The Pains of Being Named "Cary"

I used to get slightly offended when the barista at Starbucks would write my name “Carrie” on my coffee cup – God forbid if they wrote “Kerry”! But in Australia, apparently my name is Kerry, because to them, that is what my accent is telling them…

…Thus, opening the stage up for the biggest debate of the year: is your name pronounced Cary, or Cary?

To me this is what the question sounds like… but to Australian’s there is a HUGE difference between the name Cary (spelled/pronounced “Carrie”, as in Carrie Bradshaw), and Cary (spelled/pronounced “Kerry”, as in John Kerry). To me, it sounds the same, so I am always torn when trying to answer this question.

According to the postman, my name is Kerry.  But according to my housemates, my name is Carrie. 

I’ve gotten so used to the question that I laugh and let whoever questioning decide what they would like to call me, because at the end of the day – Kerry, Carrie, Cari, Cary, carry – they all sound the same to me!

Now, don’t get me started on the apparent HUGE difference between Harry and hairy… 

1:23:14

At the end of April of this year, I decided to get my exercising act together and set a goal for myself.  The goal in mind was to run the annual City2Surf, which is by far Sydney’s favourite charity run.  The course is a quite hilly 14km (about 8.75 miles) that starts in the heart of the city in Hyde Park and wraps around coastal suburbs ending at Bondi Beach.  Let’s talk more about the course:

Hyde Park >> Up William Street and through the tunnel >> down to Rushcutters Bay >> Up towards Edgecliff into Double Bay >> Down to the marinas of Rose Bay >> Up the monstrous ‘Heartbreak Hill’ >> Slowly leveling out in the outskirts of Vaucluse into Dover Heights >> Finally reaching North Bondi seeing the finish line in the distance >> down the hill to the finish line…

I’ve never ran anything longer than a 5km before, so I was concerned that I would be no match for the annual “fun run”. In front of me were the qualifying starting groups, for those who had always anticipated running the course and didn’t think to only commit on the very last day (yes, true story).  Because I signed up last minute – literally I signed up 20 minutes before admission closed – I was in the later group, accompanied with the other fun runners.  There were many runners like me, running the entire thing at their own pace, but there were also runners dressed in full on costumes. These runners took “fun run” literally and nailed it. Accompanying me on my run was the entire Avengers cast, Lego men and women, Teletubbies, Vikings and more.

I ran the damn thing in 1 hour 23 minutes and 14 seconds. And yes I was damn proud.

Although I couldn’t commit to running the course until the very last day of the sign up, I still did it.  I did it because I wanted to prove to myself that I could, which is the best feeling EVA.

#cornball

STARTING LINE

FINISH LINE