ADOPTING the technique made famous by potato farmer Cliff Young, Ange Ednie will on Saturday compete in her first run since being struck down by a kangaroo.
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The Thurgoona triathlete has had to reboot her body, having been left an incomplete quadriplegic due to the roo knocking her off her bike during a 5am training ride last October.
Having successfully negotiated a return to cycling with a ride to the summit of Mount Buffalo in April, Mrs Ednie will participate in Wodonga’s inaugural parkrun on Saturday morning.
“It’s a comeback Cliff Young shuffle, that’s what I’m describing it as and look where he got,” she said of her running style mimicking the man who won the Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon at the age of 61 in 1983.
“He got somewhere shuffling.”
Mrs Ednie only began running again in June, but has been covering up to 15 kilometres per week as she prepares for Saturday’s five kilometre pavement pound.
The event is seen as a foundation to Mrs Ednie completing a half marathon, 21-kilometre run, through the elevated forest country of north-east Tasmania next February.
“I’m trying to find a new me, trying to let go of the old me,” she says of her philosophy post accident.
“I’m in pain 24/7, it’s just how I deal with it and manage it.
“I’d rather deal with pain than take medication.
“I do take some medication but I’ve gone way below what the doctors expect me to be on.”
The nerve pain gives Mrs Ednie a feeling of an electric shock and its intensity varies but affects parts of her whole body at different times.
“I’m pushing it a lot, but that’s my choice,” she said.
“I believe I’ve got to this stage because of it.
“I believe I’d still be in a rehab centre feeling sorry for myself without it.
“I have to admit I am disabled, which I don’t like, I don’t like the term but on a scale I’m an incomplete quadriplegic.
“I’m on the fine line between normal and not normal.”
While she concedes she may not be as fast or as good as she was, Mrs Ednie is determined to strive.
“An important lesson I have learned from my rehab while we cannot control the outcome of our effort we can control the amount of effort we put into it and its important to celebrate that,” she said.
Saturday’s parkrun is the initiative of Wodonga running mates Tanya Carroll and Maria Tams who felt their city should follow Albury and have one of the five-kilometre Saturday morning events that began in England.
It will be held weekly from 8am with all ages welcome.
Ms Carroll expects 150 to undertake the free run on Saturday.
