In a week from today I'll have completed my first half-marathon while Justine competes in her first marathon.
Between us that day we'll have run 63 kilometres, just over 39 miles. Our training in preparation for the event in the last few months alone has seen us run almost a thousand kilometres.
We're running with a group. The pod I training with number about 100 strong between the marathon, halvsies and 9Kers across all the pods in the state, there's around 500 of us. Collectively we'll be running around 12,000 kilometres on the day.
We're doing this for Cure Cancer Australia, an organisation that directly funds researchers by providing grants to promising new avenues in the search for cancer treatments.
The run itself is awesome. We start off on the north side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and run across to the other side. Our route takes us throughout the inner suburbs of Sydney and we finish on the steps of the Opera hours.
It's a pretty senic run, as you can imagine.
Jus and I need to raise about $3000. We're a little over halfway there but whatever we don't raise we pay for ourselves. It's a condition of the pledge: we get free training, but we've got to raise a certain amount.
If you feel like reading more about our training and perhaps even donating to the cause, you can find out more here on our blog.
We're doing this because we've both been touched by cancer in our families. My Aunt is currently in palliative care. It's a subject close to our hearts.
In a similar topic the question was raised we do these things rather than just donating directly to a given charity. There's a number of reasons:
We pay an entry fee which covers our admin costs
Our trainers give their time for free, donations don't go to pay trainers
It's about raising awareness: we've got 500 people out there right now actively fundraising - it gives people an incentive to donate they wouldn't otherwise have
Anyway, that's enough out of me. For anyone who has never attempted something like this, I highly recommend it. You'll never know how far you can push yourself until you try.