Run for the Kids 2014

In High School if anyone told me that as an adult I would actually love running I would have laughed in their face.

In High School I actively avoided the Cross Country. I think I went in it once, maybe twice - once in Year 7 then again in Year 8. I don't know how I got out of it in the other years. 

I used to dread, dread, dread compulsory Physical Education classes in Years 7-10. Those first few weeks of the year were always spent on fitness tests and for those first few weeks my muscles would be screaming out in agony after enduring shuttle runs and burpees and jumping jacks and all those other kinds of exercises that made a very unfit teenager very self-conscious. Doing those running laps around the perimeter of the school was, for me, torture. 

I guess it was more about my lack of self-esteem and a negative body image than anything. Oh to go back and tell that young girl a thing or two!

Yesterday I lined up with over 35,160 other Melburnians who participated in the annual Run for the Kids Fun Run. (surely they use the word "fun" very loosely!) I couldn't help but smile at the irony. Me, who used to avoid running like the plague, lining up to run 15km. Who'd have thunk it?

Run for the Kids is a charity close to my heart. Over the past 28 years my family and I have gotten to know the Royal Children's Hospital intimately. We've been through Genetics, Bone Dysplasia, Orthotics, Orthopaedics, X-ray, MRI, Clinical Photography, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Scoliosis, Spinal Clinics, ENT Specialists, Physiotherapy, Social Work, Emergency and Intensive Care. We've waited in waiting rooms, paced the corridors, played in the Starlight Room, slept by bedsides, lost the plot in Emergency, cried with other parents. We've met the most incredible people. We're on first name basis with many doctors who have watched us grow up and then watched our children grow up. We've educated them about our conditions as much as they have been there to take care of us. 

The champions are the nurses who have been there for us day and night when we have been admitted to any ward. They are the frontline warriors who become your friend, your comfort when everything is unfamiliar and sometimes scary. They sit and talk to a child when they're feeling sad or afraid or sore. They explain things in words children can understand. They make a cup of tea for anxious parents. They help keep us sane. 

To give back to such a wonderful place of caring and healing just goes without saying for me. I was grateful this year to have a friend running too. 

Pre-race selfies are a prerequisite! Kara (my trainer) and me!

Kara and I had been training for the 15km course for months. In spite of this, it was rough. My whole aim was to finish it and finish well. I didn't care about my time. It was all about getting it done. 

The memories of our 28 years with the Royal Children's Hospital were what kept me going - through the Domain Tunnel, over the Bolte Bridge and then back into the city via Docklands, Harbour Esplanade, Collins St, Spencer St, Southbank, through the Alexandra Gardens and then back on to St Kilda Road to the finish line. For a short while I ran with a staff member from the RCH. She was as tall as I am short. She said I looked familiar and I told her that all of my four children had been inpatients and outpatients at the Children's. I told her that she looked familiar too. She said she worked in Radiology and MRI, so undoubtedly we have crossed paths more than once. We've spent a lot of time there. It was good to run with someone for a while. We kind of kept pace with each other up that excruciating hill that is the Bolte Bridge. 

To say I was hurting when I crossed the finish line would be an understatement. 

Photo courtesy of Kara.

But I did it. I finished it. And, unlike my results in PE at school.....I didn't come last. I don't care that it took me over two hours to do it. Once upon a time I didn't think I'd be able to walk 15km let alone run it! I'm in awe of Craig Mottram - former Olympian and World Championship medallist - who completed the 15k in 44 minutes. Who does that? I can't even......what? 

Next year I'll do it again. Next year it will be all about getting a better time. This year I wanted to see if I could do it. I think I've answered that question.

Thanks to the four most incredible human beings on this planet who continue to be my source of strength every day. Sarah, Chloe, Tim and Georgia - you are my reason. You kept me going when every muscle screamed at me to stop. I would run to the ends of the earth for you.

And thanks to Kara, an awesome friend who generously trains me probono, who believes I can and sometimes pushes me harder than she'd push someone else because she knows there's strength down there that I'm not even aware of. I'm so grateful for that.