From rowing to running in USA
Cambridge’s Rio Olympian and silver medalist Rebecca Scown has traded her rowing oars for running shoes.
She will run her first marathon in New York on November 6, to run for those who can’t.
She is doing it to help CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust, an organisation that raises funds to support the body of scientific opinion which says a cure for SCI (Spinal Cord Injury) will be found.
Alongside six other CatWalkers, Rebecca will run 42km (the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest 4.7 times) from Staten Island to Central Park.
She has a personal goal of raising $5,000 for the CatWalk Trust and spinal cord injury research.
‘‘It’s been about 10 years since I completed any great amount of running,’’ she said.
‘‘I have had to build slowly into the longer running distances, which was quite a challenge as my overall fitness from rowing was very high so it took a lot of restraint to hold myself back.’’
But the likely occurrence of an injury was quite considerable, as she was using many muscles she hadn’t been using for rowing.
‘‘One of the great things about this event is that I have no expectation or pressure on my performance,’’ she said.
‘‘I hope to complete it and I hope to be between four and four and a half hours, but that is a really rough estimate.’’
She initially signed up for the marathon as a post-Rio challenge and to travel the United States with Erin Tolhurst and Emma Twigg, who are also running the marathon.
But she found out about the CatWalk Trust, and took ‘‘no convincing to get involved’’.
‘‘I don’t really have close contact with someone with an SCI, however I am so aware now of what great work the CatWalk Trust is doing.
To be able to get people back on their feet or increase their mobility after an SCI would be very life changing for some people,’’ said Scown.
‘‘I’m looking forward to what I hear is a great run through the five boroughs of New York.’’
New Zealand has one of the highest spinal cord injury incidence rates in the Western World – a new injury every few days, often young men in their prime.
New Zealand’s world-class researchers and facilities are already contributing to a global and growing body of evidence that shows a cure for SCI will be found.
The Trust was founded in 2005 by Catriona Williams, formerly one of New Zealand’s leading international equestrian riders who, following a riding accident in 2002, is now C6/C7 tetraplegic.