Archives for June 2018



Corinne is one of our most supportive members of Run Club and the Operation Move Community. When not running she can be found making amazing works of fabric art at Sew-cial Dyes. Corinne originally shared her story in Run Club and it is reprinted here with her permission.

Growing up, I was always involved in sport. I played and represented our local region in hockey, and never missed an opportunity to be active at school. I continued playing and coaching hockey until my kids (twins) were 2yrs old. Then too much was expected of me within the teams, when all I wanted to do was have a hit around once a week in a social situation, so I stepped away.

I found a local boot camp group and went twice a week. My trainer was a runner, and my ears frequently twitched listening to her talk about her training and events. In 2012, a very good friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. This led to me entering my first event, the Tri Pink in support of Kerry. I completed that Tri in January, 2013 and crossed the finish line, proud and teary and hyperventilating (which has been a recurring theme for me).

My husband and I trained for the Mother’s Day classic that year, 8km’s seemed like such a long way. Who even runs 8km’s for something to do. I thought you just ran to chase a white ball around a field. Who even runs without a stick? Anyway, I trained and was SO nervous and excited leading into it, but Cooper was up vomiting the entire night before, I still remember standing in the driveway crying as I waved PJ off as he and a friend headed to the event. No point both of us missing it after we’d trained so hard.

I couldn’t let that training go to waste, so I decided to enter the 10km event at Jetty 2 Jetty in July. My sister ran at this event every year, so I spoke with her. Well in that conversation, I went from running the 10k to the half marathon! She and her husband had entered the half, my husband decided he’d join them … well I my ego stood up and wasn’t going to miss out. So I signed up for the half too. My Mantra during my raining was “Alive & Strong”, because that’s what I was. When my training became tough, when my legs didn’t want to go any further, I would repeat that mantra over and over with my footsteps, reminding myself how lucky I was to be Alive and Strong enough to do this when many others, including Kerry were not. (I still use this mantra when it’s feeling all too hard out there running.)

So within 8 months of starting to run, I ran my first half marathon in 2.02. But, I had my graphic design sister adjust that finish line time on my photo to 2.00hr because I had a toilet stop in there where I stopped my Garmin, and my Garmin said 2.00hr … Our Garmin’s never lie.

The first person I rang when I crossed that finish line was my friend Kerry. Sadly Kerry’s cancer metastacised to her lungs and she passed away a few months later. Since then, I’ve not stopped running. I have completed about 9 half marathons, a few 10 and 15km events, 4 tough mudders, and various other obstacle courses.

My most memorable run to date has been the full marathon I ran with my husband in 2015. We chose the Great Ocean Road as our destination thinking that if we only ever did 1 marathon. Let’s make it special. It didn’t disappoint. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the atmosphere, the scenery … I could go on and on. I get goose bumps every time I reminisce about it. The run itself sucked with 12km to go, we were both in a high level of pain and ran/ walked those last km’s, but the smile never left my face.

I found Operation Move the week before my marathon, and it’s been the most valuable resource and support to me personally, and also my running. I have made so many friends through this community, and have been so privileged to have met and run with quite a few Op Move members, with future plans to meet more.

So what now … well yesterday I had an epiphany. The words passed through my mind, that at the moment I’m a recreational runner, and I’m ok with that. I’m not interested in pushing my mind and body hard for pb’s. I’m not interested in climbing out of bed in the dark to run. For me, for now … running is my joy. Running is easy and a place to sort my thoughts. It may not stay this way forever, but for now I’m a Recreational Runner and I love it. I cannot thank the ladies of Run Club enough for being part of my life.

Kathleen completed Learn to Run in 2017 and is now an active and valued member of Run Club and the Operation Move Community. Kathleen originally shared her story in Run Club and it is reprinted here with her permission.

I was blessed with an amazing childhood. I was a very dedicated dancer, starting at the age of 2yrs. From the age of about 7 I was dancing 6 days a week, all my choice. My dancing friends were like extended family and my dancing school was my second home. I got to do some amazing things with my dancing – danced overseas, danced 4 times a year at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, danced in front of the Queen to open Darling Harbour in 1988, danced with and met many famous people and the list goes on and on, so yes, very blessed.

When I was in Year 9 I went on a school ski camp and it was there that I discovered something. I couldn’t fit into the normal ski boots for my size and had to wear the bigger style boots due to my calf and ankle size. This horrified me being 14, but it also confused me as I was not over weight. My legs were a little chunky compared to the rest of me but not that obvious. My mum took me to a specialist and he wanted to do all sorts of things to my legs surgery-wise. None of that seemed necessary so I just lived with it and kept dancing. As I got older I was still small everywhere but my legs continued getting chunky and by the time I was 16 to me they looked fat and abnormal. Turns out I have Lipodema (different to lymphedema) which I only discovered about 3 years ago.

Once I hit 17/18 I had backed off a lot from dancing as life and friends and boys were much more interesting. It was then that I started to gain a lot weight. Over the next few years add a horrendous relationship that led me to self destruct. Pulling myself out of that mess meant loads of weight gain. I was about 95kg when I met my husband. We moved in together extremely fast and life just went on from there. We’ve had many ups and downs but are still together 18 and a half years later…..just. I have 3 gorgeous kids who are now 8, 9 and 12. In June 2013 after getting to my heaviest weight of 138.8kg I went ahead (after many years of thinking and trying everything but) and had gastric sleeve surgery. Best thing I ever did. It gave me my life back. I dropped 30 kilos really fast and the next 10-15kgs came off pretty easy too. I have now lost over 50kgs and have about 20 to go.

One day the learn to run advert came up randomly on my facebook feed. I had always hated running but I had always been jealous of people that could run…. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I joined, got about 6 weeks in and quit. I wasn’t enjoying it, I wasn’t engaging online and my head wasn’t in it. Every run was a chore. I was disappointed in myself but didn’t believe I was capable of doing it. When the advert came up randomly again a few months later I just thought to myself you CAN do it and I knew I hadn’t really given it a chance properly first time so I signed up again.

This time my head and my heart were in it, the LTR group I was in were an amazing group of women and by about week 3 I found I was planning everything around my runs because I wanted to do them, not because I felt I had to. I found I was enjoying the headspace time to myself and the sense of accomplishment I was feeling was a real high. My love for running and op move started with that group and has just grown since then. I am proud to belong to such an amazing group of inspiring women and am proud of myself for what I am doing. I am slowly starting to let go of the ‘you can’t do that’ thoughts that enter my head and am turning those thoughts into ‘oooo, I wonder what else I could do/how far I could go’ thoughts instead. I am grateful to each and every member of Run Club for the constant support and encouragement and I love how open and honest we can all be in this group.