Being enough

Its been one hell of a break between blog entries hasn't it?

I'm writing this to vent.  To be honest 99.9% of my blog entries are me "venting" where my brain gets the urge to let off some steam and articulating my feelings helps to a certain degree.

So lets recap and condense my life since the last entry just over 2 years ago.

Career recap

In August 2022 I left TMA and joined Codurance as a senior software craftsperson

In December 2023 I left Codurance and joined ENSEK as a Lead Software Engineer at the start of 2024.

Meeting someone

About the same time of joining Codurance, I met a lady.  Genuinely thought it was one of those "defining" relationships, long terms plans being made and what looked like an amazing future together.  Unfortunately, after about 20 months, that ended in the first half of 2024. But it would seem that despite it now being well over a year, I'm still processing things.

Running

Well now thats a story in its own right.  In my last entry "OMG its all going on isn't it?" I mentioned that I had gotten into the London Marathon 2022.  

London Marathon 2022

Coming off the back of the Brighton Marathon (a 3:12:xx time) and all I really knew about the course was that it was flatter.  But I stuck to it and not only was it a new personal best, it a PB by about 8 minutes.  London Marathon mission accomplished...


Ok hang on a sec, I smashed the 3:10:00 good for age (GFA) time, can I submit a GFA for the 2023 London Marathon from the 2022 London Marathon event? Turns out yes you can.  I was over the moon when I got the email from the organisers.




Not only had I gotten back into the marathon, but it wasn't random, it was down to damn hard work and my own ability.

London Marathon 2023

I created a separate post for this, in LinkedIn of all places which I will link to here

To summarise though, those 4 months were tough.  I was given a sub-3 hour marathon target by my dad.  So I was on a sub-3 hour marathon training programme which is no joke.  Fitting that in around a full time job and other commitments. Nevermind the training is all consuming, didn't help (ok I'm sure it did) that to make it "easier" on myself I also packed in the booze so I could get to race weight and be able to easily maintain it.

Then my dad died...

Then I came down with COVID...

Then dealing with all that, it was dad's funeral 4 days before the marathon.

But a new PB again, not a sub-3 but a 3:01:41.  Yeah I could have done another GFA entry which I knew I would be guaranteed a spot for but I wanted to have a life again.  So I didn't. But hey I do sometimes look at this and think to myself "OMG Dave look at what you managed!"



I've lost alot of fitness since then but there are still targets I want to achieve which I haven't yet.  Ironically, those targets are not career related.


"Becoming" lead

Work progresses onwards though, in September 2024 I was asked to be the tech lead in my team.  I thought it was a promotion but turns out it was more me being formally asked to be the lead developer in the team.
I have a good bunch of guys in my team and it helps having a good manager that is genuinely interested in my development / career path.  I dont feel that being lead is the final stop for me.  Maybe I'm waiting for my "Peter principle" moment to happen but I'm not there yet.  Well I dont think I am


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