It all started with an idea.
Almost a year ago I was injured and had to cancel the Antwerp 10 miles. I found Sofie on Instagram and she wanted to run the marathon that same day, but was also injured.
That’s how we bonded, by whining and complaining about being injured.
But soon after that we became really good friends and started planning running adventures together.
So when I asked her if she wanted to run the 100 kilometers against cancer with me she immediately agreed.
We decided I would run the 40km and she would do the 30km part. That meant we needed two more people to complete our team. I invited Toby and she invited Nathalie and we signed up.
We started fundraising, go donations, organised a comedy night, a brunch, … By the end of January we had raised 2500 euro and we were sure we were gonna be able to run the 100 kilometer.
When we arrived at de Schorre that morning we noticed what a beautiful day it was going to be. The sun was out and the sky was blue. Since my shins were still hurting a bit, Toby applied some KT tape and I was good to go!
The first 11 kilometer I had to run alone, but that didn’t last long. I met Kim, who I only knew through Instagram and we talked and ran together.
After the first loop we arrived back in de Schorre and I felt the high of everyone cheering me on and the joy when seeing Sofie and knew we could run the ‘last’ 29 kilometer together.
The second loop was 10 kilometers and was different from the first one, which was nice. We chatted, talked to a couple other runners and found a pace that we knew we would be able to maintain until the end.
We texted Toby to let him know we were on our way and started running as a trio.
We did another 10 kilometer loop and found Nathalie who couldn’t wait to join.
After the last 10 kilometers we arrived back in de Schorre and saw a huge crowd cheering us on. We did it! 40,20 kilometer for me, 100 kilometer as a team.
A run for everyone out there who is battling cancer, lost the battle against cancer, survived cancer or lost a loved one to cancer…
And who knows, team Once Upon a Run might be back!
Leave a Reply