William Bloodworth remembers lying on the floor of Nelson Tasman Hospice next to his mum, who was fighting a courageous battle with bowel cancer.
She was in the final stages of her fight and Will recalls his mind being a flurry of worry, stress and loss. His body felt fine physically, but mentally he was exhausted. He needed his body to match his mind.
He grabbed a change of clothes, a pair of shoes, gave the milk bottle a quick rinse and headed out the door of his Tāhunanui home to run 42km – the length of the Auckland Marathon that he’d been called back from when his mum took her final turn for the worst.
“I didn’t have a drink bottle, so I rinsed out the milk bottle, I didn’t even do a good job, when I look back, I think, why didn’t I just wash it?”
He decided to run a path that led him past all of the properties his family had lived in while he was growing up.
The journey took him along Nelson’s waterfront, the Wood, Nelson South and out to Hope before heading on to Aniseed Valley where his mum and stepfather lived.
It helped him clear his mind and begin to deal with the loss of his mum.
“I got to the Hope store and my watery milk was just not doing it, it was horrible, it was warm, milky, it was disgusting,” he laughs. “I stopped and bought a blue powerade and I thought ‘don’t neck this down’, even though my body was craving electrolytes, so I started drinking it and I just couldn’t help it I drank the whole thing, necked it back, got to the top of the Aniseed Valley hill and just spewed everywhere and then I was just the tin man, cramping down the last 8kms.”
While the course he ran fell short of 42km he didn’t care, it was just nice to finish up at his mum’s place.
When his crew at Nelson Fire Station heard about the run, a few of them said ‘we would’ve done it with you’.
“I was really humbled by that,” Will says. “I was telling the boys after just having a laugh at myself, this watery milk and just how blown out I was. The two guys who offered are stupidly fit, they’d leave me for dust, but the idea that they’d do it, it was just really nice.”
And so was born ‘The Amazing Chafe’ marathon.
This year, around 30 firefighters will join Will on the marathon run from Rabbit Island to Tāhunanui Beach, including volunteers from Nelson and Stoke stations.
Will says it’s not about who is the fastest, it’s about setting a personal challenge and finding a way to cope with the day-to-day stresses they face on the job. Some will do a 10km run, some will join him on the entire 42km run. Everyone will plan to finish somewhere in the vicinity of lunchtime for a BBQ and swim.
Will lost his fellow firefighter and best friend to suicide and sees the marathon as a way to share something special with his colleagues.
“We support each other on a daily basis, we have each other’s backs on calls, and it’s a way to have each other’s backs and support each other outside of work."
Will has been in the job for the best part of 15 years.
He began running as a way to keep fit but soon realised it also helped him clear the mental stresses that comes with being a firefighter.
“It’s a way for me to go and process what I’ve seen, what we’ve done, and put it in the right box in my brain.
“With this job you can find yourself in some dark, horrible places. With the support of your crew and opening yourself up, being vulnerable and talking about it, you get out of it.”
He says the marathon has spread round the station and encouraged others to take up running.
“Even running along and having people cheering you on. The other thing that was cool is the people who had never done 10km or a half marathon before, they trained for it and they actually started to enjoy it.
“Not just mentally but physically, they’re getting benefit out of it.”
The firefighters are running the marathon in November as part of Movember.
“Unfortunately, firefighters are over-represented in both suicide and cancer statistics.”
Donate to Will's challenge for Movember here.
