We did it!

Today was the ActewAGL Women & Girl's Fun Run/Walk. A few weeks ago I rallied some of my friends together to make a team to represent the Canberra Endometriosis Network (CENTS). While the fun run is mainly to support ovarian cancer awareness, the team with the highest number of runners would win money to go to the charity of their choice.

Thalita power walking towards the finish line

I had a really good response to the call - many of my friends wanted to join in and support the cause. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bad weekend for many of them, but it's good to know that there are people out there that are interested!

It was also great to hear that entering a CENTS team in the fun run started a lot of conversations about endometriosis with my friends who were participating. Whether they had endometriosis or not, it is so good to hear that even more people are finding out about endometriosis, and it's becoming less and less of a big secret every day.

Lara & Olivia gleefully finishing

Sunday morning rolled around and we all donned our yellow for endometriosis awareness. My goal for the run/walk was to do 1 min run/1 min walk intervals. However, a friend running with me pushed me to run the first 1 km, and then we figured we might as well do 2 km, and by then I just wanted to see if I could make it the whole way.

Go yellow!

...and make it I did! Except for a couple of points during the race where I had a 20 m stint of power walking, the rest of the time I jogged, and I actually sprinted for most of the last km (which is why I was there at the finish line to take photos of my power walking friends).

Canberra Endometriosis Network represent!

I never would've believed that I could've done this even 3 months ago. I'm so proud of myself for doing it. To tell the truth, I got quite emotional towards the end of the run, just so happy to see everyone cheering you on, supporting you and wanting you to do your best. It's such a great environment. I'm sure to seasoned runners, 5 km is peanuts, but to me it is a big achievement. I look forward to the day when 10 km is my regular run.

The whole gang

I'm hoping to make this an annual event and have T-shirts, sweat bands or capes made up next year. This year it was enough to just get a group together. It was particularly poignant for me as today was not a good pain day for me. Kind of ironic I guess, but it's good for me to see the progress I've made in the last year. If I had had a similar day of my cycle last year I wouldn't have been able to get out of bed from the pain, while here I am running 5 km! Between the surgery, diet and exercise, something must be working for me. It's not gone, but at least I can function a lot better. (Disclaimer: this run was brought to you with the help of tranexamic acid, Ponstan & Panadol, so I did have a little help in the painkiller department.)

Linking up with A New Kind of Normal for Blogging for Endometriosis Awareness - Yellow Shirt Day Link-up.