Reflections on the Great North Run

When I was at school, I hated running. I was not very good at it, and I felt that running hated me. Not that I hated exercise or wasn't sporty. I was. Sport being Cricket or Rugby, Squash of Golf or even sprinting (100m obviously, not 200m). Not running (anything over 100m!). Running meant enforced cross country running in the cold and wet. I was not a runner.

And so it was for most of my adult life. I was not a runner. I played squash, trained in the gym and rode my bike.

In 2015 I decided to stretch myself and take part in a triathlon ( a short one, but a triathlon none the less). My struggles with swimming not withstanding, it was the idea of running 5km that caused me the most stress.

"Couch to 5k" on my  phone to the rescue and after a few months I ran 5km without stopping. Hurray! Still not really a runner though. However triathlon box ticked (for now).

It should be noted at this point that I have a "list". This is a list of challenges that I decided some time ago needed to be completed. It contained amongst other things- a triathlon, 10k run, End to end on a bike and other non energetic pursuits. It is documented in a previous post).

Fast forwards 18  months and I have not run again, not even for the bus. So when my Park Gym group decided we should run the Worcester City 10k, I was all over it! Starting from scratch again I slowly (very slowly) building up distance to the seemingly impossible and mythical  10k. It seemed so far and for most of the time so unachievable. Of course it was achievable and the race was duly completed in a reasonable time and much celebration was had.

What next? Well not much really. Back to the gym mostly and definitely no running. I pretended to be interested in doing a half marathon, but my heart  was not in it. It seemed so far. Too far for a big non runner like me.

Then in March 2019, out of the blue, I received an email from Simply Health (Denplan) confirming my place in the Great North Run for September 8th 2019!!! It seems I had asked my Denplan rep if there was a spare place for me at some point in the middle of the night at the last Conference. I may not have been sober. Oops. I seem to recall that is exactly how I ended up cycling from John O'Groats to Lands End in 2014. I really must learn from this.

What else could I do, but say yes, and immediately put a post on Facebook announcing my intention to do this iconic race in 5 months time. Secretly knowing that I could and would pull out nearer the date. No problem.

Then the unthinkable. A client donated £30 to my just giving page! Within 10 minutes of it appearing! Not even my patient, but one of Karen's! That  was it, I was committed. Better think about training.

My mindset at that time was very negative- "I am not a runner", " I can always just walk it", but I am nothing if not stubborn and determined.

A chance meeting with Chris Barrow at the Dentistry Show completely changed my outlook. Totally changed it. Smashed my old mindset to pieces. In the space of a brief 5 minute conversation, my running negativity was flushed away and replaced. I was no longer "not a runner", I was and "inexperienced runner" with a plan.

Thank you Chris form the bottom of my heart. Your Jedi mind tricks worked wonders. Thank you to my business partner Karen Sutton too. She told me to slow down in training and concentrate on the distance, and also to listen to spoken word not music, which helped more than I imagined.

Whilst I am thanking people. I cant do any of these things without the love and support from Steve Timms.

The Plan-

• Target a run of 15.8km on 25 August, being 3/4 distance 2 weeks before race day.
• Extend my long run each weekend by 0.8 to 1 km from my staring point (5km) to the target.
• Get in 2 or 3 shorter runs throughout the week.

Easy

And it was. Sort of. Not easy so much, as achievable. For the last 6 weekends I have run further than I have ever run before. That's quite a feeling of achievement every weekend. Suddenly a half marathon became exciting, achievable straightforwards even.

So, I am writing this on the train to Newcastle. Excited about doing something that I have watched countless thousands of other proper runners do around the streets of my hometown. I will do it, I will complete it in a respectable time and I will enjoy it immensely.

As in life, it is all about mindset, determination to succeed and positivity. Just keep going.

I am a runner.

Until next time.

Dx

50 Things to do before my 51st birthday(20 June 2020)

As I am turning 50 this summer, I wanted to set myself some challenges and tasks to complete as part of my year of celebration. Some of them are easy, some are way out of my comfort zone. Some are off my bucket list, and lots will not be completed, but I am going to try to tick them all off before my 51st birthday next year. Watch this space......

1. Visit one of the Wonders of the World
2. Get a tattoo
3. Learn Italian 
4. Visit the Caribbean
5. Throw a party not at home
6. Go to my School Reunion
7. Go in a Hot Air Balloon
8. Reconnect with an old friend(s)
9. Run a Half marathon
10. Learn to swim properly for fitness
11. Pay anonymously for a strangers drinks in a cafe
12. Tell my family I love them
13. Bake a loaf of bread
14. Start writing a book
15. Volunteer at a homeless shelter
16. Ride in a helicopter
17. See Mark Knopfler in the Royal Albert Hall
18. Swim with Sharks
19. Take a photography class
20. Take a DNA Ancestry test 
21. Swim in a Cenote
22. Sleep under the stars
23. Eat Sushi
24. Complete an Olympic distance Triathlon
25. Go to a Dance Class
26. Complete a cycle Sportive
27. Learn to descend on a Road Bike
28. Send a message in a bottle
29. Put £5 in a library book in the library and watch who finds it
30. Visit Stonehenge
31. and Giants Causeway
32. Eat Fish and Chips on North Shields Fish Quay
33. Bake a cake
34. Shower in a waterfall
35. Sing Karaoke
36. Bench Press 100kg
37. Let go of grudges and forgive
38. See a Baseball game
39. Take a Cookery Class
40. Eat 10 things that I have never eaten before
41. Visit (or at least book to) Australia
42. See a West End or Broadway Show
43. Return to playing Squash
44. and Golf
45. Start to trace my Family tree
46. Take my parents to a Michelin Starred Restaurant
47. Run 3 mountains in a day
48. Start more advanced Orthodontic Training
49. Go Skinny Dipping
50. Sky Dive

Goals for 2016

2016 Goals

Family

• 2 week carefree summer holiday with kids and Steve
• Visit New Zealand at Christmas (at last)
• Reconnect with old friends Sue, Fi, Claire, Rick and Kate, Naomi, Nick and Marion
• Continue to spend quality time with kids
• Ensure Rory is given all the help he needs for GCSE

Relationships

• Life with Steve to grow and thrive
• Finish the house and..
• Move in together full time, though not necessarily in the same house
• Short break in Feb, and a week in the sun in May together
• Help support and encourage Steve on his new journey

Career

• Further ortho training
• Continue to Work towards a bigger and better future for Beacon under the Gensmile umbrella
• Work hard in my BACD role, to increase  the number and quality of full members
• Start Facial Aesthetics Journey
• Max my first full year as an associate

Money

• Not debt free but debt under control
• Make significant in roads into repaying Family
• Start to save properly
• Have a workable family household budget

Education

• Increase my Orthodontic and Implant Skills
• Start Facial Aesthetics training
• Reduce Golf Handicap to 20

Physical

• Weigh no more than 88kg on 31 December (currently 91.3)
• Complete a running challenge
• Complete Coast to Coast
• Organise and hope to participate in Kilimanjaro trip for Bridge 2 Aid
• Get my health problems sorted out once and for all or at least properly diagnosed
• Cycle more
• Have a more regular gym routine

Also

I shall be raising money for:

• Dental Mavericks
• Bridge 2 Aid
• Make a wish foundation
• St Richard's Hospice

Reflections of 2015

Since I have revisited my goals for the 2015 , I thought that I would reflect on the year a  bit more, as I think about my goals for 2016

These were my wins

• Long weekends in Paris and Sitges with Steve- both fantastic. I didn't even hate Paris completely. Sitges is a wonderful place for a holiday. It is a brilliant mix of young families and gays. No stag parties, no hordes of drunken teenagers and 18-30 holidays (is that showing my age?). Loads of lovely bars and restaurants and fantastic beaches (12 of them!)
• 10 days in Florida was amazing. A holiday of a lifetime with the kids. Exhausting though and not really relaxing but great. I am done with rollercoasters for a long while, and also done with overly large american breakfasts. 
• Selling Beacon DentalCare to Gensmile. It took a long time and the deal was close to collapse a few times, but we got it over the line eventually. I can't tell you how happy I am to be an associate, still working in the fab practice I helped to create. The future at Beacon is very bright.
• Divorce coming through finally. It might be a sad occasion for some, and indeed it was not a big high, but we have been seperated for 7 years and on good terms, so it was about time that we tied the loose ends up and got on with it. We are both much happier for it.
• Seeing my love for Steve flourish and vice versa. It really is quite marvelous to love and be loved so much. Nothing else to add to that
• Seeing Steve finish his house in Bristol and get it sold, AND buy a new, if a bit broken, one in Malvern. 
• Watch the new broken house get almost fixed and ready to move into or sell.
• Take on the role of Membership Director of BACD. I was very daunted by this, and struggled initially to do my job, but I think that I have grown into it, and really looking forward to hitting it hard this year
• Losing 6kg! (briefly!)
• Being fitter and learning to swim and run well
• Completing my first and probably not last triathlon, and raising £650!
• Smashed the Dentistry Awards winning 4 out of 4!

Losses

• Not coming out of the sale with any money left, in fact considerable remaining debt. ah well, it is done now, and I have plenty of years left to start again
• Not being able to do any work with Dental Mavericks this year- I am almost up for it with fundraising through my triathlon
• Not being able to pay my parents off this year
• BIG STRESS, since the sale
• Being skint and owing my friends and family money
• Not being physically healthy- joints and bowel problems remaining unfixed and undiagnosed

Favourite Films of 2015

• Star Wars :The force Awakens 
• Sunshine on Leith (amazing- watch it if you get the chance)
• Interstellar 
• Spy
• Focus 

Music

• Jimmy Somerville - "Homage"
• Mark Knopfler - "Tracker"
• The Proclaimers "Lets hear it for the dogs"
• The Fratellis "Eyes wide, tongue tied"
• Rod Stewart " Another Country"
• Natasha Paremski "Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1"

Books

• Ben Cohen- My Autobiography
• Giulia Enders-Gut
• Bill Bryson- The Road to Little Dribbling
• Dan Jones- The Hollow Crown
• Simon Sinek- Start with Why

How to be a Community and Charity Champion Part 2

So, in my previous blog, I told you my story. How Karen and I made Beacon DentalCare known throughout our local community and beyond as THE charity , giving, community minded dental team.

How can you do the same?

Some Tips to get you started:

• Have a Team Meeting and engage your team.
• Ask them what they want to do
• Get ideas on suitable projects
• Light a fire underneath them and get them super motivated
• Talk to your freinds and clients to get an idea of what local charity and community groups are out there.
• Start small 
• Exhibit Local Artist's work (FREE! Don't take a commission, you will not sell much anyway, and it is terrific good will)
• Get Involved with raffles/draws being run by local service clubs (Lions, Round Table, Rotary). For example, most Lions clubs have annual Easter Egg and Christmas Hamper Draws
• Sell Poppies, Ribbons, Badges etc for Charities
• Get out of the practice and go and talk to local groups:
• Schools and nurseries on the subject of Oral Health
• Rotary and Round Table groups are always on the look out for different interesting speakers
• Join a Breakfast Networking Group and get your message out there
• Make yourself available to give a talk or presentation (obviously for free)
• Get a mascot. There are loads of ridiculous full size costumes on ebay such as Foxes, Bears, Dogs. Make sure it's name has significance to the Practice . (Ours is Billy the Beacon Bear).
• Offer your premises to groups or charities for special events
• Host your own themed events such as Cake Sales (Macmillan have one ever year), Fancy Dress Days, Charity Car Wash (outside the practice where everyone can see what you are up to)
• Charity Whitening has always worked well for us
• Get your local labs to make trays for free (several big national labs will do this for you)
• Get your gel supplier to give you free gel for the charity project (again several big whitening companies will give you gel for this)
• Give your time for free to take impressions, photos etc
• Advertise the event as heavily discounted and limited availibility
• Give 100% of the proceeds to a suitable (dental) charity 
• Bridge2Aid are very help to out with charity whitening project
• Do Sponsored events, and really encourage your team to do the same. Promote it in the practice and talk about it until your nurse is ready to kill you, to shut you up!

I guess the big thing that we got involved with was our Beacon Shining Light Awards. You can set your own awards up too. We were recognising local unsung heroes, but whatever works for you.

• It is hard work, and you will need help. Either from a tame (and cheap or free) Professional Events Organiser, or a designated team member
• Promote it through your clients and local media to get as many nominations as possible
• Get local celebrities to judge the awards
• Get Good Quality prizes from Businesses in your area
• Have a flash awards ceremony. It does not need to be a sit down dinner, but a small buffet and some fizz are a good idea.
• Get a local celeb or dignitary to host the event and give out awards
• Make sure the local media are present if possible

Whatever you do, you will generate good will, and most likely lots of free publicity. Word of mouth is an amazing marketing tool, and word will soon spread. Keep shouting about what you are doing, anywhere you can. Pay for advertising if you need to.

There you go. If anyone wants to ask me anything about what we have done in the past , please feel free.

Until next time..

DX

How to become a community and charity champion Part 1 (Background)

Morning folks

I recently had the great privilege to speak to a small group of like minded professionals on the subject of community engagement. This has led to several requests from those wanting to know how to get started.

I am not an expert in anything very much (possibly excepting Newcastle United history and Tolkein!), so this is just my  story and my experiences along with some tips as to what works for me and my team and what doesn't.

Firstly a little background:

When Beacon DentalCare was set up, it was always our intention to be actively involved in our local community. In those days this involved:

• Contacting local artists and getting them to put their art on the walls ( free art for me, exposure for the artists, interest for the clients). We did not ever charge a commission and we continue to sell 1 or 2 pictures a month. We now also sell a decent range of greetings cards and postcards.
• Contacting Local schools and nurseries and arranging trips to visit them, taking with us an Oral Health message (more later!)
• The occasional charity "event"- Dress up for Dentaid, and a few local events

So far so good, but not amazing. We were quite pleased with ourselves but it was not quite what we had in mind.

In 2010 , a friend of mine who worked with a local charity asked me if I would consider letting him use our large derelict back garden. ( about 1/3 acre that we had always intended to turn into a garden for our team, patients and community). Onside advocacy work with Adults with learning difficulties to give them purpose and training. The Beacon Garden project was born. We signed over the use of the garden space to the charity, and they are still there twice a week all year around, growing vegetables, learning horticulture and using the space for events.

This is a link to a short video filmed in the garden :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37JCc1_J9w8

The garden project lit a spark of an idea. With the help of Kevin Rose we decided that we wanted to become famous as the Dentists that CARE. We created Beacon DentalCare Care 2011 culminting in our Shining Light awards. It was our intention to work with a different charity or community group each month .

We asked our clients and friends for ideas and offered the practice space inside and out to be used by different groups. We got carried away! At the end of 2011 we had worked in various different ways with 26 different groups and helped to raise more than £11000.

The Shining Light awards intended to recognise local unsung heroes, and we had a ceremony at the practice with prizes to honour our winners. 

Some of the things we did:

• Macmillan Coffee Morning
• Acquired a mascot- Billy the Beacon Bear
• Fancy Dress up days for Dentaid
• Hosted events for Onside
• Various collections
• Hosted a quilt exhibition (National Quilting Challenge!)
• and an Art show
• Scouts used the space for charity car washing
• Provided Dentistry for Belorussian kids affected by the Chernobyl disaster
• Displays focussing on different charities including MNDA and Parkinsons
• and more.....

After that we took a break and focussed on a smaller number of charities and events and regular sponsored events ( cycling, running, Triathlon's, charity work in Morocco). Much more manageable!

Last year we re launched the Shining Light awards with the help of an Events Organiser, and made it much bigger and better and more professional. We enlisted the help of local celebrities as judges and local companies for prizes and had the Mayor officiate at the ceremony. Lots of publicity, lots of feel good warm fuzziness!

It is not difficult to do, it just needs a caring, giving open outlook and some ingenuity. Sounds like most dentists I know.

All of the things we have done generate:

• Goodwill
• Free Advertising
• Profile
• Warm fuzziness
• Free news articles, radio and TV and international internet coverage
• Love and support from your team and patients
• More profit

In part 2 I will share my ideas on how to do it.

Till next time

Dx

Revisiting my Goals

Since I have been in such a reflective and peaceful frame of mind lately, I thought that I would revisit my Goals for 2015 and see how I have done and what needs to be done for the rest of the year.

Written originally over the New Year's holiday this is what I  set out, and how I have done SO FAR

"Family

• Take a proper holiday with Steve and my children, Florida preferably  - TICK
• Visit New Zealand at Christmas UNLIKELY NOW
• Holiday with Steve- TICK
• Continue to spend quality time with kids TICK

Relationships

• Life with Steve to grow and thrive TICK
• Move closer together or indeed be together DEFINETLY HAPPENING BUT LIKELY NEXT YEAR
• Finalise an amicable divorce and maintain a healthy relationship with Katie TICK

Career

• Complete the transformation of the structure of the practice TICK
• Work towards a bigger and better future for Beacon TICK
• Work hard in my BACD role TICK

Money

• Be Debt free by the end of the year NO CHANCE BUT PLAN IN HAND- MUST TRY HARDER
• Start to save properly - MUST TRY HARDER

Education

• Increase my Orthodontic and Implant Skills  SEMI TICK- WORK IN PROGRESS
• Start Facial Aesthetics training FAIL- NEXT YEAR
• Reduce Golf Handicap to 20 FAIL- TENDONITIS PUTTING PAY TO GOLF FOR NOW

Physical

• Weigh no more than 88kg on 31 December (currently 91.3) SEMI TICK (CURRENTLY 88.3)
• Complete a triathlon IN TRAINING FOR SEPTEMBER
• Climb a big mountain for Dental Mavericks FAIL
• Get my health problems sorted out once and for all WORK IN PROGRESS
• Cycle more TICK
• Have a more regular gym routine DOUBLE  TICK

Also

I shall repay my Parents FAIL, BUT PLAN IN HAND

Visit Morocco with Dental Mavericks FAIL

I shall make a concerted attempt at being Gluten free TICK

I shall sleep more and drink more water HMM

I will reconnect with my oldest friends Richard and Kate, Naomi, Nick and Marion, Paul and Sandra, Susan, Fi, Claire and Guy- going to be busy" NOT YET- (KICKS SELF)

So- New Goals for rest of 2015

Family

• Make a plan to visit  family in New Zealand this year or next
• Maximise Family time
• Plan holidays for next year

Relationships

• Plan for renovating Steve's new house and moving in together
• Plan time away for Christmas period
• Reconnect with old friends

Career and Education

• Facial Aesthetics training
• Continue Orthodontic Journey
• Full steam ahead with BACD Membership Director role
• Adapt fully to life as an associate

Money

• Proper household budget and plan to eliminate personal debt by end 2018
• Save properly
• Start repaying my parents and stick to the plan

Physical

• Weigh less than 87kg and less than 16% body fat by 31 December this year ( currently 88.3 and 19%)
• Compete in my first triathlon
• Continue swimming and running for fitness
• Continue gym routine
• Get a diagnosis for my health problems and get them fixed!!!
• Sleep more and drink less alcohol