On the 17th of May Mimi and Philippa (parents from Middle Harbour) ran the Great Wall of China Marathon, and they made it! In doing so, they raised an incredible $5220 for Team Vista. A huge thank you to the pair for supporting Team Vista and for their determined and heroic efforts on the Great Wall. 

Some words from the girls themselves: 

A big thank you for your donations and a brief update. On the 17th of May 2014 we ran the Great Wall Marathon in Beijing.

A forty two kilometre run in total with 8.5 km on the Wall, 26 km through the villages and in case we thought it was going to be an easy run in, another 8.5km on the wall to finish.

It is a challenging course. A very early start running up hill 5km through a village. The locals, both kids and adults where very
excited to see us and even a few startled goats joined us briefly on the run. We got to the first tower of the wall, this is where the now infamous steps started a total of 5176 all up.

The event is a series of loops passing back through the start. Once back at the forte we ran 26 km to the first village again, the kids were  there lots of them and still very excited to see us. All running in front and giving us high 5's on the way, one little boy give me bunch of flowers, very cute!

You travel up and down the wall passing 10 towers throughout the day. Some parts of the wall can only fit one person at a time whilst other parts required use of new found running techniques. Parts of the wall are steep enough that bum on the step and hands on the rail was the safest way down.

We managed to avoid the cramps and finish very tired, overall an amazing experience, loved it all the way!!

Two of our brilliant supporters, Mimi  and Philippa are raising money for Team Vista by running the Great Wall of China Marathon on the 17th of May.  Mimi and Philippa have been part of a team from Middle Harbour Primary School that has been raising money for Team Vista for over 5 years.  This year the school has already raised $1800 towards food for the Kaloleni Primary School in Tanzania and other generous parents have provided a photocopier for the school.
As part of their “midlife crisis”, Mimi and Philippa decided to do something extra special so signed up for the marathon, a gruelling run that follows the wall and includes lots of uphill battles.  Mimi and Philippa are avid Team Vista supporters, already sponsoring children in the Tanzanian community.  No doubt this is a huge undertaking and Team Vista wishes the ladies all the best on their adventure.  They will proudly wear their Team Vista T-shirts and have all of Middle Harbour School’s support behind them.  You can support Mimi and Philippa by donating here.