Editorial: Achievement all can see

One more day to go.

Tomorrow will be the last time we pull ourselves out of bed before 5.30am to make a trip to fitness town.

What to say of the journey? Eight weeks of physical training with 25 students from a mixture of backgrounds.

I must say when I first witnessed the sessions in week two, it seemed almost pointless to me.

Students swearing during the runs, just staggering around and struggling to meet the goals set before them.

It seemed like the strict boundaries of a military-style training, three times a week, was never going to relate to real-life situations.

But the weeks rolled on and the attitudes changed.

The number of students with good fitness grew until it was obvious that everyone had reached a personal achievement.

Confidence grew as a result and the students took on challenges mentally, not giving up but pushing on like they could achieve something.

The support for the students continued with teachers, parents and policemen alike giving up their free time to help.

And so, after eight weeks, what do we have left?

A group who will miss what they first hated, I have no doubt, and individuals who know how much they can achieve if they work for it.

They have seen that in a tangible way here.

If nothing else that is what I've seen in terms of good coming from this course.

But the biggest challenge is yet to come.

Tomorrow, we wake up earlier than usual to embark on a day that will be testing at every level.

Seven or eight hours at least of our fitness, strength and, most importantly, minds being tested to achieve our biggest goal on the course - completion.

All who complete tomorrow's gruelling affair will achieve what we set out to do.

This will be my second-to-last entry, hopefully next week I can successfully say we all completed the Longest Day.

- The police-led Cactus programme is a military-style physical training programme which mixes at-risk students with potential leaders. Reporter Gary Hamilton-Irvine signed up for the course which runs three times a week for eight weeks.