The 45-year-old looks back and remembers the trauma, anger and the grief of betrayal.
She had been married for nearly 20 years and her mind and body reacted.
She lost seven kilos in a week and went through some tough emotional times.
Sophie spent time working on herself, including seeing a counsellor and a few clairvoyants.
She even got a tattoo of her daughters’ initials on each wrist. Some days looking at the tattoo was the only thing that got her out of bed.
At the time Sophie had been doing some running, and this is what she turned to, to help her through.
She made the decision not to wallow in her grief, and became determined to run faster and more often.
In the first 12 months of separation, Sophie ran five half-marathons.
She joined the Echuca-Moama Triathlon Club, did lots of strength work at the gym, and swam regularly.
She continued to enter event after event, from 10km to marathons and triathlons – travelling to Shepparton, Geelong, Warburton, Port Macquarie, the Gold Coast and many other places.
She remembers just two years ago standing at the start line of the Melbourne Half Marathon and thinking ‘I’m tired, why am I here?'.
At that moment, she realised her anger was all gone.
A new Sophie had emerged.
Running had saved her sanity, and had propelled her through her darkest times.A highlight of Sophie’s running achievements include becoming an Ironwoman.
The training is intense and requires 25 to 30 hours a week of dedication.
Each Saturday Sophie would ride for five or six hours on the bike, riding up to 150km.
Her longest run was a 24km trail run and she always broke her long runs into two - a morning and afternoon run to try to keep injury free.
There was also strength training in the gym and shorter runs on other days. In 2018, she signed up for the Cairns Ironman, a once in a life time challenge.
She completed the 4km swim, 180km bike ride and 42 km run in 14 hours and 14 mins.
Fuelling up on her mum’s Anzac biscuits, nuts and peanut butter and honey sandwiches, she was tested and challenged to new limits.
It was exhausting, but exhilarating.
Not surprisingly Sophie was back the following year, mainly to convince herself the first time wasn’t a fluke.
This time she had stomach cramps for 40km of the run, which made for an extra challenging day.
Her daughter Molly joined her for support on the last 8km of the marathon and a determined Sophie kept running until she crossed the finish line.
She’s keen to keep adding to her box of medals and race bibs, and plans to do another Ironman to prove to herself, one more time, that she can do whatever she wants.
Although she thinks three might be enough.
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