During the winter break, the intensification of circuit training began, followed by the running training. It was difficult to run at times, as the municipality had stopped all anti-slipping due to a lack of salt. Jonas paced me: "You run too slowly - you must run at least every 2 days, etc." Eternal guilt about not exercising enough. The syllabus was on the table and demanded to be touched. WHOA

One thing at a time: First, the physical test had to be passed. It took place in Nautilus in Ballerup on the Sunday before the actual graduation. We got into teams of three to do three circles in a row. There was a helper for each who held my legs during sit-ups and backbends while he cheered me on. Then down and get control of the heart rate while lying on your back, followed by a drink of water.

Then it was onto the treadmill and off for twelve very long minutes. Here it was again good with all the cheering shouts. It's probably boring to run on such a leash compared to being out in mother nature, and then you have to be careful not to break the leash. But no crash along the way and test passed.

The following Friday, it was time for the most nerve-wracking test for me.

All of us who were to graduate met half an hour before and warmed up and wished each other luck just before entering the syllabus test. This lasted approximately one hour, and you forgot all about time and place while you listened to Kimu Sensei's instructions and in your own little world then did your best.

Then we were all sent down to wait in the canteen, while we took turns coming in for theory tests in groups corresponding to our graduation level. It went less well with answering the sometimes very philosophical questions - even though it was all in the syllabus.

We ended with task fighting and the kumite test, which was a bit of a change when you had just been calm for half an hour. It was intense with constantly changing partners, including black belts - I myself was exposed to two in a row at the very end, and there I thought that it had to stop soon. It did, after all. End of Friday's 3-hour tests with a view to a full 11-hour break before graduation had to begin on Saturday morning.

On graduation day, we practiced a lot of bunkai from the pinankata, which was good to take our mind off the graduation itself, as it was new learning.

Then it was graduation time. It was kumite followed by katas and I had the feeling that it was going well.

The end of the day - the foot test - had to come and I suddenly thought that there was an influx of spectators.

We were in three teams with wildly cheering spectators close by. First about two minutes with hand techniques followed by two minutes with leg techniques and finally two minutes with combined. In the last round, you were quite pumped and just hoped for a little word from Kimu Sensei's mouth - namely YAME (stop).

It was the end of a long journey towards 2.kyu which was now over and completed, - and I was just so happy!. "