it now. 

4. I got lots of amazing blogging opportunities.

I was a lucky girl this year with the number of opportunities I got through blogging. I was able to go to the Mineral House at the Crowne Plaza to do a review of the spa. I've been to a number of ElleFluence event that the lovely Laura runs for Northeast blogger and who I must say is an amazing lady. I've been sent amazing products to try out including some Adidas products from Blacks and even got to trail out anytime fitness in Gateshead.

5. I tried out 2 new fitness classes.

This year I got to try out 2 very different types of fitness classes. The first one was a trampette fitness class that was run by the lovely Nicki at Great Park Community Centre and the other was the Extreme Air class at Newcastle's new Trampoline centre. 

6.  I started going to church.

2016 was about learning and this year I learned that I needed to do things for myself. For around a year, i had been thinking about going to church but I didn't go because I felt that people around me would think differently of me. In August I watched one of Louise's (Sprinkle of Glitter) video about religion and how she had taken the step towards becoming a Christian. I think that was what helped me take the leap and about a month later I took my first step into the church and Christianity, I went to a 4:30 pm service and I never turned back. I've started to find what I was looking for and I think its helped to make me a better person. I even finished a 7-week course called Christianity explored which was a massive help for me, I'm excited to see what my next step is. 

7. I ran my first 10K 

One of the many opportunities, I got this year included the chance to run the Mo run. I talked all year about how I wanted to run at least one 10k this year and I did. You can ready about it here.

8. I went on my first ever winter holiday to Poland.

This was 1 of the main highlights this year. I had never been on a holiday abroad in Winter and I was really excited when my sister agrees to go to Wroclaw with me. It was amazing, I'm in the middle of putting a photo diary together so keep an eye out for that in 2017.

9. I ran my fastest 5K with a personal best of 27.57

The 10th December just before Christmas I ran my fastest ever 5k at Newcastle's Parkrun. I was going for around a 30 minutes finish after not being able to get below that. I somehow was able to not be far behind the 28 minutes pacer and absolutely trashed my last personal best by a whole 2 minutes. I felt that this was one of my biggest achievements this year.

10. I met Mr. M. 

If you've read my 18 things I've learned in 2016 you will know that I was very lucky and met Mr. M. I'm not going to go into loads of details about him because I want to try and keep some things private, that might chance later on but for now I like our little private bubble. What I will say tho is that meeting him was definitely one of the highlights in 2016. We already have quite a few plans for 2017 which I'm definitely looking forward to. 

It's strange because I thought I would find it really hard to write this post hard as I thought that actually not much good had happened to me in 2016 but it shows that even the littlest of things can make you happy. 

My Running Story: The Great North Run

Have you ever signed up for something and dreaded it straight after? Well that was me last year, when I signed up to do the Great North Run and had never ran more than 1 mile in my life. CRAZY - I know. For some reason, I had always hated running as a form of exercise and was more of  a sport game person or just going to the gym kid of girl. I needed a new challenge in my life and running was the new challenge for me in 2015.

When I signed up I think my first thought was that I needed to get out there and build up my miles. I think these thoughts go through everyone's mind when they sign up for something totally out of their comfort zone like the Great North Run. Here is a little story of my journey to the Great North Run. 

January 2015 – RUNNING ALONE

When I signed up for the Great North Run I decided to start the couch the 5k which meant that in 10 weeks I would be able to run 3 miles which is a small amount of miles compared to the actually 13.1 you have to do on the day. I think for the first 6/7 weeks I was really motivated to go out running and felt a real change in my body. I really enjoyed running by myself listening to music really helped to de-stress as work was getting hard. I felt more comfortable being able to run the small distance I couldn't run in January. I kept running at least twice a week but wasn't really getting much further than 2/3 miles. In March, which was when my job started getting a bit more crazy with working 2 job meaning a lot of early morning and a lot of late nights. That was when I lost my motivation trying to get out of bed early was not happening and going for run at 9 pm after a long day at work wasn’t happening either. I started to not enjoying going for runs even tho afterwards I would feel great I just didn't have the motivation to push myself any more.

June 2015 – WHAT TO DO NEXT?

In between trying to go out and run which was only happening about once a week or once in maybe 2 week and there wasn't long until the Great North Run. I wasn't getting that far with miles I was still only at about 4 miles which is nowhere near enough if I wanted to get a good personal best. As I work as an activity instructor for Active Newcastle one of my colleagues kept asking if I wanted to help out at the social running groups she was running through Active Newcastle. I said no for a long time as I thought I couldn't run far enough after some time I decided to go along and help out, I joined the beginners running club on a Monday evening that started in the centre of Newcastle, they had just finished the 10 week running program so they were able to run around 3 miles comfortably.

June/July 2015 – JOINING A SOCIAL RUNNING GROUP

In July 2015, I decided to go along to one of Active Newcastle running groups which are aren’t like your normal running groups, which you learn straight away and which is why I most likely go back every week. When I started there was around 15 to 20 women in the group and  these women are all about making improvements to there fitness and running technique but it is also about able to come along to a group and being able to have a chat while having a run. I personally found that this group started to build my motivation for running again and made me want to get out again. I was still only running around the 4 mile mark but my pace has increased and I didn’t have to stop so I knew that I could go further if I wanted to. At this point there was around 12 weeks til the Great North Run. I was really pushing myself in the running group sessions but I was only going to 1 session a week which to me wasn’t enough so I decided to go along to the Tuesday night session which I knew did an extra mile on top so I knew I would be hitting around the 4.5/5 mile mark. I loved every moment of being part of the group as I loved the social side and having women around me that all enjoyed being out in all weathers. There was just one issue, I wasn't getting enough miles in.

August 2015 – UPPING UP MY GAME!

With only around 6 weeks til the run, I had to up my running game this is when I tried to do runs by myself as well as running with the group. Running by myself was the runs where I had to put the miles in. I will say I never ran more than 7 miles before I ran the Great North Run, I had been told that being able to run 9 miles comfortable would be enough to get me through the race. I ran 7 miles maybe around 3 or 4 times before the race which I could run comfortable.  I knew that I would definitely be able to run around 9 miles fine. My cardio was at the best it could before racing and I was still doing the shorter runs on a Monday night.

September 2015 – RACE MONTH/DAY

September came racing around (see what I done there) and next thing I knew it was the day of the run. I loved every moment of the Great North Run. I ran the first 9 miles comfortable with only a few stops here and there mainly for toilet breaks or to get water. 10 mile was where I had problems, at around mile 8 my hip started to get a pain but I pushed through as you do to reach the end but by mile 10 I was having the same pain in my knee which by mile 11 had travelled down to my ankle. I jogged and walked the best I could til the end part. Let me tell you that last 800m is horrible and people tell you that beforehand but oh my it was hard but I made it all the way to the end. I and my sister ran the race in 2 hours 50 minutes and I will say it was one of the proudest moments of 2015. There is things you get told when you tell people you’ve signed up for the Great North Run, one is that the atmosphere from the side lines will pull you through. There is not one point of that run where you won’t see crowds of people cheering you on, passing you sweets (it’s a good job I liked jelly babies)  and entrainment the whole away long.  

I’ve made this blog post to show that anyone can run the Great North Run if they put their mind to it. The GNR raises millions for charities every year. If your thinking of trying to get a place for this year your best bet is with a charity as all ballot places have been taken. I ran for the Guide Dogs last year and my sister ran for Mind. 

I don't really know what I wanted you to get from this post but thought it was something I needed to tell as this years GNR is not that far away.

Are you signed up for the GNR or maybe just a 5k? Why not tell me about it or if you have some advice incase I decide to do a different half marathon in the future.