Running for a cause
Supermodel Natalia Vodianova used her stay in Paris, during Fashion Week, to promote her charity. On Sunday, Paris half-marathon was the perfect chance for her to raise funds for Naked Hearts Foundation, the cause she materialized in 2005 to provide all the children living in urban Russia a safe environment to grow up.
After completing the 21Km (13 miles) event last year, the model struggled after this year’s the 8 miles mark, since she did not have any previous fitness training: “The half marathon was incredibly challenging, since I had not trained at all. And when I say at all, I mean I hadn’t run even 50 metres all year since the last half marathon”.
To overcome her physical difficulties Natalia stuck to her goal of crossing the finish line and, reminding that “as always, the mind has to overcome the body”. Firm and convicted she got a “second wind” and kept going at a steady pace, dispite the adverse wheather. “Fifth to eighth km went really easily and on the eighth a huge struggle started. I remember that uphill from the previous years. It’s like facing blizzard mixed with strong wind and dressed really lightly knowing that home is still far, far away”.
The effort was big but it paid off: “If you never experienced the race like this, then you are missing out big time on this incredible feeling when you cross the finishing line – especially if your entire family is waiting for you on the other side”.
And, if running a half-marathon wasn’t enough, the model freshened up to open and close Stella McCartney’s Paris Fashion Week show the next day!
Source: Vogue.co.uk.
