The weekend before last I travelled from Brisbane down to Melbourne to do the 10k event at the Melbourne Marathon Festival. I was a little nervous but mostly excited because not only was I going to run in Melbourne I was going to meet a number of the Operation Move team in person for the first time.
I originally signed up for the MMF last year and was going to do the half marathon with a few of the other Operation Movers. It was going to be our first half marathon. However early this year I injured my ankle and knowing I needed to train for the half and I hadn’t run / walked more than 5k before I started to panic about it. My mental health takes priority so I decided to take that pressure off and switch to the 10k. At the time I was going to be doing it on my own but that didn’t matter – my main reason for going to Melbourne was to meet people, to meet the team.
As it turned out another couple of people injured themselves in the months leading up to the MMF and also switched to the 10k. So instead of doing the run by myself I got to spend that 10k with a couple of absolutely wonderful women – thank you Jo and Kate! One of my team mates on the run was still nursing a knee injury and so we ended up walking about 7k of the distance but we stuck together and I know I had a better time than I would have if I’d decided to take off and run by myself.
One of the advantages of us doing the 10k was that we could then be at the finish line for the half marathon and cheer on the lovely ladies doing that event. It was fantastic – so exciting looking out for your team and cheering their hard work and achievement. Then we headed over to the marathon finish line to look out for our marathon women. It was amazing when we saw them – I cannot imagine running for that amount of time and we all cheered so loudly for them. I had to head off to my hotel soon after they crossed the finish line and as I was saying goodbye and hugging everyone there may have been a few happy emo tears shed.
Thank you Operation Move for not only an amazing weekend but for getting me to the point where I have now completed 2 x 10k events and started thinking that a half marathon is achievable.
It is so nice to put faces to names. Great to meet you Rachel.
It was great to meet you too Mandy 😀
You are so awesome Rach! Being able to do the 10k with you and Kate was the best silver lining to the injuries. I’m in awe of you travelling that far on your own!! So glad you did because I got to meet you xo
Thanks Jo! It was quite an adventure traveling down there and I am so glad I did too xx