Natasha Price (41) has plenty of unfinished business to tackle on the streets of the Gold Coast next month.
The Upper Coomera wheelchair marathoner will line up in the CPL 42.195km Wheelchair Marathon on Sunday 3 July to avenge missing a place in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games team and stake a solid claim for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
“I’m hoping to go under two hours, somewhere around one hour 58 minutes, which would be great and justify the training I’ve been putting in this past year or so,” she said.
And if Natasha makes it to the French capital, it’ll have been a remarkable journey for the effervescent athlete who spent 10 years bedridden following a 2008 neurological complication.
“I was sick of accepting what I thought was my fate, and I somehow got the idea in my head that I should do a marathon.
“So, I got out of bed in 2017 and completed my first marathon a year later which took me five hours to finish.
Ordinarily an elite level breakthrough win like that would be unforgettable, but Natasha must rely on newspaper clippings to tell her how it all unfolded.
“In the lead up to Auckland I was training on the athletics track when my vision impairment meant I didn’t see that someone had left a hurdle on the track and I hit my head on it, so I’m not sure how I got to the starting line at that marathon, let alone the finish line.
“I like to say I have plenty of memories about how I did it, but I lost three months through amnesia, and I have no recall of it at all.
“These days I tend to use bike lanes to be safer on the road and do two hours a day in the gym and I swim and play terrible tennis.
“Cross training is important for wheelchair athletes, so we are not putting the same stresses on our arms and shoulders all the time,” she said.
These days Natasha is a staunch advocate for accessibility within the local community for business and recreation.
The CPL – Choice Passion, Life – Wheelchair Marathon and CPL 10km Wheelchair events welcome para-athletes to participate in the Gold Coast’s famously flat, fast and scenic course located alongside the city’s renowned surf beaches and Broadwater.
CPL is one of the largest disability service providers, delivering over 2 million hours of support to 10,000 Australians with disability.
The 2022 Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon weekend will also feature the ASICS Half Marathon, Southern Cross University 10km Run, Gold Coast Airport 5km Run and the Health and Wellbeing Queensland 2km and 4km Junior Dashes.
The Gold Coast Double 63.3km event – contested by hardy runners competing in both Saturday’s half and Sunday’s full marathon – will also be contested.
People wanting further information on the 2022 Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon events can visit www.goldcoastmarathon.com.au
The Village Roadshow Theme Parks Gold Coast Marathon is organised by Events Management Queensland and is proudly supported by the Queensland Government, through Tourism and Events Queensland, and features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar.
Events Management Queensland acknowledges and pays respect to the Kombumerri people of the Yugumbeh language region, the Saltwater People of the Gold Coast, as the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which we invite and welcome participants from across the globe to experience our events.
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