Terry Fox Fun Run

Today was a stunner - blue sky and sunshine but freezing cold of course. The ground was white with frost early but the run was not held until 10am which was a civilized hour. I ran in a singlet top but wore gloves to keep my hands warm! Terry Fox, a Canadian, was 18 when diagnosed with cancer and lost one leg to the disease. In 1981, at age 21, he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He managed to run 5,000km before the cancer reached his lungs and he was unable to continue. He died soon afterwards but he managed to raise more than $24 million through his "Marathon of Hope". Now annually in 58 countries throughout the world the Terry Fox Run is held to raise money for cancer research. This year Canberra had its best turn-out yet with over 2,000 people running and a record amount of money raised. It was very successful. The run starts from the Canadian Embassy and travels to a turnaround point at Weston Park. Certainly it was freezing cold but because the sun was out and there was little wind the conditions were excellent.

I was up until nearly 1am this morning cooking for tonight and was not at my best for this run due to some extent to the run yesterday or perhaps just due to lack of training! However, I enjoyed very pleasant company running with FlashDuck for about 5km when she took off to the loo but still managed to fly past me at the 7km mark, looking strong.

Distance: 10km (10.21km according to Gandalf)
Time taken: 55mins
Average pace per km: 5:29
Calories: 586
Fastest km: 4:55

After the run there was an opportunity to catch up with lots of running buddies. So many people turn up for this run who you might not see from one year to the next. The winner of the 10km run ran it in 30mins and the winner of the 5km in 15:05 - totally impressive! It is quite a tough course with lots of undulations! CJ was amazing coming in as 16th woman in a time of 45mins ahead of Mr B by 1 minute!