Although we had been talking about this event for months and months before the summer holidays and some of us had been training for it (not as much as we would have liked), it didn't feel real until we were all sat down in the car together - dressed in our running gear - and drove down to Bonn. Once we arrived there, I was surprised by the amount of people that had gathered there - it turned out that there were actually over 11,000 people running with us all for various companies/charities! After meeting up with the group who were supporting Cystic Fibrosis and after we got our shirts/drinks/badges, we joined the huge group getting ready to start the run.

The run was due to start at around 18:00, but as we were in the middle of the crowd, it took us about half an hour to reach the starting point. In total, the run was around 6km in length following a path of twists and turns, with a lake on one side at all times. We had people cheering us on from the sidelines, including musicians playing various genres of music every 500m or 1km. Every time I slowed down a little, either the music or other Cystic Fibrosis runners would cheer me (and others) on to keep running. It gave us all in the group so much pride and joy to be running for such a cause, among so many others running in support of their various causes.

At the finish line, we all met with Antonia, the lovely girl who Ellie and Anna had interviewed not too long ago, and her mother. Both Antonia and her mother were amazing people and thanked us each individually for taking part in such an amazing event. The talk with them both reminded me (and all of us) why we were doing this project in the first place and encouraged us to organise more events to raise money. We got to take a few pictures with Antonia before we all had to rush off home and lay down for a well earned rest.



LO1: With preparing for the run, there were many opportunities to identify areas for development of my running style and stamina. We worked together to prepare for the race and motivated each other to take the time

LO2: As I've been going to running club fairly regularly and also going running on the weekends whenever I can, the new challenges that were undertaken did not involve the running process itself, but rather the way in which we were running. It was very difficult to run in such a huge group of people, where I had to make sure to avoid running into them. Another difficulty was the consistent pace of running. My running style is much more based on running fast for a short time and then taking a short break.

LO3: As a group, we took the initiative to plan this CAS experience as soon as we found out that it was possible. As it was around 30km away from our school, we had to arrange transport for the way there and back, as well as how we meet each other when we got there.

LO4: This event, which was part of our ongoing CAS project, demonstrates our commitment and perseverance. We have been consistently working towards this project since September/October 2015.

LO5: This project on the whole, as well as the run that we did, demonstrates the benefits of working collaboratively. If we were a group of just one or two people, our efforts would not have the same impacts that our group of 7 has. We have managed to raise a lot more money and awareness towards the cause than we ever thought possible.

LO6: Our CAS project demonstrates engagement with issues of global significance through the fact that Cystic Fibrosis is an issue that affects people worldwide. During this run, we saw people from all over the world taking part, even within the Cystic Fibrosis group. It was amazing to see the connections that people can have simply though supporting such an amazing cause.

LO7: Finally, the project demonstrates that the ethics of choices and actions have been thoroughly considered throughout the planning and carrying out of the Cystic Fibrosis was project.

With the summer now officially over and school back in full swing, I think it's about time to review on how I've kept up with CAS over the holidays, especially as I spent 3 weeks away in Mauritius and Hungary. This meant that my activities had to be applicable on a global scale and easy to do with limited supplies.

Creativity

• Photography.  As both Cailin and I were running out of quality photographs to post on our photography blog, we decided to plan a trip to a European city to improve our lineup of posts. After much discussing, we decided on Budapest, which is only 1.5 hours away by plane. Even though we only spent two days (and three nights) in the beautiful city, we managed to take over 1,200 photos between us. Sadly, I couldn't take my DSLR camera with me because we wanted to keep the trip cheap and therefore, we travelled with only hand luggage. Fortunately, I was able to take my camera with me to Mauritius, which also meant that I managed to take many pictures.
• Drawing.  This was definitely more sporadic than photography and I would only open up my sketchbook when I 'was in the mood for it'. Somehow, over the holidays I managed to fill up nearly the whole sketchbook. I finally started to do some more experimenting with different media, such as fineliners.
• Video editing. From the two trips I went on, I took short video clips of exciting moments/events and then later compiled them into a few minute video. To this, I added music into the background. All of this was done using iMovie, although I'd be able to do much more with the Final Cut Pro software, but it is far too expensive to splurge on it for videos that are made only for myself as 'memories' rather than for sharing. 

Activity

• Hikes. Admittedly, I do not enjoy hikes in themselves very much, but it is undoubtably the best way to explore new places whether that be a city or forest. 
• Tennis. I played tennis regularly when I was much younger, but haven't picked up the sport since, so it was very exciting to see that the accommodation where we were staying throughout the course of our holidays had it's own tennis court and gym for us to use. This meant that we played tennis almost every night and went to the gym every morning. My tennis skills are definitely completely gone, but I'm hoping that with more practice in the future, I can regain my cooridation (or at least some of it).
• Swimming. Aside from the tennis courts, we also had a huge swimming pool available for us to use and with it being my favourite sport, I couldn't resist swimming a few laps every morning. 
• Running. With the charity run coming up quickly and large gaps in the time since I last went running, I decided that summer would be a good time to get back on track. Unfortunately, it became harder to fit it into my schedule with the travelling I was doing and I didn't manage to go running as much as I wanted to initially. I am not feeling prepared for the run, but I'm hoping to still practice some more closer to the date.
• Cycling. 

Service

• Planning for more Cystic Fibrosis projects. At the beginning of september, we will be running in a race in support of Cystic Fibrosis. Over summer, we spent time planning the details of the run, as well as many other future projects we are looking forward to doing. 

This video is compiled from my summer holidays in Mauritius and allowed me to create memories in a creative and fun way.

I absolutely loved the process of making the video and I plan on continuing making these videos during my future holidays/trips. I find that having a video, with clips from our time away and music that has a significance/memory in relation to the trip. For example, the song in this video is a remix of 'Budapest' by George Ezra.

About a week ago, during the last week of our summer holidays, my photography-partner-in-crime and I were in the incredible city of Budapest for a few days. It was never something that I imagined happening when we started our blog thinking that just a few people would see it. As Cailin put it perfectly on her blog, the conversation that led to the trip went a little like this:


That's where it all began. After scouring the Internet for cheap flights and accommodation, I remembered that I had a friend living in Budapest who would most likely let us stay with him (luckily we could!). In total the whole trip including flights and accommodation came to just 66EUR. Yes, I have no idea how that happened either. We flew out in the evening of the Wednesday and made our way to my friend, Pisti/Istvan/Steav's, apartment in the centre of the city, just a few blocks away from the river. 

As we decided to make the trip as inexpensive as possible, we were travelling with only hand luggage and while my camera was my priority, I couldn't replace clothes in my small bag with it and sadly, I had to leave DSLR at home. But, this didn't stop me from taking pictures on my small point and shoot camera. It isn't quite the same, but there wasn't much I could do. 

Overall, even though the trip was quite short, it was honestly one of the best times of my life. Cailin is an amazing travel buddy. As we are both photographers, we were not always stopping to take pictures and making everyone else wait for us or WORSE: not being able to take pictures because no-one wants to wait for us. The photographs we came back with (and made our family and friends watch while we explained excitedly about everything we did) were absolutely incredible. Here are just a few of the photographs that reflect our time in the beautiful city of Budapest.