Quick recap

Hi y'all,

Quick recap of the last 20 years or so... My name's Kate (not Whippet like the blog name suggests), and I grew up with competitive gymnastics. I loved it and when I retired at the mature age of 15, I found myself looking for something else. I'd never been a good distance runner (asthma and all those fast twitch muscle fibres from gym), I'd been ok at 100m and 200m, so the logical next step would have been to get involved in track... But I've never been very good at logic either, so I set myself a goal to run 10km. I achieved that goal and then I didn't do very much at all for the next 8 years or so.

Then when I was about 24, I decided to join the gym (shared house = too much take-away and wine!) and I started running on the treadmill. Again, asthma was an obstacle especially because I'd put on a bit of weight, so when I first ran 10min on the treadmill at 8k/per hour, I felt like I'd run a marathon. I started running (a lot), I lost weight (a lot) and began entering fun runs (a lot). I still refused to run with anyone else though because I felt so incredibly slow. In hindsight I probably wasn't too bad. My first fun run was the Very Special Kids 10km in 2000, which I finished in 52min. Very special Kids meant a great deal to me because I'd previously volunteered for them (www.vsk.org.au)

In 2000 I began working as a Personal Trainer and running quickly became my specialty area. I trained people for 10km runs through to half marathons. I LOVE researching anything and everything to do with running, so I studied technique, programming, nutrition, gear, events and whatever else I could find. I ran my best half marathon time of 1:42:10 in 2002 (I think) and my best 10km was about 47min. I began running with friends (big deal for me), and realised I now had a relationship with running. Sometimes it was a love-hate relationship but nether the less, like all my relationships, I knew I'd be loyal to it and running would always be part of my life!

In 2007, I was blessed with our first child... Now being pregnant, especially when you look like the Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters, can make running difficult. I tried continuing despite the strange looks from people, but at about 6 months I had to admit I was too big to continue running. Therefore I had two significant breaks from running during my two pregnancies, but worked hard each time to get back into it. (Thank God for Phil & Teds running pram!) And thank God for my wonderful hubby who pushed the pram while I gasped behind him :-) Below is a picture of me whilst pregnant with Lucas (my first baby - heavy weight 4.5kg).

In the past 7 years, I have run a little, a lot and everything in between. It's interesting juggling family life, a business, work, school, home duties, sleep and everything else. Then in 2012, I was told I have a FAI and labral tear of my left hip and need surgery. I decided before I went under the knife I'd run a marathon (as I mentioned earlier, I'm not great with logic!) So after a couple of months off to attempt pre-hab/rehab, strength/core training and technique work, I made the decision to run a marathon in 2014. It seemed perfect, the year I turn 40 and both kids are in school.

After months of seriously working my butt off, I can finally say I've completed a marathon. I ran Canberra marathon last Sunday - April 13th 2014 - in a time of 3:30:47. (www.runningfestival.com.au/course-details/marathon/) I'm stoked but... there's always a 'but'... I know I have more to give. I'm so happy to be running right now, I feel like I'm really falling in-love with it and I want to try everything from a fast 10km, to trails, to ultras, to Comrades! I thought keeping a blog might be a nifty way of keeping a record of which runs I've enjoyed the most so I can plan my calendar for 2015. (And yeah it looks like surgery can wait!)

There's my quick recap... hopefully over the next couple of days I'll write a blog about my Canberra marathon experience. Stay tuned and keep running :-)