August 3rd saw runners and walkers line up for the annual Taupō Marathon hosted by Total Sport. One of these was Vicki Didsbury who, along with her husband Bruce and son Jackson, have been long time supporters of CatWalk.
“We have special family friends who have been directly impacted by spinal cord injuries and their strength of character has inspired me to do something to support CatWalk to try to help everyone who has been impacted by SCI. These friends are at the forefront of my mind on every training run and in this way they will be helping me to the finish line in Taupō!”
It was back in March that Vicki made the decision to aim for her very first marathon and took to training.
I have had fantastic advice and guidance from a very special friend of mine – Sarah Biss, who is a running coach at Speedplay Coaching. She has helped the process to be fun for me, which has made all of the training much easier for me and more injury free than it might have been if I hadn’t of had her professional input.
I have been very lucky to have had some training runs in different regions of New Zealand and it has enabled me to enjoy some of the amazing walkways and cycle ways that New Zealand has to offer. My recent early morning run at Lake Tekapo was a real highlight. Cold but spectacular!
I am very excited for the actual run at Lake Taupō. It will be a little different to my normal hilly farm runs but I will look forward to running a track that I have never run along before and competing in my very first marathon.
Vicki also created a fundraising page on the Raisley website and initially set a target of $1000. This was quickly surpassed thanks to a flurry of generous supporters we are thrilled to report Vicki raised over $7000 for CatWalk!
Thank you, Vicki, for choosing to support CatWalk and spinal cord injury research.
If you are competing in an event and would like to use it as an opportunity to support CatWalk, please reach out to chris@catwalk.org.nz who is happy to assist in setting up a fundraising page.