Congratulations! You’ve passed the first hurdle in your application and you’ve been offered an interview. The school is prepared to give you an opportunity to showcase your skills and this is your chance to show them what you have to offer.

As many of you may know, I decided to pursue a career in teaching after many years of not believing it to be possible. As a maths enthusiast, I decided to jump into secondary mathematics teaching and have been really enjoying the process. This blog explains what i’ve been up to, my programme for the next year and what it takes to be a student teacher.

Personal bests, course records and segment trophies - the possibilities are endless. I’m often surrounded by athletes saying they were on track for a personal best when suddenly the weather, a sick runner needing help or another unavoidable situation came into play. In these situations, we put aside our PB goals and hope for that our peak condition will stay until our next opportunity. You may have noticed from my social media posts that I often have two different results: An official time and my adjusted time for my leg. This blog explains why and how I count a personal record:

For many able-bodied athletes, qualification to the European and World Obstacle Course Racing Championships can be extremely difficult. In some races, an individual needs to be placed in the top 5 within their age group to qualify and this can take an athlete several attempts to achieve. Now imagine being an amputee, a visually impaired runner or a wheelchair athlete and having to still achieve a top-5 result against able-bodied individuals.

In the UK, the number of people who regularly take part in sport is increasing however, the all the numbers point towards an underrepresentation of LGBT participants. In a world heading towards equality and acceptance, why don’t the numbers add up? What are the options for LGBT participants?

Body Image - how we think and feel about our bodies. Ever-evolving and heavily influenced by others and the media. Rewind back to the 19th century where amputees were being marketed as freaks within the circus, we as a society have certainly come a long way. It wasn’t until the promotion of the London 2012 Paralympic games where we saw those with limb differences were actively being promoted with positives. However, with even the promotion of body-positivity and difference, amputees are still struggling with the mental health implications of body image.

Feeling the breeze in my hair, seeing the world from a foot taller and the ability to conquer the previously unconquerable – all experiences I felt when I started running after 14 years in a wheelchair. Get your reading glasses on as I tell you the story of how I lost my leg and started the battle to begin to win the long run.

Hello my name is Ben Sijmons. I’m 16 and from the Netherlands and I had to do an international internship in an English speaking environment because I do a bilingual study . I choose to do my internship in England. I got to know Jamie during a Judo training in the Netherlands and I found out that he was an amputee and an accountant. This was really interesting for me because I want to do something with economics and I was interested to see what his day to day life is like being an amputee. I asked Jamie if I could do my internship with him and he agreed. In this blog I will tell about my experience during this week with Jamie.

If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while, you may have discovered my previous blog ‘My Next Career Steps’, where I talk about my previous position in the financial services and my desire to have more freedom for training. So, one year after I left my position, what do I actually do?

Last year, I was looking through the Obstacle Course Race World Championships (OCRWC) qualification criteria and came across The Nuts Challenge. I remember the title of the run catching my attention but wondering really how nuts it would be…..I guess that I was soon to find out..

Congratulation! You’ve signed up for your first OCR (Obstacle Course Race) or at the very least, you’re thinking about signing up. You’ve taken your first step to entering a community and starting a race like no other. Obstacle Racing is pretty challenging with lots of crawling, climbing, jumping and sliding but check out these tips on how to prepare for your first OCR.

What is life like for an able-bodied person? That’s a tricky question. Most able-bodied people wouldn’t be able to tell you, simply because they have nothing to compare it to. However, the easiest way to explain it is that as a person without a disability, the world is made with you in mind. You are the template for design, architecture, furniture, clothing, and much, much more.

So what happens when your life takes a turn unexpectedly? What happens when your health turns upside down? How do you cope? What now?

When you’re in a routine and on a roll with your training, you don’t want to think about rest days. The thought of stopping for the day seems pretty daunting, let alone stopping for a week! Despite the daunting nature of rest days, they really can be your best days of training, allowing you to recover, re-group and align your goals.

Do I have an adapted car? How do you drive with one foot? Can you drive a manual? Yes, easily and yes. Perhaps some of the most common questions and for me, very simple answers however there are really quite a lot of options available to amputees.

January - the month of person plans, annual target setting and ultimate reflection. So with that in mind, what have I been doing with my January so far?

Kawasaki is my best buddy and has now been missing for 5 weeks. Not just a cat, Kawasaki is a huge part of my life and is severely missed. Here’s his story:

The Tough Mudder event in Dubai marked the end of my season for the year. The end of a crazy, 35-event fuelled season, finishing on a total of 55 events and 450 miles ran just in this year alone in Tough Mudder mud/sand.

The Winter Wonderwheels event, as part of the Superhero Series, is the UK’s only disability sports event for everyday Superheroes! They create a really fun, personally challenging environment for those with disabilities without the worry of time or equipment restrictions. Whether you have none, one or two feet, travelling in a wheelchair or flying in a rocket, nothing is impossible - I’m yet to see a rocket though!

2018 was my year of experimentation. A year, my first full year of walking, to see where I wanted to take my life and career. With incredible opportunities taken and awesome teams joined, the 2018 season is almost at its end. So with that in mind, where do I see my plans heading for 2019?

The asics frontrunners are a team - a team of like-minded and talented individuals in the pursuit of movement. Whether that’s running, cycling, walking, swimming or judo, the team pulls together the experiences and talents of others to share within the group and to inspire others into movement. Until this weekend, I thought I knew what it was to be an asics Frontrunner but the past few days in Dublin have opened my eyes.