Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
8 Aug 2013
8 Aug 2013
Nuns on the Run Sisters of Charity (l to r) Margaret Guy, Leone Wittmack and Libbey Bym
Rose Bay's Heartbreak Hill is where thousands of runners in Sydney's annual City2Surf run out of puff. But when Sister of Charity Leone Wittmark begins the climb up the notorious hill this weekend as part of this year's City2Surf she says it will be good training for her pilgrimage next month through the Pyrenees mountains along the 800 kilometre Camino Way.
On Sunday, 11 August, billing themselves as Nuns on the Run, Sister Leone and fellow Sisters of Charity, Margaret Guy and LIbbey Bym will don tracksuits and trainers and make the 14 kilometre journey from Park Street to the Bondi Pavilion.
Fourteen friends, health workers and nurses from St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst will run with them as part of their team in a bid to raise much needed funds for Gorman House, a detoxification unit for homeless and drug and alcohol dependent people.
Sunday's run will be the fourth year Nuns of the Run have entered the City2Surf to raise funds for Gorman House. But for Sr Leone this weekend's race will mark the 13th time she has entered the race that starts in Park Street then heads along William Street to the Cross then down along New South Head Road to Rose Bay where it winds up the tortuous Heartbreak Hill and finally on the easier downhill run to the Bondi Pavilion.
Last year's Nuns on the Run team who raised funds for Gorman House with team leader Sr Leone front row centre
Describing herself as "just a jogger," she says she loves taking part in the City2Surf each year not only because it's a chance to raise funds for the Sisters of Charity Foundation to support important initiatives such as Gorman House but because the race itself is great fun.
"More than 80,000 men, women and children enter the race each year. Some run the whole distance, others just walk. How you get to the finish doesn't matter and I love being out amongst them all. It's nice being a part of that and if you are also supporting a really good cause, and helping others get back on their feet, well that makes it even better," she says.
Growing up in Queensland, Sr Leone did her nursing training in Toowoomba before she discerned her vocation and became a Sister of Charity.
As a Sister and trained nurse she worked at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital for more than 10 years then undertook her training in cardiac thoracic nursing at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s when AIDS and HIV were at their height, she was appointed Director of Nursing at St Vincent's Sacred Heart Hospice which led the way as the first Australian hospice to care for those with HIV-Aids.
Sr Leone Wittmack in last year's City2Surf
During her years as a nurse and a religious she lived in a number of communities overseas including Rwanda in 1994-95 during the nation's bloody civil war. Her mission also included working in the refugee camps on the Cambodian border during Pol Pot's brutal reign of terror.
After returning to Sydney in 2000 to work with the Sisters of Charity at St Vincent's Hospital and with other affiliated health services, she took up running and this is when she entered her first City2Surf.
"I played basketball, tennis, squash and other sports growing up. But it really wasn't until I was back in Sydney that I took up running," she says.
Living near Centennial Park is a great place to train for the City2Surf and she says she also likes doing the Coogee to Bondi beach walk.
"All the steps give you a good workout," she says but admits that these days she doesn't run up the steps. At 65 she is happy to take the steps at an easy pace.
"Keeping fit is what it's about and age should be no barrier," Sr Leone says and is proud the two City2Surf's Nuns on the Run are in their 60s while Sr Libbey is in her 50s.
City2Surf begins at College and Park Street and heads for Bondi
Now at retirement age, Sr Leone says she has stepped down from working in health services. Her new role is Executive Director of Catholic Religious Australia. But this weekend as she laces her trainers and sets off from Park Street for Bondi, she's hoping the run will prove to be a good warm up for the long walk ahead of her along the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail.
The journey of spiritual renewal for Sr Leone will begin in France on 9 September.
"We go over the Pyrenees into Spain on our first day," she says but she figures if the cyclists in the Tour de France can do it in an hour or two, there is hope for the walkers doing it in a day.
"It will certainly be interesting," she admits.
To donate to the Nuns on the Run team taking part in this year's City2Surf on Sunday 14 August with proceeds going to Gorman House which supports those with mental health helps with the detoxification of those with addictions to alcohol or drugs log on tohttp://www.sistersofcharityfoundation.com.au/nunsonrun/index.htm
To find out more about Gorman House from those who have undergone treatment there log on tohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82zjeSB41DE
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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