My first and probably last marathon - Raising funds to help end animal cruelty

Hello everyone

Thanks very much for your support and kind donations! My marathon venture is now over and between us, we've raised over $1000.03 for Animal Liberation which is absolutely amazing and has made all the blisters and hours spent pounding tarmac worthwhile! Deepest thanks for helping me achieve my goals :)

I finished the Sydney Marathon in a time of 4hrs 23 minutes and 34 seconds. 3minutes and 34 seconds outside the qualifying time for the six foot track marathon but that is probably a good thing ;/

Overall, my marathon experience was extremely positive! I didn't quite manage to join the 25% of mankind who have completed a marathon in under 4hours but the good news is that this means there is another opportunity in the future for me to try and achieve this...once I forget about km's 30-40 maybe ;/

The race day itself will live in my memory for a long time. The day started off with rain in North Sydney and ended in glorious sunshine in the Rocks. For some reason (nothing to do with my horrific training and tapering) my legs felt very heavy from early on in the run and the last 37 km's needn't have been have difficult as they were. Thanks to the Sydney Striders pace runners, I managed to keep to my target pace up until around km 30 but then my legs didn't want to move and I went from 5:30km to 8:48km at the slowest.

The pic below illustrates km's 30-40 perfectly. It was only the thought of all the support and donations from my friends and family and the thought that no matter how bad I felt, it was nothing compared to the lifetime of pain that certain animals suffer to provide uneccessary food and entertainment that got me through this section. If there is a next time, I will be better prepared for this by doing more than three 25km+ training runs!

The last 2.195kms of the race were amazing and made all the training and pain worthwhile. The energy of the crowd and the sight of the finish line somehow saw me return to my planned pace. Running under the Harbour Bridge and through cheering crowds in the Rocks and Circular Quay to finish at the Sydney Opera House whilst listening to the Verve's 'Come On' was amazing and will live with me forever.

I think the things I learnt about myself during this venture will stand me in good stead for the rest of my earthly career. At the start of the year, I'd have thought running a marathon would be impossible but completing this has certainly removed a lot of boundaries and obstacles from my way of thinking. I now think if I can run 5km, 10km, 21km, 42km with a cyborg leg then there is absolutely no reason why anyone cannot  do whatever it is they want to do or at the very least TRY! The saying "the only obstacle is yourself" is really true and I encourage everyone to at least try and live their dreams :)

Thanks again for your support and for making a difference to the lives of the voiceless!

Best wishes and dream big

Jamie

p.s if you haven't already, like the Animal Liberation Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AnimalLiberationNSW?fref=ts

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Greetings

Breaking my leg in Nov 2012 and being unable to walk for much of last year made me really appreciate life and the freedom most of us have to live a happy, positive existence full of opportunity. Unfortunately not every living being on this planet share these opportunities.

To make full use of my ability to use both legs and to  further my new found interest of running,  my cyborg leg and I have for some reason signed up to attempt the 42.195km (26.21875 miles) Blackmores Sydney Marathon in September (Confirmed Entrants List).

This will be the first and possibly last marathon I am ever likely to run and I would like to use this probably once in a lifetime opportunity (mistake?) to raise awareness of and hopefully some funds for the highly deserving, animal rights charity Animal Liberation.

http://animal-lib.org.au/

Animal Liberation is a non-government funded charity who’s mission statement is: to work toward the end of suffering of exploited and confined animals, through legislation, consumer advocacy, action and humane education. Animal Liberation do a truly unbelievable job of defending the voiceless through education campaigns, exposing animal cruelty and bringing the criminals to justice.

I would really appreciate it if you could take some time to ‘like’ the Animal Liberation facebook page and if possible in this tight economic climate, make a contribution – all contributions from a dollar/pound upwards would be greatly appreciated and utilised I am sure!

Donations made through the GoFundraise platform are secure and will be remitted directly through to my charity of choice.
 

Thanks so much for your support!

Jamie

 

The Long and Winding Roads

I thought I would try and make this page a bit more interesting by recording the lowlights and highlights (if there are any) of my marathon preparations. Hopefully this will provide me with some inspiration and acountability when the thought of running for 2hrs+ in the Sydney winter doesn't seem too appealing.
 

8/6/14 - Sri Chimnoy Half Marathon at Centennial Park

Distance:
Half Marathon (21km)

Venue:
Sri Chimnoy Series @ Centennial Park

Playlist:
Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who
Something Burning – The Stone Roses
Not Fade Away – Rolling Stones
(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave – The Jam
Everybody’s Talkin – Harry Nilsson
Music is Power – Richard Ashcroft
Stellify – Ian Brown
Just Looking – Stereophonics
World Keeps Turning – Richard Ashcroft
Motown Junk – Manic Street Preachers
Bangla Dhun – Ravi Shanka (The Concert for Bangladesh)
Wah-Wah – George Harrison (The Concert for Bangladesh)
My Sweet Lord – George Harrison (The Concert for Bangladesh)
Awaiting on You All – George Harrison (The Concert for Bangladesh)
A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan (The Concert for Bangladesh)
When You’re Young – The Jam
See The World – Gomez
Heroes – David Bowie
Walk On By – The Stranglers
Rip it Up – Razorlight
Move on Up – The Jam
Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
Pounding – Doves
C’mon People (We’re Making it Now) – Richard Ashcroft
*Come On – The Verve *unused

Time:
1hr 50m 44seconds (PB)

Verdict:
It was nice to do a cross country run for the first time in probably 19 years. The last time I did cross country, I stopped repeatedly and finished just ahead of the white shorted, fat kids who “forgot their kit” or hadn’t secured a note from mum so it was nice to successfully run on grass and even nicer to take nearly 12 minutes off my previous RunKeeper-hampered half marathon time of 2hrs 2mins. I understand a little how Ian Botham's feet must have felt walking through those mountains now and have some epic blisters on both feet. I still cannot really comprehend running for twice this distance but it was good to get my training on track.. Hopefully the hot bath and acting like Robin Hood gone wrong by wearing these tights (Skins A400) around the house will enable me to walk again soon.

Strata
http://www.strava.com/activities/150759376/overview

My fundraising page
http://run.gofundraise.com.au/page/sydney_marathon_jr