Race For Life 2013

Race for Life 2013… Well… I DID IT!!!

6 weeks ago I was in hospital having radiotherapy for Thyroid Cancer.

This weekend, I ran Race for Life and raised £1298 for Cancer Research UK. Thanks to all of you, my readers and sponsors who believed in me.

It was tough. It was 35 degrees of sunshine. It was 5 different types of terrain – tarmac, gravel, sand, woodchip and grass. It was me running, having not ran (even for a bus) in 11 years!

I ran the first mile. I got indigestion and heartburn, so I walked the second. I ran the third and I sprinted the finish (gagging on the line – classy!)

I beat my target of 45 minutes, running across the finish line at 42 minutes. I went back to the finish line and cheered on Sarah (who blogs at Mum of Three World) as she completed her 10k race (twice the distance of mine) in a staggering 1 hour and 1 minute. How she did it, in that breezeless heat, I will never know.

I admit. At the somewhere between the 2k and 3k markers, it got a bit much. The stewards cheering us on, the motivational signs put round the course, the messages on peoples backs. Tears pricked me eyes and a lump formed in my throat (please excuse the hideous pun there!) I had to slow and take stock of my emotions.

I remembered this wasn’t about me, even though the signs read as though they were talking to my own Cancer.

This was about everyone I love who has got or has had Cancer.

This was about all those people who put their hard earned cash into sponsoring me and making every penny count. If I didn’t push myself hard, I wouldn’t have earnt those sponsors.

I wanted to make every single one of you proud.

Above all… I ran… FOR JOY.