It wasn't that long ago this Gymea mum struggled to walk.
She surprised even herself when she finished the 2016 Sutherland 2 Surf in impressive time.
Tamara Lee McLean, 56, had a double lung transplant five months ago after being on the donor waiting list for almost two years.
The former smoker of eight years who worked in clubs most of her life, gave up smoking in 1999 after she was diagnosed with emphysema.
With less than 20 per cent lung capacity, she struggled to walk up stairs, and before the operation she could not walk more than 20 metres without a rest.
After spending a week in intensive care, Mrs McLean decided to tackle the 11 kilometre run in this year’s Sutherland 2 Surf.
“It wasn’t planned,” she said.
“My husband was a runner and on one of our morning walks 12 days after my operation he said ‘you could go in it’.”
“I said ‘yeah right’. It never crossed my mind – I’d never even heard of the event.
“I didn’t do any practice, I just went in and that was it.”
She not only ran the race in full, she crossed the line in one hour and 40 minutes.
“I’m paying for it now,” she said.
“But no one was going to stop me, and I could do it all over again.
“Next year I want to get my time faster.”