Two weeks today I will have completed my first marathon (42kms), in the process raising $785 for Humane Research Australia an outstanding, and often overlooked, organisation who investigate and support alternatives to nonhuman animal-based research in medicine.
I began my running back in mid-January and made the commitment by signing up for the Bank of Melbourne Marathon in June; at which point I was running around 5km every three days. Since beginning my training I have first lost 6kg, then gained 7kg, ran one organised 10km road race, bought two new pairs of running shoes, and ran 961kms* in training. I no longer put my running gear on for less than 6kms.
I’m kind of looking forward to taking a week off from running after the race; right now it’s taking up far too much of my time and the importance of not missing training runs regularly impacts my social life – and that of my dog, Stanley. I’m sure I’ll continue running (it worked for Forrest Gump!), its got me into great shape, but 40km a week is a bit more manageable than 80!
It would seem that ‘we’ use animals (meaning nonhuman animals) in experimentation because “they are like us“, and results of tests can be generalised to humans (often with disastrous consequences); ‘we’ justify this use of animals because “they are not like us“. Clearly this makes no logical sense and we are no closer to finding the elusive ‘cure for [human] cancer’ than we were forty years ago despite billions of dollars being invested in research and many research conglomerates being household names. If you haven’t sponsored me already, please, please do. It would mean a great deal to me and even more to the current and future generations of animals who have no life to lead except one of torture and abuse so that we may understand what causes cancer in (eg.) mice, or beagles, or chimpanzees…
* update: now 1007kms (01/10/11)
