Photo gallery below. Photos supplied.
On Remembrance Day, 11 November, my family and I competed in the Kokoda Legacy Challenge alongside 774 other participants.
After a ceremony and presentation in honour of all those who have died in war, the races began.
The first four kilometres were relatively easy.
I enjoyed racing my dad, Troy Livingston, to see who could overtake the most people.
Around the five kilometre mark we crossed a creek, which was quite refreshing.
But then it all went downhill, or should I say, uphill.
We had reached the King of the Mountain.
This section of the course is a gruelling long and steady climb, at this point I was ready to sit down and have a nap.
At the top of the hill, we had reached the eight kilometre mark and it was all downhill for the rest of the race.
My sister had a considerable gain on me at this point, but I was determined to catch up.
My strides were long and my knees were hurting, but I leaped down the hill to reach and then overtake Jasmine. I don’t think I could have stopped if I tried.
There were 500 metres left of the course, and Jasmine was 50 metres behind me.
I sped up as much as I could, hoping to get to the finish line first. I could hear Jasmine growling my name, she wanted to beat me.
And she did, by 0.01 of a second! I was pretty frustrated.
After crossing the finish line together, to the applause and cheering of Kokoda Youth kids, Jasmine and I sat down, waiting for mum and dad to finish.
Their last 100 metres was one of friendly competition, each of them pushing and shoving each other.
Mum punched the gas for the last ten metres and crossed the line first.
“I won!” she yelled, arms up in the air.
Much to her resentment, dad’s time was faster than hers in the end, as he had started after her.
Overall, Jasmine and I placed 16th and 17th respectively, mum and dad coming in 23rd and 24th.
This experience was one I will never forget- and hope to do again.
