Chloe’s Story
I am so thrilled that I’ve been given permission to share Chloe’s story. I’ll cut right to the tough part in 2025. Somewhere on the final hill of the 2025 RUTH Run, Chloe was wondering what on earth she had been thinking. Five kilometres had sounded completely manageable….right?
“I think when I started it I was super confident thinking it’s only 5km, thats so easy, right? But not really having done much exercise and having a baby my abilities looked a little different.”
By the time Chloe reached the final 550-metre climb, her assessment had changed somewhat. Chloe was pushing Noah in the pram and eventually, with her bestie beside her, she picked him up and carried him.
“My arms were aching and I was dying thinking… you are crazy!! Remind me why you thought this was a good idea?! I just kept thinking come on… one more step… one more step… thinking of that kids story, The Engine That Could… I think I can, I think I can.”
Personally I had no doubt she’d make it as I know Chloe is one determined mum… although my experience with her determination comes from watching her not give up on a cross-stitch project when most of us would have tossed it in the too-hard basket. Slightly different scenario admittedly but regardless, same dogged mentality. Sure enough she absolutely did it, one step at a time. What a legend!
“When I got to the top, I was like… OMG?! I got all the way up that hill?!!! And with Noah!! And then when I got to the finish and Christopher (partner) was waiting for me and to see him so proud of me, and having everyone cheer. I felt so proud and amazing I achieved that!!!!”
Last year we’d awarded Chloe the True Grit Award. While most of us had been concentrating on getting ourselves up the hill, she'd been pushing and then carrying someone else up it. I also remember talking to her afterwards and her telling me that she'd be back the following year, only next time she was going to run it. I know a lot can happen between two climbs up the same hill… but knowing gal and her cross-stitching stubbornness I knew she would.
What I didn’t know was that Chloe had run before having Noah. At the beginning of this year, Christopher started running and she decided to join him.
“I used to run before having Noah. Then, at the start of the year my partner started running and I thought I’d join and quickly realised he was better than me…. and thought absolutely not! So I started running again. It’s the first time since having Noah that I’ve felt like me again.”
Then, at the Puffing Billy Running Festival, the week before the RUTH, Chloe gave herself a good dose of self-doubt - something we all can relate to at one point or another.
“When I did the Puffing Billy run I called my mum crying at the start saying I couldn’t do it and she told me to put on my big girl pants and do it and it was then I was like… I so can!!”
Go the big girl pants!
The day before this year's RUTH Run, Chloe went to parkrun and, for the first time, ran the whole five kilometres. The following morning she came back to Birdsland and did exactly what she'd told me a year earlier she was going to do: she ran the RUTH.
Eventually, of course, she found herself back at that hill. It was the same hill she'd climbed a year earlier carrying Noah, but this time he was part of the reason she wanted to keep going.
“I felt really confident. When I got to that hill I just kept thinking of Noah and how I want him to know sometimes the journey is hard but just keep moving forward and the view at the end is always worth it. And when I got to the end seeing his little face I was so happy”
I loved Chloe's story in 2025. My exhausted, beetroot faced self watched in awe at this mum carrying her little boy up that bloody great hill. I knew instantly that she deserved the True Grit Award. Knowing what happened next makes that first climb mean even more.
There wasn't one dramatic transformation between the two RUTH Runs but somewhere amongst all of that, she also found something she hadn't expected: running became the first time since having Noah that she'd felt like herself again.
In 2025, Chloe carried Noah up that hill. A year later, she ran up it thinking about the lesson she wanted him to learn from watching her, and when she reached the end, his was the little face waiting for her.
