Not knowing where your kids are is a feeling all parents dread.
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When this happened to Jenny White the mother-of-three knew she had to give up the booze for good.
The 'lowest point' in White's life occurred during a drinking session at an Australia Day barbecue five years ago which got so out of hand the Helensburgh runner woke up with 'a hangover that could kill all hangovers' and didn't know where her two small children, aged one and three, were.
"I'd recently been trying to moderate my drinking as I had a bit of a problem with alcohol, I couldn't have just one, I always went a bit wild," White said.
"When I was at this barbecue, I had it in my head that I was going to have a big night and I really did have a big night and basically woke up with a hangover that could kill all hangovers and didn't know where my kids were, whether I put them to bed or not.
"It was just awful. I had basically the worst anxiety of my life and just decided at that point that I had to have a proper break from alcohol.
....I really did have a big night and basically woke up with a hangover that could kill all hangovers and didn't know where my kids were, whether I put them to bed or not.
- Jenny White
"It was definitely the lowest point in my life.
"I think it was the mum guilt thing ... when you don't have kids, having a weekend bender, whilst it might make you feel awful and depressed, you don't feel that horrendous fear of what if the kids hadn't been in bed and wandered off, I wouldn't have known and worse I wouldn't have been capable of helping them if something bad had happened.
"That was the icing on the cake so to speak and I knew I had to quit drinking, because it wasn't just about me anymore."
Giving up the booze was not only the best decision the 40-year-old made, it proved life-changing.
Last November the enthusiastic runner represented Australia at the 24-Hour Track Running World Championships in Taiwan.
White ran a personal best of 213.8 kilometres over the 24-hour period.
She is now in training for the 24-Hour Asia/Oceania Championships in Canberra from April 4-6.
"I can safely say that giving up drinking is the best decision I ever made," White said.
"Giving up the drink has given my mind freedom from constantly thinking about the next drink, it has given my body the ability to reliably train as a runner and achieve things I didn't think were possible and it has pretty much given me one to two extra days a week that were previously so unproductive from being wildly hungover."
Over the past year to 18 months White has particularly enjoyed the 'endless benefits' of being able to consistently run and train much more since ditching the booze.
Wanting others to experience similar benefits White has teamed with her good friend and run coach Adam Keighran to launch a new venture called Run Naked.
She said Run Naked was an online community all about living alcohol-free and embracing the power of running to lead a healthy, positive and energetic life.
"[Adam and I] went through a really similar journey giving up alcohol about five years ago, and we basically found running to be hugely therapeutic for that process," White said.
"We basically formed Run Naked to make a community of people that want to live alcohol free and run."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
