In 2019 nine people took on the challenge of the world’s largest fun run at Sydney’s City2Surf for Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research fund as part of Team Dainere’s Rainbow. This was the largest team for Team Dainere’s Rainbow and the largest fundraising effort for the annual City2Surf fundraiser for Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund with over $13,500 raised. 100% of this money raised goes to the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation to support research into paediatric brain tumours.
This year Dainere’s brother Jarrett was supported again by Mark and Nicole from My Gungahlin and this year joined for the first time as part of the team Kat and Michael Sliwinski, Shaun Bradby, Natalie Gray, Stephanie Pollard and Mark Smith.
Jarret shared his thoughts after the run “2019 was my seventh City2Surf raising the much-needed awareness and funds for paediatric brain tumours in memory of my little sister, Dainere. This year, Dainere’s Rainbow saw its largest team to date enter the world’s biggest fun run to not just tackle the infamous heartbreak hill but to also raise a phenomenal record amount of over $13,000 for Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund.
My own individual fundraising this year went amazing, receiving just under $6,000 – my second highest amount achieved in the seven years of fundraising! A massive thank you to everyone who made a donation to myself or to any of the team, it truly is greatly appreciated!
The day before the race, the weather in Sydney was not so kind; with strong winds blowing throughout the entirety of the day reaching speeds of up to 65km/h! I was anxiously sitting in the hotel room, hoping that these kinds of winds would not be present on the City2Surf race day. Luck must’ve been on our side as the race day saw much lighter winds, it was however a little bit chilly, but nothing a Canberran wasn’t accustomed to! My lead up to the race had been interrupted with an injury as well as illness, so I was relying on my familiarity of the race and strength of Dainere being with me pushing me along to get me through the run. The first half of the challenging 14km run was extremely successful; I was on pace for a shot at a personal best time as well as feeling quite comfortable running in a pack with fellow preferred start runners. Halfway up the famously gruesome heartbreak hill, my asthma started playing up, so I eased off the pace to keep control of my breathing to avoid having an asthma attack, this was followed by a niggle of the injury I had recently recovered from. Although I concluded the run without an asthma attack or re-injury it did come at an unfortunate cost; running a time I was not at all happy with.
Although the 2019 City2Surf race was a few minutes slower than my personal best time, I know that Dainere would’ve still be incredibly proud of the many positives that came from this year’s challenge – we had the largest amount of runners raising money for the Dainere’s Rainbow Brain Tumour Research Fund, the team raised the highest amount a team for the fund has raised, I raised my second highest amount in the seven years I have run in the City2Surf raising money and that despite my result and setbacks, I pushed all the way through to the end of the race which is something I know would’ve made Dainere smile.”
Kat and Michael ran their 10th and 9th consecutive city2surf this year. Kat finishing in 66.35min with a new PB and Michael finishing 30 seconds behind in 67.07. “We are both so happy to have raised over $1000 for such a great cause with both of our daughters having treatment at Westmead hospital over the last 4 years for severe hip dysplasia. We love City2Surf and hope to be taking part for many years to come! We’ve now embarked on a new journey, travelling around Australia and combining that with running and fundraising for the Indigenous Marathon Project which supports indigenous people to be fit active in the form of running. We hope to share our love of running and build new friendships on our trip around Australia”.
Three of the runners in this year’s team were taking on City2Surf for the first time and shared their thoughts with us.
“The aim of participating in the 2019 City2Surf was achieved, that was to raise money and awareness of the issues facing kids who have brain tumours. The weather on the day was great, the event was filled with colour and spectacle. Heart Break hill was, well it is what it is, but the downhill parts of the course were joyous. A great time had by all.” – Mark Smith.
“Waiting at the start line at City2Surf 2019 I was both excited as running this fun run has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Deciding to fundraise was a no brainer and I’m happy I could help to increase the donations by $586. Running km by km I finally crossed the finish line after 1hr 58mins and was feeling a lot better than expected. I enjoyed both the race and the atmosphere and hope to participate in years to come.” – Stephanie Pollard.
“The start line at the city2surf. Having never done it before I did not know what to expect but also, I did not have a time I was chasing. Completed in 93mins 59secs and it felt great. Raised $806 which felt even better. With every km ran my running buddy and I would high five and say $55! Will definitely be there next year.” – Natalie Gray.
For Mark and Nicole from My Gungahlin this was Mark’s fourth City2Surf and Nicole’s second. Mark started with the Charity Superstars again this year. “It was great to start in this group as there is limited numbers and I was literally on the start line. There isn’t going to be many running events where I will have prime position! I was pushing for a pretty big goal this year and at the halfway mark which coincides with the bottom of Heartbreak Hill I was on track but unfortunately, I quickly fell behind up the hill and the rest of the way. I crossed the line missing my personal best by 20 seconds. The positive was I smashed my fundraising goal and made this the largest fundraising campaign ever for me.”
Nicole took 5 minutes off her time from 2018. “I was so excited to take part in City2Surf again this year supporting Team Dainere’s Rainbow and achieving such a great result, not only my time but fundraising. I am grateful for the support from those that donated to myself and the whole team.”
If City2Surf is a challenge you would like to take on in 2020 and also be part of Team Dainere’s Rainbow we would love to hear from you. We welcome anyone who is willing to take on the challenge and fundraise for this cause. We would love to have at least 20 people take part in 2020!
Email us on daineresrainbow@gmail.com
There is still time to donate to this years City2Surf campaign here: https://city2surf2019.everydayhero.com/au/team-dainere-s-rainbow-2019/members
