My Dad and Marathon Plans (Part 3)

A  few of the staff at work always participated in the annual City to Surf, 12 km run, understood my loss and saw my pain. They urged me to join them in the race. This was the perfect path for me. I could put two feet in front of one another and keep going straight – surely?

So I turned to running. As I started to run, small distances and slowly at first, I would find that at first hours and then days would go by that I would not be thinking of Winston. This was good for me!

Slowly, I started to get fitter and quicker and began to increase the distances and decrease the times. I decided that I needed some help and joined the Mind, Body and Soul gym on
Canning Highway to be a part of their running program.

After a couple of months, I had gone from being able to do an easy four to five km run to the required 12 km’s for the City to Surf.

In August last year, I completed the City to Surf in a respectable time of 1 hour and now I was hooked. You must be starting to get the picture by now – this crazy woman, who can’t sit still and keeps on pushing for more!

Missed the hour by a whisker

The sense of accomplishment in finishing the City to Surf was wonderful and Winston was now becoming a sad but wonderful memory. I was hungry for the next challenge and this bizarre niggling idea of running a marathon began to creep into my thoughts. The logic was, “if I can go from zero to 12, how hard could another 30 kms be?” Not only that, but if I was going to go all out and go for the big 4 – 2, then why not do it in New York!!

I have always had the belief that there are people out there that chase their dreams and go after and obtain exactly what they want out of life. And if there are those people out there why can’t I be one of them?

Ok, so setting aside the minor issue of the extra 30 km’s, how was I going to get a place in the marathon and get to New York.

Setting aside these minor obstacles, I began to do a bit of research about what was involved in training for a marathon and started to learn about the rigorous physical and nutritional program that I would need to get into.

The nutrition thing was going to be the hardest. You see, I am Culinary Challenged. My oven at home is used for storage and  I can lay claim to in fact exploding a chicken I was trying to roast.

Little did I know, this was going to be a minor issue in the bigger scheme of things. It was at about this time, that my father was diagnosed with cancer and was required to undergo surgery followed by a treatment plan and continual monitoring and check ups.

All marathon plans were but on the back burner as my role now was to care for my father and support him through his illness. This did not sit too well with my dad who enquired as to whether I had been diagnosed with cancer and when I replied that I had not, he explained that I then had no excuse not to continue with my training.

My father had also been a keen runner and realising that while his health did not allow him to continue to run, mine did and I had no excuses. So I got back to pounding the pavement.

My dad was one of the really lucky ones and a treatment plan was available for the cancer he was diagnosed with and he is now well. However during the time of his surgery and follow up treatment I began to appreciate the doctors and nurses who spend their lives making our loved ones well.

Now, everything fell into place. I wanted to do something not just for me but that made a difference, a real difference in the world.

I made contact with The Cure Cancer Australia Foundation, who fund young and innovative Australian researchers seeking a cure for cancer. The more cancer cure research undertaken, the more people can be on the winning side of the battle against cancer.

Stayed tuned ... ... ...

Dad and I at Christmas, hence the pudding hats

Meet Winston (Part 2)

Once home I soon discovered that with the study involved in doing the CA program behind me, I suddenly had a lot of free time on my hands and following my travels, a few extra kilos on the waist line. This was the point at which I decided to take up cycling. The only obstacle was that I didn’t own a bike.

Having never cycled regularly, I was not sure whether I would stick to my goal of being able to cycle to and from work a few days a week, and so did not want to invest in a bike.

But like all good tales in life, things always work out. The timing was perfect. As it turned out, that week there was a council pick-up in my neighbourhood. You can imagine my excitement when I came across this 1960’s Indie 500 old bike on the verge, curly handle bars and all. He was a bit battered and worn but still had a soul and Winston, that’s what I named him, and I, bonded immediately.

I rode Winston home, wobbling and squeaking but, with a bit of a cleanup and some new tyres, he looked grand and full of his old world charm and character. A real gentleman.

The idea was that I would ride to work on Winston for a few months and see if I liked it. If I did and was happy to keep going, I would reward myself by purchasing a brand new modern bike.

Needless to say, Winston and I made a perfect team. Before long, we were in love and were enjoying being out on the open road, with only the power of my pedalling to get us from A to B.

But it was all too good to continue. It was like in a movie when you just know that something bad is going to happen and a tragedy is going to shatter the perfect picture.

The love affair was shorted lived. We had been doing the “to and from” work thing for about 3 months, when I was cycling home one day, processing the events of the day. Everything seemed to suddenly go quiet and if this was a scene from a movie, the slow motion sequence and tragic music would begin now.

My ride came to an abrupt end when I was unceremoniously cleaned up by a car whilst navigating a round about near my home. Winston had been fatally injured and my pain at seeing his broken frame was immense.

An ambulance ride and a short stay in hospital later I was back home minus Winston and not too keen to get back on the road just yet.

Everyone told me to get back and into the saddle but I could not face the prospect of riding with someone else (not Winston).  But, I did need to get moving again.

But for now lets take a moment to remember my poor Winston xx

Stay tuned ... ... ...

Yes it is tiny - but it hurt the most.

So let me share my story (Part 1)

If this were the end right now, it would be November 6^th 2011 and I would be crossing the finishing line of the New York Marathon on a magnificent autumn morning, having just fulfilled a dream of a lifetime!

But, for now, let me start and the beginning.

After high school, I went to university and completed a Bachelor of Accounting degree and started working as a young graduate accountant for HLB Mann Judd. In addition to working full time, I began my studies towards becoming a Chartered Accountant, which takes an additional 2 years.

As I’m sure you can imagine this was a huge challenge. I was working full time and using all of my spare time to study. So there wasn’t a lot of time left over to do anything else. I was very boring – a typical accountant.

When you do nothing but work and study, you tend not to spend any money and so by the time I had completed the Chartered Accounting program, I had saved enough money to do a little travelling, and embarked upon a four month expedition which took me through the United States, including New York, then on to Mexico, Cuba, England, France and Scotland.

The trip was fantastic and the experiences unparalled. In Cuba, I hired a Peugeot 307 hatchback which doubled as my hotel room. I travelled around, across and through Cuba leaving no stone unturned and the car’s odometer spinning.  I got to Scotland and couldn’t work out why I could not understand a word in this place where English is the spoken language. After some stiff upper lip and pies in England, I moved on to France to soak up some culture and extensively sampled ALL the delicious pastries Paris had to offer.

The trip was amazing, but after four months away, I looked forward to returning home to a clean bed, clothes that would fit me and work-life balance now that my studies were over. Anyone who has travelled overseas and had a good time, would understand that I returned to Perth penniless, with just a job to go back to and some major savings to get underway.

Stay tuned………

My transportation/accommodation in Cuba

Hanging out in Cuba with Alaina

I have no words.......

Ancient ruins in Mexico

First time skiing in Canada - please to report no broken bones

The love affair with New York begins

A wee glacier

A wee clock

A wee Coliseum

A wee lion

Welcome Aboard

Hello all and welcome to my blog.

In November I will be traveling to the big apple to run the New York Marathon to raise money for the Cure Cancer Australian Foundation. I have never run a marathon so this will be a huge challenge for me but my excitement is greater.

So hold on to your hats and follow my ride as I go from zero kms to 42 kms.