Friday, April 16, 2010

Julie Stribling Memorial Run

Today was the runnng of the Julie Stribling Memorial Fun Run.  Put together by the team at Julie's workplace, the run was to remember Julie and her love of running.  The 10k run kicked off at 6pm local time and included many of Julie's colleagues, Chris (Julie's partner) and, of course, Emma, Lucy and Holly cheering everyone on from the sidelines.

At least for this year, the Memorial Run included an Alice Springs contingent.  Unfortunately 6pm Greenwich Mean Time is 2:30am Australian Central Time.  But undaunted Stephanie set out to run 10km, with her trusty support crew Dennis following in the car behind.  Emma was on the other end of the phone, letting us know when to start.  The night was very dark, clear and cool (well, bloody cold if you weren't running).

Finished the run in 58m 37s and am assured that Julie would have found that time satisfactory.  Came back to camp and Dennis immediately went back to bed.  Meanwhile, back in the UK, all the other runners went out to the pub.  Did I feel ripped off?  Ummm......YES!

I want to put in a big thank you to Dennis for being willing to wake up at 2:15am and then sit in a car travelling at 10kph for an hour.  Outstanding performance!  I also want to thank Shane, Renee, Kristie and Jamie who will be doing their own 10k run/walk on Sunday to honour Julie - she would be so completely blown away!

If anyone else wants to do something to remember Julie, I commend to you the efforts of Julie's best friend in the UK.  Helen is running in the London Marathon this year in Julie's honour - an amazing commitment.  She has contracted to raise £2500 for Tommy's, a local children's charity, and still needs another £850.  Anyone wanting to do something in Julie's honour should consider giving to support Helen (even a really small amount).  You can make donations by clicking on this link:  http://www.tommys.org/Page.aspx?pid=205&erid=164086&frsid=1652.  And another big thank you to those of you who answered my earlier call to help Helen - you guys are amazing.

Sorry, this has been a bit of an indulgent blog entry - but it's been an important event for me and I wanted to mark it.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 17, 2010 at 1:20 PM

    you are truly amazing! donation done in memory of julie and in recognition of her fabulous sister xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 18, 2010 at 5:19 PM

    What a great friend Helen and great work,
    Maree Moore

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  3. Helen TrustApril 19, 2010 at 8:35 AM

    Stephanie you are a legend and wow 58mins!! It took me 4 years to do 10k in less than an hour so that is fantastic well done. I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the support of your friends and family over the past few weeks, I can't thank everyone enough, I wish I could come over there and give all of you just a huge hug. Thank you again. Julie's memorial run will now be an annual fixture in my diary and hey maybe one year i'll come over to Oz and keep you company in the early hours :-)

    Thanks again to everyone's generosity and support, 7 days to go until the big race and I promise to send updates and pics

    With love
    Helen

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