Our BEXI community at its BEST! – Beauty of Exercise

I was reminded recently of the importance and power of a community.

A couple of our BEXI members were due to run the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday 1 March 2020. For the past 16-weeks they had trained meticulously – through the intense summer heat and the devastating bushfires, which had an impact on the air quality. They remained focused and forged ahead with their training.

Sadly, this was not meant to be. The coronavirus took hold of Asia, becoming a mass epidemic. Two weeks out from their ‘World Major’ Tokyo Marathon, the mass-race event was cancelled. They were devastated!

All that hard work – the physical training, mental training, planning, saving, preparing, etc. All gone!

They toyed around with finding a ‘replacement’ marathon to fill the gap – but nothing quite matched Tokyo. Instead, one of the girls came up with an idea to run 26.2km (vs 26.2miles, which is the marathon distance), on Sunday 1 March 2020 – the day that the Tokyo Marathon was due to be hosted.

She planned three loops of 8.7km each and invited her BEXI friends to join her in her quest. Not knowing who could make it (sadly, her other Tokyo Marathon buddy is based in Byron Bay) – she showed up and was literally flawed by the support.

She had an awesome group of BEXI runners join her for each loop of her run. Her sister traveled from across Sydney to support her middle loop. The last loop boosted the biggest support and resulted in her running through a finish chute lined with Tokyo flags, a cheer squad of BEXI buddies, a winner’s tape for her to cross… and her very own personalised race medal – “Winner Tokyo Virtual Marathon 2020, Ros Meyer”.

Her buddies even had a printed a photo of her Tokyo Marathon buddy stuck in Byron Bay.

This filled me with so much pride and happiness. Our BEXI community at it’s best!