On Friday March 6th my book club participated in the Wild Women on Top Sydney Coastrek to raise awareness and funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation. For those who haven’t heard of it – Coastrek is a 55km trek along Sydney’s stunning coastline!

Established in 2010 and raising $200,000 – Coastrek has grown so much in a very short time with $1,000,000 raised in 2012 and $2,500,000 in 2014. The fundraising goal for 2015 is $3,000,000 and they are almost there! As I post this $2,783,728 has been raised. And guess what? You can still donate HERE! Help Coastrek reach it goal. Just $25 can restore sight – 4 out of 5 people who are blind don’t need to be.

Coastrek is an endurance challenge that not only raises these vital funds, but promotes health, fitness, team work and mental and emotional toughness, and fun! And, for my team – ‘The Bookends’, it was all of those things. For our members, Vanessa (our awesome team captain), Carlea, Tracy, and me (the walkers) and Angela and Sharyn (the support team angels), this was an amazing feat to do together as friends and bookclubbers!

At 7.30am we set off from Coogee Beach with the encouragement of Gabi Hollows and we were on our way! We climbed unforgiving hills, ascended hundreds of stairs, pushed through bush tracks and and soft sand. We also ran the last kilometre, not realising that the last stretch was along the soft sand of Balmoral Beach. Big mistake lol, but we pushed on through and ran across the line together after 11 hours and 4 minutes, and raised $3050 for the Fred Hollows Foundation.

web-JOSA0194
Here we are at the start of the 55km trek!

From Coogee to Balmoral we laughed, talked, chatted to fellow walkers, stretched (a lot), saw more than we needed to at the nudist beach, posed for about 200 photo’s, including one near the Watsons Bay Library – what book club could walk past a library and not stop by?

Here we are at the Watsons Bay Library
Here we are at the Watsons Bay Library

And, we were constantly amazed by Sydney’s beautiful coastline and harbour. We are truly blessed to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We had a cracker of a day!

About 25km in!
About 25km in!

Thank you so much to our awesome support team, Angela and Sharyn (and helpers Rick and Breanna) who met us in the beautiful botanic gardens with food, water, coffees and hugs! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Thebookends
The Bookends!

Also, thanks to our wonderful husbands and children who supported us on the day and through the months of training. It was so wonderful seeing the smiling faces of our friends and family after we crossed the line. We were greeted with hugs and kisses, beer and champagne – all of which was well received!

Collage 3
The finish line!

We are so proud of Tracy, who gave birth to her beautiful daughter Charlie at the end of December – what an amazing feat to walk 55km so soon after having a baby! You deserved that beer my friend!

A well earned beer for Tracy!
A well earned beer for Tracy!

Thank you again to everyone who supported us, the amazing Coasktrek volunteers, and a big thank you to Vanessa for organising and encouraging all of us all to do this!

Till next year….

Coastrek 1Coastrek2

Comments are closed.