Everyone who knows me well probably wouldn't describe me as a seasoned long-distance runner. To say the least, I enjoy a relaxing jog and up until this point in my life, the City to Bay 12km is the longest distance I have ever run.

I have always told myself that I could never run a marathon... But I've also told myself I could never do a lot of things in life that I now have in fact done, so I woke up one morning and decided on a whim that it's just not good enough to say "I can't". And so within a few days, I had signed myself up to running a mere 42.2km through 5 boroughs in New York! Quite a challenge!

I decided that running a marathon also creates a great opportunity to fundraise for a worthy cause, so after a lot of research, I have chosen to support the Heart Foundation.  Before I started my research, I was totally oblivious to the fact that heart disease is the number one killer for women over 55 years in Australia! I was also very impressed with the wide range of campaigns that the Heart Foundation is currently running, that all focus around improving nutrition, increasing daily exercise, quitting smoking and changing your lifestyle for the better!