| | Firstly, a big thank you to all the people who have supported me morally and through sponsorship of my nominated charity - the Starlight Children's Foundation.
Your encouraging words and donations kept me pushing harder to train and finally complete the 10km run in 54m10s - a benchmark and PB for me.
The final amount raised is $774.50 - an effort I didn't think was possible when I first entered this run and leaves me truly in awe each time I think about it. Your generosity really shows that the human spirit is still alive even during this year of doom and financial belt-tightening.
I know that there will be many children and their families who will be extremely grateful that your money will contribute to the work of Starlight to continue lighting up their lives.
The run
I'd been battling a cold for the whole week and only managed to run once (2.5km) in the week leading up to it. It was tough but I have been training for it and had an idea of what to expect. My aim was to run it in under 60mins - the furthest I had run in my training was 9km and I completed that in 53m so it was a realistic goal.
It was a beautiful day. Clear skies but a very cold 5 degree morning. The first km felt fast, later on Desmond said we ran it in 3.5 minutes. Every km marker came up sooner than I expected with my mind constantly ticking away and picturing the most appropriate running line to get through the sea of people. Call me a sadist, but what pushed me faster was the constant thought of being able to overtake the ones who looked like they were struggling in front of me.
By 7km my left knee was in pain (it never felt painful during training) and it didn't make it any easier that I'd needed to go to the toilet from the very start. I wanted to pull over many times to just use the toilet but I knew that if I did, I'd break my stride and my muscles would find it extremely hard to get back into motion so I pushed on.
Upon seeing the finish line I had used up all my energy and didn't understand how other people could all of a sudden go from struggling to sprint the final 100m. I finished with a time of 54m10s, 5m50s better than what I aimed for - I was stoked when I saw my official time!
I now have a few blisters and a knee which becomes very painful when I walk. When I think about it, it really isn't a lot of pain considering what some of the children and their families must have to go through. At least I'm pretty sure mine will help up quickly and I'll be back on the road again soon but I consider myself lucky to be able to have those thoughts, unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to have such an optimistic outlook.
I set myself a goal to run 10km and raise as much money as I could for the Starlight Children's Foundation. Through my training I sometimes wondered why I set this goal in the first place because it was so damn hard to build up the stamina during those freezing cold nights and mornings. Now when I look back, it really was a cinch. I have proven to myself that a bit of determination and a lot of hard work can go a long way to meet my goals and that I can help others while doing it.
Thank you again for your support!
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| | Posted 6/28/2009 11:27 PM - 2 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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