Running

Running

For a long time, I have enjoyed running.

I think this may have stemmed from when I first went to Boarding School in Kilmore when I was 14. Every Monday night, rain, hail or shine, every boarder had to assemble together in their running gear and were told which route we would be taking that night. There was no escaping it. Names were checked off at the start, at the half way mark and again at the end. If one wanted to be excused they had to have a pass note from the nurse who ran the sick bay, but these were as hard to obtain as rocking horse poo, so it was futile to even attempt to get one.

Distances ranged from as little as 3-4 km, to up to 8-9 km. If you wanted to run further that was up to you, but few took up the option.

At first I tolerated these runs, then grew to look forward to them. Not because I was a good runner, far from it. I loved the challenge of beating certain other kids, trying to match it with those who were always ahead of me, and trying to beat the course itself. 

There was also the added bonus of being closer to the front of the queue for the showers at the end, always a priority in a Kilmore Winter ! 

The running also helped us stay fit for football, which was the main priority at school at the time. Education was secondary !

Over the next four years I began to take an extra run each week and by the time I was in Year 12 I would run each night after school in order to clear the head for the next few hours of study that we had to do each night.

By now I was enjoying going for runs, and I kept it up when I left school and lived in Melbourne for a year when I worked in a bank. It was a great way to explore the suburbs, and often I would drive my car to a different part of Melbourne, go for a run there, and then drive home. I got to know Melbourne very well in a very short time.

The running now kept me fairly fit for football, so pre-season was never a hassle.

I then moved to Ballarat for 3 years to study teaching and I quickly became aware of the running culture of this city. Football was still my main focus sporting wise, but I always ran when I could.

Over the next few years it was football first, but I always ran when I could. When the first of our 3 boys was born I bought an old pram and scrounged an old chair from the school I was teaching at and attached it to the pram. This enabled my son to sit up and come with me for runs.

Soon we discovered in a shop a larger 3 wheeled pram that was a forerunner of all of those ones you see everywhere these days. An infant could be transported in comfort and with a plastic cover, in any weather.

We soon became a bit of a fixture around the Lake in Ballarat as there were no other running prams going around at the time. It was also a great way to get the kids out of the house if they were ratty, couldn't get to sleep or if my wife needed a break.

Each year as part of the Ballarat Begonia Festival there is a 16.5km race that attracts hundreds of entries, and I managed to push each of the boys in the pram in different years. The photos are below.

Pushing Will

Pushing Sam

Pushing Lachlan

                                                                  Australian Ekiden

We had a team of dads who ran in a team marathon event, each pushing a child in a makeshift pram. (We were the only ones to do so)

We came 2nd after getting pipped 400m from the finish line

The 1994 Ekiden

 



I have been lucky enough to have completed 6 marathons. The feeling as you cross the finish line is a combination of exhilaration and exhaustion, there is no other feeling like it.
I hit the wall in one marathon at the 25 km mark and ended up in the 'Sag Wagon', which takes you to the finish line and another medical check up before they release you. It was the lowest of feelings, not being able to finish. It burned for a whole year until the next event when I got to the same point and kept going, it was a major incentive to finish.

After a run in Darwin. What you cannot see is that I am totally drenched with sweat from running in the humidity.

After a Winter's night run in Bendigo. That is frost on the beanie.

While running has been a long time passion, it has also put me in hospital a few times. Numerous knee operations have laid me up from time to time, hernia operations also. But the thing that stopped me in my tracks and put an end to marathons was the dreaded Osteitis Pubis, a condition I wouldn't wish on anyone. The treatment for it was a course of the most painful needles I have ever endured. It took a few years to shake, but I am always aware that it could surface again.
Despite this, I have never lost my love for running. It has enabled me to meet an amazing range of people, in particular The Tann Clan in Ballarat.
For those unaware of the Tann Clan, it is a group of people who meet 3-4 times a week to run together and enjoy each other's company. The last time I ran with them there were nearly 70 in the group, ably lead by Richard Tann and his reliable offsider, John 'Coach' Burt.
Each morning at 6.00 am, regardless of weather conditions we would meet and run for an hour through the streets of Ballarat. Some would meet earlier and do a bit of extra work too. Look out if you slept in as there was always the chance they would run past (or through) your house and wake you up!!
The group would train towards their goal each year, to complete the Melbourne Marathon. My one regret is that I never got to do a marathon with them as I ended up in hospital on Marathon weekend needing surgery for a running injury, but they did come and run up to my bed the day before to cheer me up !!
In that one year that I ran with them I discovered the true joy of running, and that it didn't matter who you were or what you did, if you had runners on then that was good enough. For most of the year I was very friendly with one bloke in particular who I thought was a farmer, only to eventually discover that he was a heart specialist and that farming was a hobby. He had runners on, and that's all that mattered, and it showed how we often judge people by what they do, not who they are.
Running gives me 'think time', and I cannot begin to estimate how many lessons for school have been planned on the road, or how many ideas I get just from observing what goes on around me. It is also a magnificent release if I have had a bugger of a day. Even my wife will tell me to 'hit the road' in my runners or on my bike if she senses I need to unwind!
I could go on forever sharing my feelings about the joys of running, but two quotes sum it up completely...


     

I found this painted on the foreshore in Vancouver.