When your training grounds are on some of the flattest terrain in Victoria, how do you prepare for a half-marathon up a mountain?
It’s the question that Katrina and Tamara Henderson pondered as they trained for the Point to Pinnacle, billed as the world’s toughest half-marathon.
The event, which was held on Sunday, November 24, saw the sisters race up Tasmania’s Mount Wellington, the culmination of a massive training and fundraising effort.
“I think we were as prepared as we could with what we had,” Katrina said.
Despite being in top form, Katrina and Tamara soon discovered that race day could put up unexpected hurdles.
“I ended up with a stitch, which I don’t normally get, so I had that for two kilometres,” Tamara said.
“So the first sort of five kilometres were where I was expecting to go faster and didn’t.
“The last six kilometres it was just like a constant incline, and I was like ‘go faster, go faster’.
“So I finished it in two hours and 39 minutes, I was hoping for under two and a half hours, so I was close.”
Her sister fared similarly, but it wasn’t a stitch that affected her time.
“My legs cramped, like I got the worst leg cramp ever, I could see the veins popping through my legs, and I was like ‘it’s going to snap’,” Katrina said.
“So then I was doing a lot more walk run, walk run, walk run kind of thing, but I was really trying to walk fast, and I was passing people because I was really trying to push my time still.
“And in some ways, that was like quicker than passing people running ... it's not how I wanted to do it because I felt good enough that I was ready to run again, but my legs were just like not something I’ve ever experienced.
“I wanted to do it in under three hours, and it was like three hours and one minute.
“If it wasn’t for my legs starting out, I would have well and truly been within my goal time.”
While they both just barely missed the mark on their times, they completely hit their fundraising goals out of the park.
Katrina and Tamara managed to raise $16,783 for Carrie’s Beanies 4 Brain Cancer, surpassing all their goals.
“(Our goal) started off with $500, then $1000, then it was $5000, and then it was $10,000,” Katrina said.
“It’s been so emotional and so amazing, the support and the fact that people were still donating.
“People just kept giving.”
“We just put a goal out in the world and decided to do something for someone we love, and hopefully that helps someone else,” Tamara said.
After losing Katrina’s father-in-law and dear friend to both of them, John Polkinghorne, to brain cancer in 2023, the girls decided to honour him through the run.
After the race, they even got to snap a selfie with the face behind Beanies 4 Brain Cancer, Carrie Bickmore herself.
The girls, alongside their families, spent two weeks on holiday in Tasmania, relaxing after their adrenaline-filled start to their trip, with all the dramas that come with travelling in such a big group.
“We missed our flights,” Tamara said.
“Katrina’s backpack with all her running gear ended up left on the shuttle bus (at the airport), and we had to try to get that back.
“In hindsight, it would have been better to have lost that bag and got on the flight because that would have been cheaper than 10 extra flights.”
But after that mishap, it was all smooth sailing, to race day, with a nice relaxing time in Tasmania afterwards.
“We had so much anxiety and stress over this thing, and it ends up being the absolute highlight,” Katrina said.
It won’t be long before Katrina and Tamara take part in another half-marathon, but maybe this time on the flats.