I would like to share with you this touching story of a daughters love for her 90 year old mother and what she accomplished at the Sun Run yesterday.
The journey began late February when Sharon Gramchuck’s idea was born...
Over the last 6 months Sharon’s mum has been extremely sick and it was thought she maybe at the last chapter of her long life. Sharon’s idea was to share running the Sun Run with her mum. To accomplish this it meant Sharon must run the race while pushing her mum in a wheelchair. There was a lot of hard work and training involved, but Mum and daughter were determined to fulfill their dream.
It was inspiring to witness Sharon and her Mum practice by running the sea wall in preparation for the big day. To see Sharon’s persona change and watch with interest her determination to give her Mum this special gift.
Sharon and her Mum completed the Sun Run yesterday in 85 mins. I would like to share with you Sharon’s E mail she sent to us after the race. This story is a true inspirational one. As athletes we are often selfish in our goal to be the best we can, this story makes us realize just how important it is to put others first sometimes.
I couldn't wait to tell you about our most excellent run today!!
Here's our story.
My biggest concern was getting to the care home and finding my Mom not well enough to get out of bed. But there she was - all dressed, breakfast eaten, coat ready and big smiles!
We had to get her Sun Run official t-shirt on, load her up and we were off downtown. Norm drove us down right to Howe Street (the "whites" lineup). We had to wait until the whites has run through then we were at the front of the line for purples. Mom was cozy with a blanket around her knees, mittens and her toque. I think it was pretty overwhelming and pretty loud for her - but she was so excited she kept looking at her watch. I tried to keep active by jumping around a lot.
Finally it was our turn to start running. Someone threw us down a party pompom from the radio stands. So Mom started waving it at anyone on the sidelines. The hardest part of the whole run was going down Georgia Street and keeping control of the chair.
My next concern was making sure we didn't hit anyone in the heels with the chair. A bit of a bottleneck down around the lagoon, as we wanted to run, but lots of people were in our way walking. We ran as much as possible where we had a path to get through. Someone helped me push her up the big hill to the Burrard Bridge which was sweet. I burned 884 calories and had my heart rate up in the 170's almost the whole time. We got so many "high 5's", smiles, and good comments along the way and Mom was so cute waving her pompom at everyone. I don't know our official time yet, but it was around 85 minutes. I was anxious to run more, but we were always trying to get around people walking - it was nice passing so many!!
At the finish line, I got Mom out of her chair and she walked across the mats on her own.
It was amazing!! It was the best run I've ever done. Not the fastest, but so much fun.
Mom told me in the car coming back that she would never have missed it for the world!
(We only saw Josip down on the field when we got into the stadium and got a yogurt and banana)
I guess you guys were already home and eating lunch by the time we got through!!
The journey began late February when Sharon Gramchuck’s idea was born...
Over the last 6 months Sharon’s mum has been extremely sick and it was thought she maybe at the last chapter of her long life. Sharon’s idea was to share running the Sun Run with her mum. To accomplish this it meant Sharon must run the race while pushing her mum in a wheelchair. There was a lot of hard work and training involved, but Mum and daughter were determined to fulfill their dream.
It was inspiring to witness Sharon and her Mum practice by running the sea wall in preparation for the big day. To see Sharon’s persona change and watch with interest her determination to give her Mum this special gift.
Sharon and her Mum completed the Sun Run yesterday in 85 mins. I would like to share with you Sharon’s E mail she sent to us after the race. This story is a true inspirational one. As athletes we are often selfish in our goal to be the best we can, this story makes us realize just how important it is to put others first sometimes.
I couldn't wait to tell you about our most excellent run today!!
Here's our story.
My biggest concern was getting to the care home and finding my Mom not well enough to get out of bed. But there she was - all dressed, breakfast eaten, coat ready and big smiles!
We had to get her Sun Run official t-shirt on, load her up and we were off downtown. Norm drove us down right to Howe Street (the "whites" lineup). We had to wait until the whites has run through then we were at the front of the line for purples. Mom was cozy with a blanket around her knees, mittens and her toque. I think it was pretty overwhelming and pretty loud for her - but she was so excited she kept looking at her watch. I tried to keep active by jumping around a lot.
Finally it was our turn to start running. Someone threw us down a party pompom from the radio stands. So Mom started waving it at anyone on the sidelines. The hardest part of the whole run was going down Georgia Street and keeping control of the chair.
My next concern was making sure we didn't hit anyone in the heels with the chair. A bit of a bottleneck down around the lagoon, as we wanted to run, but lots of people were in our way walking. We ran as much as possible where we had a path to get through. Someone helped me push her up the big hill to the Burrard Bridge which was sweet. I burned 884 calories and had my heart rate up in the 170's almost the whole time. We got so many "high 5's", smiles, and good comments along the way and Mom was so cute waving her pompom at everyone. I don't know our official time yet, but it was around 85 minutes. I was anxious to run more, but we were always trying to get around people walking - it was nice passing so many!!
At the finish line, I got Mom out of her chair and she walked across the mats on her own.
It was amazing!! It was the best run I've ever done. Not the fastest, but so much fun.
Mom told me in the car coming back that she would never have missed it for the world!
(We only saw Josip down on the field when we got into the stadium and got a yogurt and banana)
I guess you guys were already home and eating lunch by the time we got through!!
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