Hi Everyone!
So it's been a few weeks since all the swimming finished...3 days later I was into training for the half marathon! I'd ask you if you thought I were crazy, but a few of you have already answered that one... and for those who know me well, you know I love a good challenge!
So this time around, I have a lot less anxiety. After running 18km in an adventure race last year and swimming a 2km ocean swim amongst some killer gym sessions with a former Peter Andre back-up dancer, my fitness has certainly improved. If you'd told me a year ago I'd be able to leg press 136kg, I would have laughed. OK, so it is still funny but it will help me running up hills! Knowing what to expect and the training I am committed to putting in has also removed that anxiety. It is, however, still a challenge - one which is 3-fold:
Running
My sporting career started out with individuals sports - Figure Skating, Physical Culture and Little Athletics. Alas, individual sports bored me, ESPECIALLY long distance running. The 100m sprint, shot put, high jump.. even the 800m power walk, happy to compete. Anything BUT the 1500m or 3000m. Thus the first training session was a little bit of de ja vu as we train at the same field where 20 years ago I spent my Saturday morning's avoiding all the long distance events. So yes, last year I finally took a liking to running, so now it's a matter of getting my muscles and joints to agree so I can go faster over a longer distance! We have just completed Week 3 which was a 70 minute/8-10km run - that leg pressing is making all those stairs up and down the harbour bridge and around the observatory easier!
The Challenge
When I was flying home from Paris last year, I checked in and went through immigration and security with the single biggest collection of Gucci I've ever seen. Correct, the Ivory Coast football team. One thing leads to another [whilst the French authorities and I are curious as to what Drogba has in his very shiny wheely bag] and I end up in a conversation about sporting injuries with a rheumatologist who informed me I have 7 years before my left ACL-reconstructed knee will be suffering from osteo-arthritis. So I have decided I want to run a marathon by the time I'm 30 - thus giving me 2 and a half years to go to town with some half's and other various sporting adventures [my latest outfit is some Pearl Izumi shorts teamed with a Santini shirt..].
Fundraising
Could I train for and successfully run the half marathon without Can Too? Probably, yes. However, I find it an easy choice to train with Can Too. Six years ago I didn't see much sunlight for the year - if I wasn't in the lab with my diabetic mice or looking down a microscope counting cells, I was surrounded by piles and piles of journal articles writing my Honours thesis. I remember one of the assays I did I had to order a particular antibody - a 1ml vial cost $4000. Research costs a lot of money and so it is great that all of the money Can Too raise goes to Cure Cancer Australia Foundation. Cure Cancer Australia supports young post-doctoral researchers with an innovative approach to solving the complexitites in cancer research. Without grants from foundations like Cure Cancer Australia to kick-start their career it can be quite difficult to obtain grants from say, the government. Can Too have now raised over $4.2 million and funded 45 researchers - the majority of whom who have then been able to obtain further, substantial grants.
So if you would like to sponsor me and support Can Too, please go to www.cantoo.org.au, click on "Sponsor a Participant" and type in my last name.
I am also still selling chocolates!!!!! They're selling very well at work, so for those I don't work with and you would like to buy some chocolates off me - let me know!!!! [Freddo's, Caramello Koala's, Cherry Ripes, Timeout's, Crunchies all $1.20 each or a small bag of easter eggs for $4 a bag.. who need's to buy easter presents?!].
Yours in running,
Cat.
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