Lily's Legs Virtual Marathon

Supporting SpinalCure Australia find a cure for spinal cord injury

Lily's Legs goal in 2024 is to raise money to help SpinalCure Australia find a cure for spinal cord injury.

SpinalCure Australia was founded 25 years ago with the sole aim of finding a cure for spinal cord injury through the promotion and funding of medical research.

After decades of dashed hope, SpinalCure Australia is finally seeing real outcomes in this area and these advances have brought us to a time when the cure is no longer a matter of IF, it is now a matter of WHEN.

People who have been told they would never have control of their basic bodily functions are beginning to regain their dignity, independence and joy.

And we can help to make sure that all those with spinal cord injuries who have been given brutal ultimatums about what their futures would hold, have a chance to experience this new reality.

Image provided by the awesome Daniel Hodgson

2024 Challenges

This year Lily's Legs primary goal is to raise money to help SpinalCure Australia.

To make it interesting we have 3 challenges we will be undertaking in August, September and October.

1: Lily will be attempting her biggest physical challenge to date since her accident in 2016, pushing herself for segments in the 7 Bridges Walk in Sydney on 20 October 2024.

2: Joff will be attempting to break (unofficially) the current Guinness record for the longest distance run in 24 hours wearing a 20 pound vest (145.44 km) by walking in the Southern Sydney 24 Hour Ultra Marathon with a 10kg vest on 31 August and 1 September 2024.

3: Join Lily in her October Virtual Marathon Madness - Wheel, push, arm crank, run, walk, crawl, swim, row or bike (or any other activity you can think of) 42.2km during the month of October. Prizes for the person who completes their marathon the earliest in October, who completes their marathon in the most unique way, and who completes the longest distance (wheeling, walking or running) over the whole of October. Share your progress, photo's, inspiration, and motivation in the facebook group.

All donations will go to SpinalCure Australia - read more about them here.

READ LILY's STORY HERE.

JOIN THE LILY'S LEGS VIRTUAL MARATHON FACEBOOK GROUP HERE.

READ ABOUT THE 2020 VIRTUAL MARCH MARATHON HERE.

READ ABOUT THE 2022 VIRTUAL MARCH MARATHON HERE.

Lily is also selling Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) supporter Lil's Lids beanies to help raise money to reimburse herself for the gap between the funds raised in 2020 and 2022 and the cost of the FES machine she purchased. These beanies are hand made by Lily and will be a lime green in colour, which is the colour of the SCI Support Ribbon.

The Marathon

Lily and her family would love you to join us in completing a virtual marathon during the month of October.

You have between the 1st and the 31st of October to achieve or exceed 42.2km (or equivalent for your chosen activity) - that's less than 1.5km a day.

You can do it in bite sized chunks, or you can do it all at once, the choice is yours.

See below for further details below in the tips and tricks section.

How to participate

Participation is simple, just click on the Donate button below, donate what you can to SpinalCure Australia and then head to the group facebook page and start logging or distances. If you don't have facebook, you can email us at lilyslegs@gmail.com and we can help.

If you wish to purchase a Lil's Lid SCI beanie you can do that by clicking on the BUY A BEANIE link below.

Tips and Tricks

HOW TO COMPLETE A MARATHON IN A MONTH

In 2020 Lily completed the equivalent of a 42.2km marathon on her arm crank machine, and in 2022 on her FES machine. Other participants ran, walked, swam in their backyard pools, long boarded, cycled - you name it, they did it!

Once you have decided on your activity, if you are not sure how to determine a suitable distance or time equivalent to a 42.2km running marathon, contact Joff (lilyslegs@gmail.com) and he will be happy to help you work it out.

DURING THE EVENT
Record your activity using your preferred platform - e.g. STRAVA, garmin, mapmyrun, GPS or for the elderly like Joff using your street directory.

Join the Lily’s Legs Facebook group and post the details after each activity (or by email to lilyslegs@gmail.com)

JOIN LILY'S LEGS FACEBOOK GROUP
Go to Facebook, search for the 'Lily's Legs October Virtual Marathon' group and ask to join.

We will share updates, and highlights on this page.

It is also a great place to share some action shots as you are doing your marathon.

prizes

There will also be special hand made prizes for:

First person to run/walk a marathon (42.2km) in October.
The person who runs/walks the most km's in October. Who can beat Tamas's effort of 467.2km from 2020, or Linda's effort of 871+ kms in 2022?
The person to complete their marathon by the most unique activity (as judged by Lily).