It is already July 2016 and what a year it has been already. I have completed the PhD/Doctorate, managed to set-up my own company, start my career on the correct path by taking a job in Kobo and complete two marathons since July last year. 
I am loving the warm weather right now although it's all about hydration as I 'get my sweat on' as Conor McGregor says! I am looking forward to the next two marathons - Dublin and Paris. I am already on week 3 of training and after the summer have built up some core work having gone to 'Bootcamp Ireland' religiously for the past few weeks leading up to it. I also examined my diet as the nutritional needs vary as you start training more and more while building up mileage. With all my focus turning to training again, I have become obsessed with 'My Fitness Pal', 'Map My Run' and of course, my Garmin Connect calendar which dictates my training schedule. 

I have always been mixed between developing my Gesture-Based Game, Education, Mathematics and Fitness. I'd love to make something like a game that combines everything together. We have all seen the success of Pokémon Go! There's a lady - Dr Katherine Isbister of New York University, doing exactly that in New York when she developed the game Scoop! for the Kinect, however, it's for children. It's an interesting concept to stand in front of the Kinect and 'scoop' the correct answers - that's certainly one way of getting it done. There aren't any analytics though!

From my own personal experience with health, fitness and well-being, I have been let down by healthcare in the past fobbing my 'tummy troubles' off as nothing but in actual fact ulcers can be quite painful and because I was 'healthy' I was told by one doctor that I could get examined up the 'wazoo' but it wouldn't help! Yikes! I've received full body massages, abdominal massages and gone to physio for different things over the years, however, this year I am looking at all of my analysis and pinpointing my progress bit by bit.

This analysis has involved mixing-methods (controversial!) as it matters if I didn't feel well. I did the Fingal 10k at the weekend and due to not getting enough sleep, an ulcer causing awful pain throughout and the hot weather I came in at 56 minutes. Not ideal for someone running for a while! Mind over matter didn't help at the start line when I met two lovely women and ended up 2 minutes behind everyone weaving in and out of walkers - I completed the first 1km in 6 minutes 48 seconds and that was running from side to side just to get by all the walkers! 

So even though I wasn't happy with the overall result of 56 minutes I have to take into account the qualitative facts along the way. These include the ill tummy I started out with, the fact that I had driven from Limerick and was tired, cutting sleep short and getting up at 7am to eat pre-race and above all else the medication I am on makes me extremely tired in the mornings - hence why I'm getting up at 7:30 for the morning run pre-work that way I'm in and awake functioning on all valves! As Dr. McCoy would say 'Well, personally, I find it fascinating that with all their scientific knowledge and advances, that it was good old-fashioned human emotion that they valued the most.'

So the long and short of it is - I will take a look at combining my strengths and progressing my career, watch this space! 

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Well that's it then, I've graduated. I didn't think it would ever arrive. The PhD is a long process although I have to admit I am thankful it didn't take me as long as most. I started full-time in 2012 and it reset the clock in terms of what research I was carrying out. I handed it in in 2015 and waited for the last stages of the process to be completed which led me to graduation in June 2016. 
Glad I have graduated. I think I was emotionally and physically exhausted there. I am only getting back to my normal self now and it's coming up to a month since then.