It’s an uphill battle for Katrina and Tamara

But Katrina and Tamara Henderson are as ready as they can be to take on Tasmania’s Point to Pinnacle, a gruelling uphill battle that turns one of the state’s highest peaks into a half-marathon.

They’re doing it all in the name of John Polkinghorne, Katrina’s father-in-law and a beloved family member to both of the women, who sadly lost his battle to brain cancer in 2023.

The sisters are raising funds for brain cancer research, and two weeks before the race they are just shy of their goal of $10,000 for Carries Beanies 4 Brain Cancer Foundation.

Both fitness junkies and personal trainers, taking on this massive challenge was Katrina’s idea, and it’s not the first time she’s done something like this.

“My aunty passed away from breast cancer nearly three years ago, and I did a run for her, a 10km run, and raised $1200,” Katrina said.

“So when John passed away, I just googled ‘run for brain cancer’, and I knew I wanted to do a half-marathon because I thought it needed to be more than the 10km.

“It just so happened that it happened to be in Tasmania and the World’s Toughest Half Marathon up Mt Wellington.”

She roped in her sister, and the training begun.

All this year, they have spent their days training, running as much as possible, and trying their best to get as close to the challenging half-marathon as they can.

“We’ve done a couple half-marathons throughout the year but on the flat, like we did the Shepp one, we did one in Heathcote to prep up the mountain and back,” Katrina said.

“It’s just that there’s no mountains around here, there’s very flat training around here.”

Mt Major in Dookie, the botanical gardens in Kialla and Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake became their training grounds, but both said it was hard to feel prepared.

“We’re doing three runs a week, and we’d love to do them together, but with schedules and kids there’s not many (we can do together),” Katrina said.

“We’ve also got our normal weight training we do, which we’ve adapted some of our weight training to include some strength for running,” Tamara said.

In Shepparton and surrounds, you can’t truly replicate the challenge they’re about to face, but with the sisters and their families leaving on November 15 for the half-marathon two days later, their final training and preparations are in full swing, and last-minute donations are still coming through.

So far, the women have raised $9931, just shy of their overall goal of $10,000 well before they head to Tasmania, which they credit heavily to Tamara’s mother-in-law, Annette Whitford.

“If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be doing as well as we are,” Tamara said.

“We had just over $3000 (raised) without her, and since she’s taken over, we’ve cracked $9931.”

To help the sisters raise donations, Annette placed tins around local businesses in Shepparton and Kyabram, including Lemon Tree Cafe, The Overlander Main Bar, Focus On Gifts and Shepparton Fresh Bakery in Shepparton and Wickedly Deevine Bakery in Kyabram.

Katrina and Tamara said they found the support they had received completely surreal.

“I want to cry, it’s really emotional,” Katrina said.

“I think it just puts in perspective of what we’re actually doing because you go through stages of thinking of just solely the run, like training, fuelling our bodies and that consumes you, and then you have moments, and I’d be on a run and I just start crying thinking about the reason why, thinking of John, and how proud he’d be.”

You can follow Katrina and Tamara’s journey on their Instagram.

Donations can be made through Katrina’s link, tinyurl.com/Katrinadonation or Tamara’s link, tinyurl.com/Tamaradonation