Monday, May 19, 2008

I did it!!
I ran the half marathon yesterday, absolutely estatic!! As you know I was worried about my ankles, but they actually held out for the whole run, unfortunately in the end it was my knee that went. I got to about 16km and that was it, but I managed to run through the pain and I got to the water stand and gulped down a painkiller, there was nothing going to stop me from completing this run! It must have been adrenaline that got me through the last 5kms, and it was such a buzz, I was very emotional when I ran through the finish line, this was one goal I didn't think I had it in me to ever achieve. My time was 2hr 5mins, which was so much better than I'd ever expected, especially after all my injuries! Jason did really well too, his time was 1hr 47mins. It's funny, I really hate the feeling before any runs as I get really nervous, but while I'm doing it, I'm really loving it, it's such a good feeling running the streets of Sydney with thousands of other people and the weather was perfect, although a bit chilly to begin with. On one of the streets, there was a nightclub blaring out the music at about 8am, a few of the clubbers were standing outside cheering us on. Also, you get the young kids who stand by the sides of the road holding out their hands so you run by and high 5 them...really cool!
It wasn't really until I stopped running that I realised how much pain I was in from my knee. I've been pretty much hobbling ever since, and it's such an effort to stand up or sit down, I sound (and feel) like an old lady, I've never ached so much in my life. I went back to the physio this morning and she taped my knee up and gave me some exercises to do, apparently my knee cap is moving around too much...yuk...it's a real sick making feeling, not nice. I think I'm going to work from home tomorrow, it's such hard work to get to work and limp around all day.
Yesterday afternoon we went to the after party for the charity we ran for. I don't think I really said much about our fund raising before....I found the leaflet at my gym, it was the story of a lady and her husband who in 2005, gave birth prematurely to triplet boys. Unfortunately, they died after 1 hour, 10 days and 2 months respectively. Of course Sophie and her husband were devastated. One of the things that helped them with their loss was to start training for half marathons, so this was how their fund raising started.
Last year's half marathon they raised $80,000 for the Royal Womens hospital to help buy new humidicribs for the premature babies, this year with 130 runners raising funds, we're hoping to beat that amount. They really are such an amazing couple, to go through all that and then selflessy go to all this effort to help the hospital and other parents and their tiny babies, and it's so lovely that Sophie is pregnant again, and is due in only 5 weeks and everything is going really well. The after party was quite emotional as there was a few speeches and presentations, I feel so privileged to have helped them in their special cause, Jason and I raised almost $1,200 which is so much more that I'd ever expected, we have lots of generous friends and colleagues. Doing the run was great as Sophie and Ash had running singlets made up with the Henry, Jasper and Evan fund and the hospital name, they even had the tiny lifesize little handprints of Sophie and Ash's triplets on the back, Sophie's motivational message to us was that if we found the run really hard, to just think about her little boys' hands pushing us towards and over the finish line (it makes me teary just thinking about it) well, if that doesn't help you get over the finish line, then nothing will! It was great seeing all the runners throughout the run that were wearing the same t-shirts. Another bonus was, we met a lot of lovely people over the last couple of months, I hope to do it again next year if my body ever recovers!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Well done Vik! What a goal to complete that run and with all your injuries too! You were very brave! Very proud of you!
Al. xx

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Vikki, a great achievement!

A well deserved rest is now due, look after the injuries

Steve

Anonymous said...

Well done vikki, I am proud of you! You did a great job and pushed yourself to the limits!! Dad would have been impressed loads!!! Good on you!!! Planty01

Anonymous said...

Hey Vikki,
well done! The inspiration behind this run must have been quite something. You and Jason did an amazing job raising so much money for this charity. Martina xxx