Today...

Today I am willing to sacrifice my toenails. All of them if need be.

Today I will do away with lunch and morning and afternoon tea. I will suck gels from foil, suck in pain, suck ventolin, chew painkillers. I will push through fatigue and dizziness and thirst, and most definitely hamburger cravings.

I will get covered in mud and goosebumps and the salt marks of a long subtle sweat.

I will sing in public and punch the air. I will probably stifle a sob, I might cry and I may even swear.

I will channel the spirit of friends long gone, and shake my fist to the sky for inspiring me to be out here.

Today I will make my mother cry, my father proud. I will run for people who can't and everyone I know icing an injury. Today I will thank my friends and supporters for their faith in me. Today I will honour people who have been tortured and the people who work to support them. I will not let them down.

Today I will push myself harder than I have before: mentally and physically. I will redefine what I know is possible and what I think is impossible. Every label that ever existed, I will have thrown that away today. I'll change what you think about me. And more importantly, I'll change what I think about myself.

Today I will.