FUN RUN AND SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY

31st March to 6th April 2012

Wishing everyone a very Happy Easter, hope it is a time you fondly share with your family and friends and that The Easter Bunny brings you your favourite chocolates.  What is the real meaning of Easter though?  Well, Easter is a time to celebrate the promise of life in the face of death. Easter celebrations also reflect on peace and forgiveness which has come out of aggression. It is also a time for thinking about suffering, injustice and hardship.  The giving of eggs is often a favourite part of Easter, the eggs symbolise new life and are traditionally eaten on Easter Sunday.

My week has been extremely busy, challenging, tiring yet fulfilling.  On Sunday Mum, Nalani and I were part of the Women and Girls Fun Run, it was a 5km course run the course went from Stage 88 in Commonwealth Park to just past the Carillon and returned on a traffic free loop through Commonwealth and Kings Parks.  The weather was absolutely perfect for the event and when our Chief Minister started the race, we flew off.  There was a huge field of 677 and some of the course was a little tough and rugged however we were fortunate that most of it was on path.  The wheelchair rattled as we picked up quite a speed, especially on down hill runs.  I pushed myself in the wheelchair along the path that ran along Lake Burley Griffin while the elegant black swans watched on.  When we came to the final one kilometre both Mum and I were relieved, Nalani had gone way ahead of us.  Coming down the hill and across the finish line I knew that we had achieved my goal of beating my time from last year.  In fact we had really done well 42:59 and 415th place, last year we got 49:47 and came 629th so this year we did exceptionally well.  Nalani was awesome, she came 94th in a time of 27:30, that put a huge smile on her face because it was her first real race after her knee surgery.

With a wonderful achievement also came quite a bit of pain for me, I knew that this was possible, but competing in the event was important to me.  I had to rest and take extra pain killers as well as try other alternative pain relief methods like heat, baths and massage.  Throughout the week the pain came back down.  I have constant pain that I rate at around four out of ten every day, it is like my tinnitus in my ears, constantly there and I guess you become used to it. 

At School we have done practise for NAPLAN, it was first started in Australian schools in 2008, it is  the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) . Every year, all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. 

I had physiotherapy this week and was so pleased because I was still rather uncomfortable after the Fun Run and Kaitlyn was able to work on my back, neck, shoulders and legs. Thank goodness she was able to give me some relief, she must have magic hands.

I also saw my Paediatrician this week, he talked to me about how I was feeling, how my pain relief was going and what I had been doing.  He was really excited about my achievement in the Fun Run and thought I was really inspirational.  He is seeing me again next month after I have seen my Oncologist again.

Thursday was another huge day for me, it was the School Cross Country this was another goal which I had set myself.  The morning started off overcast and foggy, but by the afternoon when it was time for my event, the skies were a brilliant blue and the sun was streaming down.  I am in the 14 year girls, we had to do 3km, the 15 year girls were also running with us.  I had Mum and Nalani there to assist me with the wheelchair, as the gun went off we flew down the course at top speed, actually I think Mum went out a little too hard.  Nalani took over pushing and we completed our first lap in lightning bolt time, only two laps to go,  on the second lap Nalani and I started to leave Mum behind, we were too quick for her.  Two laps completed and only one to go, Nalani virtually sprinted, we met Mum up the hill and she took over, we did not have far to go to the finish line and Nalani and Mum both pushed me across the line. I am not sure of the official time but we did it in under twenty minutes.  I won the AWD classification and got a 1st place blue ribbon, I came 7th in my age group and 10th in the 14/15 years girls.  Theodore with his green scarf on, my house is Guraguma which is green also won a ribbon for the first bear across the line. 

The Course was much bumpier than the one for the Women  and Girls Fun Run and by the end of the race I was in trouble with pain and felt very ill. However the fact that I had done it and done so very well put a smile on my face despite my pain.  I wanted to stay to watch Jarrett run, I love to watch him, he is such a splendiferous runner.  When the gun went off for his race, he flew off at super sonic speed, he had to complete 4km, he lead from the beginning to the end, getting further and further ahead of the other runners in his race.  He won in a record time of 12:32 and also won a 1st place blue ribbon. 

My pain continued and I needed to take extra pain killers that night and the next day, I found I had difficulty moving my neck and back at all and needed help to eat and turn.  I was not able to walk because my legs just crumbled and my arms both tingled from the top into my hands.  However with the pain killers, heat, a bath and massage I began to improved and by Friday night although my pain level was still higher than it normally is, it had eased and become more bearable.

Good Friday in Canberra, the weather was again perfect, which is so unusual because normally it is very overcast, raining and sometimes we even get a fog.  I had a Maths assignment to work on so I did some on that but because my energy had been sapped from the Cross Country, I dozed off whilst typing on the computer. 

My poor West Tigers, they again lost, that is five games in a row and we are sitting on the bottom of the NRL ladder.  I hope that good luck will come there way and they will be able to win a game and gain some confidence back.  Nana is winning the footy tipping and then Pop and I are equal, it is early days yet though and that lead could change as the season progresses. 

A quote from the Bible especially for Easter .

John 11:25, 26
'I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die'.