Movember and (Mo)re than a Run Week 2
Steve Kibble
Greetings KRew
Week 2 of Movember and it has been a good start to the month of raising awareness for Men’s Mental Health with our run last Thursday. Great to have our friends from Lululemon come along and run with us and then give away of lot of great gear. Congratulations to everyone who won something, I hope you are enjoying it.
Tonight Alex will talk a bit more about what is coming up this month and some more about what the funds we are raising will go to.
But I can tell you the next event is this Saturday 11th November at Balmoral Beach. I’m sure there will be a lot of the KRew there as well as our friends from other running clubs around Sydney. It is a free event but they have asked you to register if you intend to go so they can know numbers. For more information please speak to Helena.
So far we have raised $290, which is excellent, but I know can do more and so if you’d like to donate:
https://au.movember.com/team/2446579
Or Alex will have a QR code that you can use at the run tonight.
(Remember the page has a guide for donations, but please just give what you can afford)
This week I have asked Anthony to write a piece on how he has worked through his mental health issues post the huge ski accident that he had earlier this year, this is what he wrote:
“As most of you now know I suffered a serious snowboarding accident in July that nearly took my life.
After the accident one of the biggest adjustments for me as a runner was not only rebuilding myself physically, but also letting go of my goal of achieving a 2:40 marathon at Chicago this year.
As part of my rehabilitation, my GP put me on a mental health plan with a local psychologist (10 x Medicare subsidised sessions). My psychologist has been amazing, working with me through a period of ‘radical acceptance’ & helping me with the mental & emotional adjustment to a new normal. During these sessions, I’ve also learned of my ‘maladaptive schemas’ - early thought patterns that I developed to cope with certain situations growing up. These sessions have provided a non-judgemental environment that helped me understand the way I view the world and myself and challenged me to question & change my default thought patterns.
A recent challenge was my readmission to hospital with kidney complications. Armed with my new strategies, I was able to quickly overcome the emotional & mental trauma imposed by being back in hospital and the associated setback to my physical recovery.
My mental health rehab has been equally, if not more important than my physical rehab and I cannot speak highly enough of the whole process. If I’m being completely honest, seeking counselling is something I should’ve done years ago but feared doing. There are many other men out there who grew up in a similar environment to me, where vulnerability was considered weakness and too often we’d be told to ‘toughen up’ or ‘man up’. This type of default programming means learning to work on mental health is uncomfortable and demands ongoing effort and focus. My accident was what triggered me to begin proactively caring for my mental health in the same way I’ve historically cared for my physical health. But if you find that you’re struggling I’d encourage you not to wait for a dramatic event to trigger you to action, instead I’d say, be brave and take the first step to get an appointment with your GP.”
Thank you, Anthony, for sharing your personal story and we hope you return to full health soon.
For more information about Movember please follow this link:
Movember - Changing the face of men's health - Movember
Tuesday Speed Sessions. Most of you know we hold a speed session on Tuesday nights at Gore Hill Oval starting at 6:30pm. It is great to see about 14 or 15 people coming each week to work on their speed and push themselves on the various sessions that we do. All are welcome and for more details please message me directly.
Upcoming Events
Annual KR Christmas Party will be Sunday 10th December. See the post on the FB page for details.
Cadbury Marathon 2024 This iconic marathon held in Hobart is coming up to its’ 41st edition on 7 Jan 24. I’ve done this one a few times and can highly recommend it as a great race and great way to get your 2024 racing calendar started. I know last year we had a few of the KRew down there who did a few of the distances on offer and all reported having a fun time. https://raceroster.com/events/2024/79514/cadbury-marathon
I see that registrations have already opened for many of the races that the KR like to do, with Canberra marathon, Hokka Sydney Half, and Sydney marathon all have early bird registrations at the moment. And don’t forget to join the KR team that has been set up already for these events.
If you are bringing bags tonight, this week Mark will be there with his car to hold them whilst you run. (But please pick them up as soon as we have finished the run!) Thank you, Mark, much appreciated!!
That’s a wrap for this week; remember to take care of yourself and others.
Keep running @everyone and happy trails,
Steve
Director
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