COCO BUTTER: Entering my first fun run in 6 years!

Okay, I'm starting to write this on Friday 17th February, but I won't be publishing it until at least Sunday 19th. I'll likely come back and do a few edits before I do publish it.

Why?

Because I've entered my 4 year olds and myself into a FUN RUN on Sunday and I haven't told anyone about it yet!

What the actual thing am I doing??

Until this week (YAY, go me!) I hadn't exercised in 7 years (see my current Instagram posts about this):

Exercise update post 1

Exercise update post 2

And I haven't done a fun run since...looking up now...26th January 2017: The Australia Day Running Festival, a 5km event. [Side note: Oops...okay, that was more likely the last day I exercised, not a 2016 boot camp. Okay, so it's been 6 years since I exercised. And, fun run wise the exact same.]

Literally just over 6 years.

REALLY, what am I doing??

So.

How did I get to this strange point?

So back when I was doing my run of Pinkie Tris and fun runs, like 10 years ago, I started getting inspired to one day take my nieces along to one of their events. They have a few kids events on the day and it's heaps of fun. Heaps of people dress up and there's glitter, tutus and the colour pink EVERYWHERE.

I was in awe of the parents and kids there and thought what a cool and amazing thing to do as a KID. So good for them and so much FUN. It was so inspiring to watch. I had two brand new nieces at the time and this ultimate aunty visualised myself taking them to one myself one day.

Fast forward a few years, add a 'few' too many kilos, a few too many injuries, a not so healthy bout of social anxiety, and I have been of course in no state to even consider participating in an event any time soon. But the dream never left me.

In 2021 when the girls were 2, it occurred to me that umm, I now have two of my own daughters now! Yes, I was very aware that I had become a parent. But it just made me realise that hey - I could actually bring my OWN kids along to an event!

I was absolutely nowhere near close to being ready to enter one in 2021, but I started daydreaming and googled the events out of interest.

Yes, they still had kid events. They had two kids triathlons, and 3 fun runs: 1km, 3km and 6km.

There were minimum age limits for the tris and fun runs (7 years old), but I couldn't see any age restriction for the 1km event...?

I emailed the event organisers and asked them whether there was a minimum age for the 1km. They replied and said that no, there wasn't! They did say if they were under 5 they would request an adult to run with them, which of course I would do regardless. But it was cool to know that whenever (??) I was ready, that I had a green light to bring my own two little girls along!

I didn't imagine I'd be ready for a couple of years anyway (let alone my 2 year olds! lol!)

Anyway, fast forward to late 2022; I was daydreaming again. I'd had the surgery fairly recently so was definitely going down in kg's, but I wasn't ready to enter a fun run yet of course! I was still limping with each step that I took, and I hadn't even inadvertently walked longer than the length of the local shopping centre in years. But my eyes were opening up to many possibilities and opportunities again.

I jumped online and looked up the dates of the events near me. I'm lucky in Brisbane, in that we've got 3 events each year that we can easily get to: Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

I'd done them all many times. It appeared now that the Sunshine Coast event was no more, but I still had Brisbane and the Gold Coast!

Of all the days for me to think to look it up, it happened to be the date of the 2022 Brisbane event - like, that very day. It was happening as I was googling.

That meant that the next Brisbane event would be a year away. As much as this is about my girls as well, my googling this day was more about me trying to find an event for me, one that I could set as a bit of a goal and work towards; physically and mentally. And a 1km event (THAT COMES WITH A MEDAL! You need a medal) - was the perfect starting point for me.

Possibly overconfidence speaking here, but I was hoping that I would be far beyond needing to stick to a 1km event in one years time.

So I looked up the date of the Gold Coast event.

I wasn't too keen on the GC - I do love the GC! - but it's about an hours drive, and taking along my young twins to a different city for my first foray into events since 2017...I don't know...I needed to make this huge goal as simple and achievable as possible for me.

I looked it up anyway and the next event date was set for the 19th February 2023.

Hmmm.

As much as the date was better than a whole year away, I didn't know if I could be ready by then! (I was looking this up in October/November). I'm still hugely morbidly obese and I need a double knee replacement. February was very soon...

But, me being how I am, I started considering it, for real...

I started a 'dummy entry' just to check the cost of entry for the 1km, but it wouldn't let me put my girls dates of birth in...? I pretended they were 7 years of age instead, and this time it let me.

I emailed the event organisers with my previous email trail below, and enquired about it. I asked whether the rules had changed and did they now have a minimum age for the 1km event too, or was it was just a technical error.

They didn't comment on what I was told a couple of years ago, but just said that they do have a minimum age of 7, but if I wanted to enter, then to let them know and they could request special permission from the race director.

Oh, Kate. It may be 6 years since your last event, but it seems you haven't shaken the irony of somehow having officials or special circumstances going on with your events. At least (at this stage anyway!) there were no police or loudspeakers involved... 😳. (If you're a new follower you can find previous blog posts about all of my interesting event experiences listed here).

I didn't want to have to ask for special permission or anything! 😅 I'm a just-go-with-the-rules person / rules follower. If the mininum age is 7 then I'll bring the girls in 3 years time! 🤷. No biggie. The only reason I was enquiring about it is that they had told me themselves that there was no age limit. (And their website actually says that there's no age limit lol). 😉

This being said, I did of course appreciate the offer of getting special permission.

I kept it at the back of my mind for all of like two days haha, and then emailed again and said that capital 'Y'; Yes, I have decided, I do want to enter.

WHAT?

I have no idea where this gusto and confidence came from, but I went with it...

They replied soon after and said that the race director had given the girls special permission to enter. 😆😂 Oh goodness...I've only ever wanted to blend in at events, and it's never managed to happen...and it seems that continues. We hadn't even entered yet and already we have special permissions... 😜🙈

So, I entered us.

And that's how it came about!

I've tried not to think about it too much. I am excited. I'm looking forward to:

Sharing this experience with my girls
Watching them participate in their first event
To give them this experience
To perhaps kick off something that they'd like to continue (eg. running / fun runs / athletics)
Getting myself back into events
Getting medals. Derr! 😆
Being proud of how bloody much mere grit and strength its taken for me to make this day happen (in several respects).
Achieving something I daydreamed about doing 10 years ago. With my own children. 😭
Going to the beach afterwards! The girls LOVE the beach.

And that's why I'm doing it, and why we'll be turning up.

But I am equal parts terrified.

My social anxiety is bloody intense man. I struggle walking into Woolworths. And here I am planning on attending a SPORTS STADIUM - in a different city, to participate in a running event alongside hundreds of fit people? Like, who does that?

I got our race numbers emailed to me the other day and it blew my mind. It's been 6 years since I've been given a race number. And to also see my babies names on their own race numbers... oh gosh. 💓

And then I checked the address and realised the venue is called the Gold Coast Performance Centre... whaaaat? Hahaa

It's the same stadium I've attended the same event in many times before. But it must have changed names over the years and now it sounds even more elite than it already did.

A few days ago I was reading one of my blog posts from my first Pinkie event in 2012 and I said this in that blog post and will say it again now: 'I don't tend to frequent sports stadiums.' 😅

And the reason I haven't shared what I'm doing in advance, and why I won't be publishing this post until after, is not because I'm unsure if I'll do it, or anything like that.

It's sort of sadly because I told someone a couple of months ago what I was planning, and they kind of laughed at / dissed me. I was so embarrassed and ashamed and haven't wanted to tell anyone since! It's a bit of a stubborn response on my behalf, but I was hurt and ashamed.

Yes, 1km is nothing.