Month: November 2019

I am a single 42-year-old lady working in the hospitality industry.

Prior to 2018, running was foreign to me. I have always been on the chubby side growing up and I was not in into sports. However, a very difficult period in 2017 turned my life upside down emotionally and financially. I had no one else except myself to clear the mess.

I lost weight due to the stress, as I lived in sadness and fear for my life. I told myself that if I did not pull myself together, I would go through depression which I did not want to relive again.

In short, I had to sell my private property at a loss and nearly went bankrupt. I also had to deal with problems with my family as they were involved in illegal activities and I had to do things that broke my heart.

The dark period made me realise that in giving my energy to others, I did not love myself enough to prioritise me in my life. This was when I decided that I have to self-love in order to take care of my well being. I decided to start my journey towards a Happy & Healthy lifestyle.

I was 76kg in March 2017. Changing my eating habits was the first step I took followed by exercising regularly at the free workouts by HPB. I lost 8kg by October and then I found out about the Lose To Win 2018 programme. I signed up for the programme and lost another 8kg within 12 weeks from January to April 2018.

I am very fortunate to have met different participants from all walks of life, each with their own life story. Even though the Lose To Win 2018 has ended, I am still continuing my journey towards a Happy & Healthy lifestyle with fellow participants in T2FIT (Trim to Fit) Interest Group which encourages people to adopt a healthy lifestyle through working out together led by the passionate LTW Motivators.

At this point, you must be thinking how did I get started on running? I have to thank my colleague who asked me whether I wanted to join the Run For Hope 2018. I signed up for the 10km run. It was such an emotional experience as I had never run in my life. It was then that I decided to Run/Walk with a Cause.

I learnt about Rock The Naked Truth after I attended an event by lululemon. What I love about RTNT is its body positivity message which encourages people to be comfortable in their own skin. RTNT advocates an active lifestyle through various activities such as running (ROCKrunners), Triathlons (ROCKtri) and educational/sports workshops.

I no longer have new year resolutions. Instead, I have fitness goals.

So for 2018, I completed 12 runs, 1 ’53km’ Marathon Walk and 1 ’34-storey’ Vertical Challenge. I am not a competitive runner so it’s not about having a PB time for me but instead its about challenging yourself to get out of your comfort zone and learn things you never thought you could do – I’ve done long distance running, yoga, pilates, strength training and learning to conquer my fear of swimming.

I’ve not been running as much in 2019 as I did last year, but I had my most memorable race – my first ever trail run and also the longest distance I’ve ever run in my life – the 25km at Forest Force 50. This wouldn’t have been possible without the friends I made in ROCKrunners, who encouraged me every step of the way – literally, from signing up to completing the race with me.

Thank you Cheryl and the ROCKrunners family for your support and motivation! 😘

Greetings ROCKfam, it’s Caro here! When I was asked by Cheryl to write something about me for the website I felt very privileged so here’s some information you may or may not know about me!! (Considering I do talk A LOT!).

Name: Caroline “Caro” Anderson – I think I’m in trouble if anyone uses Caroline…..
Age: Somewhere between 40-45 category…..let’s face it the older you get the better the stats in races when rolling into the next category!
Married: sure am! (To Mel who puts up with my endless running early in the mornings, even on holiday!)
Birthplace: Woolwich (South East London), UK
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia – moved there from UK in 2007 after backpacking in India for two months
Siblings: 3 (Paul = brother, Louise = half sister, Stewart = half brother)
Pets: Cat (Peanut – we adopted her from a shelter 10.5 years ago as her original owners gave her up because they moved “Interstate” in Australia. Since then she has travelled between Melbourne to Sydney, then back to Melbourne now Singapore!)
Soccer Team: Chelsea
AFL (Australian Football League) Team: Essendon
Profession: Financial Controller for Macquarie Media in Australia for the two biggest Radio Stations there, 2GB in Sydney and 3AW in Melbourne.
Hobbies: RUNNING, Travelling the world, discovering new experiences/cultures, ten pin bowling (on occasion), going to movies and theatre etc
Other random facts: I’m vegetarian (well I eat fish and seafood so technically pescatarian), I like to be as environmental as I can (I won’t ever buy a takeout coffee if I do not have my Keep Cup with me), I try not to use plastic whenever possible, big into recycling. Love spending time with family and friends.
Favourite author: Haruki Murikami

As you all would know – I’m pretty energetic and chatty. I have always been like this apparently, even as a child. I grew up in South East London and when I was 7.5 years old, five days before Christmas, my dad passed away. I remember the day as if it was yesterday, even 35 years later, so that was really my first experience of someone dying and the first lesson of how precious life is. After that my school teacher actually said I became more outgoing and turned into a “Chatterbox”.

A few years later, my Mum met my now Dad, and when I was 10 they got married and Dad adopted me and my brother so we changed our surnames from Swift to Anderson and that’s how I also have two half-siblings as dad had two children from a previous marriage.

Dad has always accepted us as his children and I’m very fortunate to have such a supportive family.

My big concern growing up was a secret I kept from the age of 12 for roughly 7 years when I realised I liked girls, more than I did boys. I was then attending the best school in the borough, which also was an all-girls school, so I was terrified that if anyone found out I would be an outcast. I didn’t want to be gay and even got engaged to a guy when I was 18 just to try and not be. In hindsight that relationship was never going to work so luckily it ended sooner than later.

I was worried my family would reject me and to be honest after Mum finally asked me if I was gay, we really didn’t speak about it again for a long time as it was a massive shock to her. She told me years afterwards that she was just worried and didn’t want me to be judged by other people and for it to hold me back in life. If anything, I think people have changed over the last 20 years and it’s a much easier place where people are more accepting. To be honest, I hate labels so I never use the term ‘gay’ in life, I don’t like to be put in boxes.

My family love Mel and I’m totally part of her family in Australia too. We’ve been together since January 2005 so all our nephews and nieces have grown up knowing Aunties “CaroMel”.

It wasn’t until I moved to Australia that I got into any sort of physical activities when Mel said to me one day she wanted to start running again. Being supportive I agreed and so we started to jog around the local park. After two weeks I was able to make it around the park (2.2km) without stopping, albeit very slowly. Then it just grew and I would run further and further.

In 2012 I found myself at the start line of the Gold Coast Marathon and began to wonder what I had signed up for?? For me, running a marathon was a personal challenge – to push myself to the limit. My biggest fear was of failure, letting people around me down because it was all too hard. That’s why I told EVERYONE about my goal. I turned my fear of failure into a motivating force – there was no way I was going to return from the Gold Coast without having crossed the finish line.

It’s an incredibly emotional experience – it really is true, you finish a marathon with your head, not your legs! After crossing the line I thought, well that was stupid, why on earth did I want to run a marathon? That only lasted about 10 minutes before I started planning the next one in my head!

Fast forward to 2018 – it was a big year for me personally as we left our family and friends behind and embarked (with our cat Peanut) to the heat, humidity and adventures Singapore had to offer. I was very lucky early on when I spotted the ROCKrunners singlet tops running around MBS on an early morning walk so I googled “ROCKrunners” and the rest is history.

Joining the ROCKrunners made my life in Singapore so much more enjoyable. I’m a social person and I found it hard working from home every day by myself. Getting out and meeting you all was a great pleasure. I’ve met such amazing people who have let me be part of the group (and have put up with my constant chatter, noise and not forgetting the litres of sweat at Autobus or when we finish a training run).

In August I was struggling with long distances due to the heat and wondered how I could ever run a marathon in this weather. I used to wake up in the night and actually dread having to get up and go running in the mornings by myself. Then a few of the ROCKrunners said they were going to run the marathon and it was through them that I pulled myself together as they are so motivating. Little did I know then they are also the LOUDEST CHEER SQUAD AT THE FINISH LINE!!

I want to thank you all for welcoming me as a “pushy” Ang Mo for letting me be part of the group and even though my time here has been short and sweet it’s filled with great memories. I hope to see many of you in person at the Great Ocean Road festival in May or through social media as I’m sure our paths may cross again – it’s a small world after all.