After 18 months of recovery from surgery, this Canberran is set to run a half marathon

Ms Thearle has been training to take part in The Canberra Times Running Festival on April 10 after a skiing accident in August 2020 ruptured her ACL and MCL, causing multiple surgeries before getting set to run in the coming weeks.

While skiing, Ms Thearle went down a decline at the same time as someone else "and it all just went wrong" when she heard "this massive pop".

"They did an operation in early September. I think it was about 10 days after the initial accident and then I went to the physio straightaway afterwards and I think that was probably one of the most important things for me because I had a great team that supported me through that," she said.

The recovery process involved putting in and then taking out a synthetic ligament because it caused too much inflammation, more rehab and gym sessions.

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"At the end I thought I needed to have some sort of goal to prove to myself that I had my own body back and if you put your mind to anything you can really achieve it I figured I'd do a half marathon," Ms Thearle said.

Before the injury Ms Thearle had always been fit.

Before having kids, she often went mountain bike riding and ran five kilometres every couple of weeks but had never done regular running until after her injury.

"Running was a massive part of the rehab at physio, you had to do your rehab running sessions each week," she said.

"It was all about increasing a load in a safe way and teaching you to move your knee in a safe way each time and to learn safe patterns of how to put pressure on your knee."

In the leadup to Ms Thearle's half marathon, she has been feeling a mix of nerves and excitement as the weeks get closer.

"I'm scared I'm going to get COVID and not be able to do it because it seems like everyone's getting it at the moment," she said.

"Each week in the running program it has a long run that gets longer and longer so each time I would think 'oh my goodness, am I going to be able to make 16 kilometres, am I going to be able to make 18 kilometres?'"

"I took a wrong turn a little while ago and accidently ran 20.4 kilometres so I'm pretty sure I can make the distance."

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