My 24 Hour Jog To Honour The Lives Of Lost Loved Ones

Published: 12/08/2019

From Saturday July 27 until Sunday July 28, 7am to 7am, I ran a total distance of 170.2kms around the Vermont Football Club oval.

I wanted to do this because it was just 3 days from the 3 year anniversary of my teammate’s passing, and at a special place to me, where we played football together.

The 24 hour run was like nothing else I have ever experienced. I felt such a range of emotions- joy,  ecstasy, discomfort, pain, vulnerability; the list goes on. I knew going into it that I was going to be uncomfortable; that was obvious and so I was mentally prepared for it. However, I battled stomach issues from 11am until around midnight, so well over half of my run. I have never had this issue running before, so it was another challenge to deal with on top of my already sore & heavy legs.

I had the most incredible support in the world. The generosity of so many people was extremely humbling and again it surprised me. Reflecting now, I don’t know why I was so surprised though, the support I have had through my whole Jog for Joey campaign has been nothing short of phenomenal.  I just can’t believe that I didn’t have a single step alone for an entire day! I had around 25 people by my side at 2AM, and 15 people with me at 4:30am when it was just 4 degrees.

My great friend Dale Linaker who I met when I ran the Bali Hope Ultramarathon in May this year, ran with me for 12.5 hours! He ran an epic 74km himself, helping me in my hardest stretch from 8:30pm-7am on the Saturday night/early Sunday morning. He kept pushing me, helped me stick to strategies, played music, and just did it all! I can’t thank Dale enough for his support.

I also can’t thank my mate Jono enough. I had never even met him before the day before the run! Jono was a mutual friend of one of my friends Josh, and so with us only speaking before on the phone, he booked his flight from Adelaide to Melbourne, and arrived at 10pm on the Friday night, before flying home at 9:30am on the Sunday morning. He flew over solely to support my 24 hour run. He is a true friend, and I couldn’t have achieved this feat without his support. He was organising my food and drinks while I was running, and taking plenty of photos that are now very special to look back at.

I thought about my teammate a lot during the run. I remember 9 hours in I was running and I ate a big donut with a huge smile. The donut is mine, and was his favourite junk food!

I truly believe that we can achieve anything we set our mind to in life, as long as we have a strong enough reason WHY, so we can embrace the discomfort we are experiencing and can keep on going. I needed to think about my reason WHY all the time. Remembering that the pain that I was feeling for 24 hours of running, does NOT compare to the pain, bereaved families feel without their lost loved one every single day, helped me continue to push through.

I hugged bereaved mothers and fathers and shared tears with them over the 24 hours, as they told me how much what I was doing meant to them. It was again a great reminder when I was in the pain cave, that it was only temporary and this was for something way more important than myself.

I finished the run by walking the last hour, arm in arm with friends and my mum. For the 3 hours previous, (hours 20-23), I had been running 5-6kms per hour consistently, but then, I really hit the wall 23 hours in and the pain I felt through my left foot was immense. Quitting was never an option and I knew I was going to push through, but I had to come to the realisation that my running was finished and I had to walk. I also came to the realisation that I most likely had a stress fracture in my left foot, as I couldn’t put any weight through it. I had a stress fracture back when I was 15 and playing footy in 2012, and the pain I was feeling in that moment was the exact same.

I couldn’t weight bare for 2 days following the run and was on crutches. Weirdly, I had a feeling of contentment come across me that I had never felt before. While I knew I would miss my running if I had broken my foot, I knew that is was all ok, because I was so proud that I did this.

Broken bones heal, but the broken hearts of the families who have lost their loved ones too soon, never do.  

I also knew that I don’t have any key events coming up in the near future other than my training, so if it was to be a stress fracture and I would be in a moon boot, I felt grateful that it came at this time, not after my 50 marathons in 50 days before the Bali Hope Ultra, and not after the Bali Hope Ultra before this 24 hour run.

Thankfully, as I write this 2 weeks later, I have had an XRAY and an MRI and I know that my foot definitely isn’t broken. It is already feeling a lot better and I’ll be back into running early next week. The MRI revealed that both my peroneus longus and peroneus brevis tendons were severely inflamed. The inflammation will go down with rest and ice on the area, which it already has significantly in the 2 weeks since the run.

From here on, my running load will decrease slightly as I spend time with my podiatrist, my physiotherapist and my running coach to correct any imbalances that I have. I have been told by all of them that I have very weak glutes, so I have work to do! The next couple of months will involve less running, but significantly more weights and leg strengthening exercises.

This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Read my two instagram posts below that I wrote following the run, to get a further understanding of the emotions I endured, and my opinion on the importance of living outside our comfort zone. It truly is hard to put into words.