Mothers day

Two days ago it was Mothers Day, all around  Australia, and on that day the biggest charity event takes place.  It is a fun run or walk of either 8km or 4kms.
It is held in Melbourne in and around the Botanical gradens.
In the meanwhile In the regional city of Geelong  this event also took place.
 I entered the 8km fun run.  Yes me run. ha ha ha ha or LOL as the facebook kids say.
So for the last ten weeks I have been worrking toward this.
On the day I was nervous and nearly decide to just walk it, as walking is as equally good for you.

So with aprx. 2000 other people I joined the crowd for the event.  It began in the picturesque Eastern Beach area and lead up and around the boulevard toward the botanical gardens.

As we all slowly shuffled off trying to find our own rhythm people jostled and shoved as the crowd strung out for the first km.
My Ipod was on low but it seemed to work.
By km 3 i was doubting why the hell i was doing this.
By km 4 I looked - really looked around me. Looked at the sea of pink shirts, women of all shapes and sizes, children and a few husbands ( men folk) all huffing and puffing trying to reason to themselves why it was they, too, were there.

This event is mainly for the Breast Cancer Charities who were lead by the (now deceased ) Jane Mc grath to raise awareness for this disease.  Apparently 1 in 3 women will be affected by it here in australia.
That means that I will be a cancer statistic or know someone who is.  And I do.
 I have worked with six women who were in varying stages of this and my fathers2nd wife had a bout of it.

Eighteen months ago my mother developed terminal brain cancer and has somehow surived past all the statistics in excess of eight months now.
So this event was about other people who had cancer of other types.
So at km 6 i began to realise that we are not alone in fighting this disease but all the other cancers.
I was a little sad that none of my immediate family were there to see me actaully achieve this but hey that is nothing new.
After enjoying a brief walk , okay aprx. one km walk, I saw some of the reasons why everyone was doing this.
As the light rain became heavier and none of us seemed to mind, one bit about the fact that we were getting wet and cold, from the southerly wind blowing.
At the finish I actually cried not only did I achieve something but after a couple of - lets say pretty depressing, grief filled (my partner rob died in oct 2008) and painful years I managed to think about total strangers and what they may have gone through, also.
Yes the scenery was good to look at also.
Okay my family weren't there, nor was the photographer who had been taking everyones' pictures earlier but the spirit of rob was and LIFE itself waited patiently for me on the other side the timing mat.
So it was a great Mothers Day i completed the course in aprx. 83 minutes; no Boston Marathon or fast type time but I finished.
Bring on the next challenge.

So thank You : the Fragapane, Faranda, Delios and Christou families who allowed me to walk and run around their various vegetable market gardens, as so I did n't need to be on the roads getting potentially run down by the fast moving traffic in our area.
Thank You to Mark, Ben, Glen and Trevor who made want to live this life.
Thank You to : Kylie, Elton, Usher, Snoop, Rhianna, Chris B., Madonna, Mika, Van Halen, Steve tyler, brett from poison, Jimmy and the cold chisel boys, and all the other great musicians who are on my ipod and keep me going.
THANK YOU to all the wonderfull people who volunteer at these events.

I think I am now hooked on doing more.