Dora Runs a Marathon

Join me on my journey as I run my first marathon!

Over the years I have used my love of Pandora jewellery as both motivation and rewards to help me achieve my goals.

This year one of my goals was to run a half marathon. After completing that goal, my husband and I decided to try and reach one of our life goals, to run a full marathon. We’ve been training for the last few months and race day is just under a month away!

Define Yourself

Training for a marathon has not just been a physical journey. Mentally I have travelled many miles. As a child at school I was never deemed the ‘sporty’ type, never picked first for team games and never encouraged to try new sporting activities. Yet I have learnt that we do not need to be defined by either our past or other peoples opinions. Just because I was not thought of as a runner before, does not mean I cannot run now. The Pandora Baby Shoe Dangle (799075C00) has been my favourite motivational charm to remind myself that I can be my own definition of myself.

Tie Your Laces, an Adventure Is Out There.

Anything and everything can be an adventure if you let it. My running journey has helped me turn negatives into positives and failures into motivation for success. One of our training runs included running up a hill and I walked the last part to reach the summit. But I told myself next time I would run all the way to the top. And I did and boy was it fun running down again! It felt like flying. If I had just given up I would never had experienced that adventure. The colourful Disney x Pandora Pixar’s Up House & Balloons Charm reminds me that adventure is out there… we just have to go out and look for it.

Adventure is out there!

Up, Pixar & Walt Disney

Be Inspired and Inspire Others

Throughout our marathon training program we have been motivated and inspired by athletes’ personal stories. Here are three of my favourites.

Joan Benoit Samuelson won gold at the first Olympic Women’s Marathon in 1984. I am still shocked at how recent this was. Apparently prior to 1984, women were not allowed to run professionally farther than 1500km as it was thought if they ran more they would damage their reproductive system!

Joanie not only won the first Olympic Women’s Marathon, she did it just 17 days after undergoing a serious knee surgery. Although she had been a favourite to win, most did not expect her to be able to compete in the race after her knee operation. In fact Life magazine decided to feature another female athlete on their Olympics cover. Inside the article Life magazine printed a photo of Joanie sitting in a rocking sipping tea. She said seeing them picture her as a grandma rather than a serious athlete helped motivate her to win!

James “Jim” Francis Thorpe was another historical first. In 1912 he became the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. In fact he actually won two golds, one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon.

Unfortunately not everyone wanted success for Jim and he was racially victimised. A fellow Olympian stole his running shoes, just before his competitions. Did he quit? No. Jim managed to find two odd shoes in a garbage can. One was too big so he padded it out with an extra sock. Then he went out, he ran and he won.

Thorpe participated in 15 events during the 1912 Summer Games and won eight of them. Several wearing mismatched shoes!

Lopepe “Lopez” Lomong was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Stolen from his family at just 6 years old, Lopez was taken to be trained as a child solider. Thankfully he found three older boys who helped him escape, the four of them running barefoot through forests. Later the children we found by the UN and taken to a refugee camp.

Away from his family, his language and his country Lopez found solace in sport. The children in the refugee camp didn’t need to speak the same language to play football and Lopez loved football. Thousands of children were held at the camp and lots of them wanted to play football. Too many. So a rule was made. To be allowed to play football, first you have to run a lap around the camp. It was a large camp and the lap was 18 miles! Little Lopez ran those 18 miles as fast as possible to be able to play football for as long as possible.

Eventually Lopez ran his way to the 2008 Summer Olympics!

If you would like to make a donation towards the Street Child Sierra Leone Marathon, simply click on the button below. Any amount is appreciated and will help. Along with your donation you can recommend an upbeat song for me to add on my play list and know that you will be motivating me on the marathon.