Why Run ????

Hi Readers,

I have been asked this question more times in my life than I can remember, and if I was given a dollar each time I think I could have retired at 30 !!

Boarding School

When I think about it, there wasn't a sudden light bulb moment one day like Forrest Gump had when he took up his running ordeal. Mine was gradually nurtured during my early days at boarding school when I was 14.

Every Monday night meant a cross country run for all the boarders, no exceptions, in all types of weather. My boarding school was in the town of Kilmore, about an hour north of Melbourne, and it had a very strong sporting culture. It also has a reputation of being a very cold place in Winter!!

Each Monday morning would see a regular stream of students making their way to the Infirmary to see the Matron (nurse) in the hope of getting a ticket excusing them from the Monday run. This would then be presented to the Brother (Marist Brother's ran the college) on duty for the run that night. Just because you had a ticket did not always excuse you, as some Brothers took great delight in overriding the Matron's judgement that you were unfit to run, and gleefully sent you on your way with the rest of the runners.

I soon learnt that it was easier to just suck it up and do the run rather than go through the ordeal of getting a sick leave ticket, and then harbouring so much resentment towards the Brother who sent you on the run anyway.

Pretty soon I discovered that I actually enjoyed the runs and pushing myself. It also added some extra fitness towards our football training (Australian Rules for my overseas readers, not Soccer!). There was nowhere to hide on these runs, and no cheating was permitted as we all had our names ticked off at the halfway turnaround point.

As time went on, and the years passed, I grew to look forward to these runs, and also began doing some on my own and with other boarders on other nights when we had no training. This kept us fit throughout the year, and this attitude has stayed with me for more than forty years.

For the next ten or so years I played a lot of football, and enjoyed it so much as I was always pretty fit due to the fact I kept running in the off season and on nights when I didn't have training. 

Of course, team mates ridiculed me about this, but I didn't mind as it only concerned me, and I didn't care what they thought. It also made football training so much easier, and I loved training.

Fast forward a few more years and I was now running 10km a few times a week. We had moved to a city (Ballarat) that had a strong running culture and outstanding running routes. Like Kilmore, it also had a reputation as a cold place, probably one of the coldest in Victoria. Yes, it was bleak, but we loved it there.

As I was comfortably completing these runs, a friend suggested trying a few fun runs over this distance, and even longer.

"FUN" I hear you scream?? How can a run be fun??????

Yep, give me a dollar each time I've heard this!!!

The extra incentive to do my best in these runs only encouraged and motivated me more to do more fun runs, over longer distances.

Half marathons in Melbourne were soon tackled, and my training over the years obviously prepared me for these.

It must be pointed out here that I was never one to assume I'd be challenging the placegetters, it was more a case of challenging myself and just enjoying what I was doing, which I clearly was.

The Ekiden

In my late 20's, our first child was born, and when Sam was about 2, a few friends and myself decided to enter a huge event in Ballarat called The Ekiden.

The Ekiden is a team marathon, and each member runs a leg or two. In this case, each leg was a lap of Lake Wendouree in Ballarat, a total of 6km. Myself and Wallace Martin planned to run two legs each as our team only had 5 runners.

But here's the pinch.

Our team was going to run our legs...pushing a child in a modified pram!!!

We all had young children, se we each decided to see how we would go doing the race as "Pram Pushers".

We were given permission to do so, and pretty soon even got a bit of press coverage.

Wallace and myself and our boys preparing for the event.

So, how did we go?

Remarkably, we were travelling very well throughout the event, and leading into the final lap our last runner was in the lead. !!

We weren't sure if the organisers would be happy if a team of 'Pram Pushers' won this very prestigious event, and despite our best efforts, our last runner was overtaken in the final few hundred metres. It would have been great to have saluted, but it wasn't to be, but we were still thrilled to have done as well as we did.

The New Wheels !!

This pram in the photo was an old one I bought at an op shop and I bolted in a seat from an old chair from school.

It served the purpose for a few weeks, but then I upgraded to a much better version that I saw for sale in a shop in Ballarat. This was the Rolls Royce of running prams !! They are everywhere now, but back in the early 90's they were very few and far between, and I had one!!

Each year in Ballarat there is a large local festival for a few weeks, The Begonia Festival.

Part of this is a big race/fun run called The Begonia Classic, a 16.5km course dominated by a big hill midway, and another long climb towards the finish. I'd done it a few times solo, but as I now had children and my new set of wheels, I managed to push each of our sons in the race over a number of years.

I got so much use out of this pram and our boys just loved coming on runs with me. It didn't really matter about the weather as I could place a clear cover over it, but generally speaking, we only really used it on good days.

The hardest thing was trying to answer their questions all the time on runs - it was hard enough keeping my breath at the best of times!!

And they all made it into the local paper on different Begonia Classics, as the photos show.

That pram had so many modifications over the years, and covered hundreds of kilometres, and nothing can surpass the joy it gave me and the time it gave me with each of our boys.

The Tann Clan

It was on a Christmas Day morning in the late 90's when I was out on a run with the pram with one of the boys. As we went around Lake Wendouree, ( the best running track in Ballarat) a group of runners joined me and started chatting as we went, as runners often do. They said they'd seen me a lot running around, and asked if I'd like to join their group that met a few times a week.

Sure, no worries.

So when I rock up at 6.00 am a few days later, this group wasn't just the 7 or so people I'd met a few days earlier, there must have been 30-40 runners!!

As I quickly found out, this group was under the tutelage of an older man, Richard Tann, and they called themselves "The Tann Clan". They'd meet 3 times a week at 6.00am and run together for an hour, and Richard would just decide where to go with a gentle wave of the hand and we'd go down that street or road, and just keep following his directions.

All the while just chatting with each other. No race. No winners. No competition. And every few blocks we would regroup so that we were always together.

The goal of 'The Clan' was to train together so that we could run in the Melbourne Marathon in October. It would not be odd to have as many as 80 runners some mornings, and we all got to know each other so well. It didn't matter what you wore, there was no competition for 'the best gear', or to look flash. For most of the time we hardly knew what each person did. For months I thought this one particular bloke was a farmer, as he always talked to me about his cattle. It was only when I was in hospital that I saw him in a gown and discovered that he was actually one of Ballarat's top heart surgeons!!!

Perceptions can often be so wrong, a powerful lesson learnt here.

One of the funniest mornings was when we were doing a long run, and someone decided that we all had to announce our 'Porn Star' names. That is, the name of your first pet and the name of the first street that you lived in.

This was hilarious, as we were out running for a few hours and this passed the time beautifully. You would just hear someone yell out their name randomly. It was made even more funny by the fact that a name would be called out without anyone expecting it.

For the record, mine was Tuppence Xavier. (not very porny!)

The unanimous winner was from a close friend who had the porn star name of Boobs Bo Peep!! We all had to stop and have a laughing break when that one was called out🤣

We would have special days where everyone had to have a joke or funny story to share at our regular catch up stops. Each year we would also have a carols morning, where we would visit an aged care home in our running gear and sing carols for them.

Other days it might be to share a profound statement or proverb.

But, if you slept in, and the group happened to run past your house, it would not be unexpected for some, if not all the Clan to run into your house and wake you up, bang on your walls and windows just to remind you where you should have been!!! I never gave them my address!!

I quickly grew to love my mornings with The Clan, and soon they added Saturday morning 'long runs'. As the year wore on these runs increased in length, and I remember one in particular that was 37km. I completed it, and by now I was feeling that I was ready for the marathon, my first.

 

Injury.

As much as we were getting fitter, we were also pushing ourselves closer to injury at times. I'd hooked up with 5-6 other blokes from the group who liked to do that little bit extra, and who would meet at 5.00 am, do an hour together, then join the others for the 6.00 run. I was invited to run with these guys and was able to keep up with them, and soon my fitness was going through the roof. 

It started off with a little nagging pain in my stomach. I thought it was just a stitch, or just cramping. But over the weeks it progressively worsened, to the point where I couldn't run, and even a sneeze or cough had me doubled over in pain.

After many tests in Ballarat and Melbourne, I was diagnosed with double inguinal hernias, most likely caused by some heavy lifting caused during some house renovations, coupled with the high level of training.

Medication would ease the pain and possibly get me through the marathon, but I was very worried about what further damage would be caused. Some fellow runners also had similar symptoms, and were interested in what decision I would make...Surgery or keep running?

In the end I opted for the surgery, which took place on the weekend of the Melbourne Marathon. I was gutted, and so were members of The Clan.

On the Friday morning before the Marathon I was so touched when a horde of runners came by the hospital and checked in on me, just as they would have done if I had slept in and they happened to run by my house that morning.

Lord/Lady of The Lake

The annual Tann Clan championship/Blue Ribbon Event.

Yes it was fun, but it was also somewhat competitive and cherished.

A one lap of Lake Wendouree (6km) that was a handicap event.

Everyone started at intervals. Some runners were given a generous head start, the elite runners took off last. First male and female across the line were crowned Lord and Lady of the Lake for that year, and were presented with a perpetual trophy.

I had been slowly getting back into my running after my surgery about 8 weeks previously. As such, the handicapper was very generous to me, so much so that in the final few hundred metres I overtook the remaining person ahead of me and took out the title for that year. Do you reckon they gave the handicapper hell!!!!

Still, I was overjoyed to win it and I still cherish my year with The Tann Clan, as we moved from Ballarat a month or so later to begin a new life in Bendigo.

What I learnt from training with these people enabled me to then train further in the subsequent years to go and actually complete a few marathons.

Marathons

After moving to Bendigo I quickly hooked up with a few dads of kids I was teaching, and we would do regular runs together.

Over the course of the year my fitness grew, I was still running with the pram with our youngest, and by October I was ready for the Melbourne Marathon

I had always been told "If you can do a Half Marathon., you can do a full marathon"

I felt this was a ridiculous statement at first, but after being able to complete Halfs easily, and having done many runs in the 30 plus km mark, I knew I was ready.

To cut a long story short, I'll skip telling you what each km was like, but suffice to say, by 38km's I was spent, but determined not to stop running.

In the last km I had these thoughts constantly running through my head...

This is stupid

I'm never running again.

I'll never do this again.

etc

Even as I took my last few steps I could not get these thoughts out of my head, BUT... the moment I crossed over the finish line, the very first thought that came into my mind was

I can't wait to do this again next year !!

What a change of mindset in a few milliseconds, and this has occurred in subsequent marathons.

It was something I couldn't have predicted or can I explain, but I will remember that moment forever.

I did however have one bad experience one year when I just felt from the start that something was not right.

I struggled a bit in the first 15km's and just couldn't find a rhythm. I wasn't pushing hard, I was hydrating, but something just wasn't working.

A few km's on and my mind began to go fuzzy. I was having trouble working out times, pace, distance etc. I looked backwards to where I had just been running and couldn't remember doing it.

In my mind I knew I had to stop, but I just couldn't make the decision to stop, even though I knew I needed to.

As I approached a drinks/aid station, an ambulance officer called out to me and asked if I was okay. I couldn't answer him, and he just grabbed me and took me off the course. This was at the 22km mark.

I was put on a drip, given some tablets and fell asleep almost immediately. Later on I was put on a bus ( called the Sag Wagon) that took me and a few other runners to the finish line. Another quick check and we were sent on our way.

What a disappointment- a year of training down the chute.

This burned in me for the next year, and when I got to the same point in the next marathon in the following year, I knew I was home because I had beaten the mark at which I failed last year.

Looking back now, I realise how scary this was and potentially how much damage I did to myself that day. It was no consolation to discover later that a record number of runners suffered the same result that day, possibly as it was slightly warmer than expected.

Still, I completed a few more over the years, and would love to be able to still do them, but age and the effects of so much running and sport have taken a toll on my body.

if you could see me, you'd quickly realise that this body is not designed for running marathons!!! Too many operations and impact on my knees and ankles have definitely slowed me down, but I still have my passion.

Running Around The World

We have been so lucky to have travelled a lot overseas, and one of the best ways to localise myself with a city or area is to go for a run.

Here are just a few snaps from just a few places we have been...

In any weather, this time in Canmore, Canada.

Here I've just ascended a mountain that overlooks Barcelona. Worth every step!

My coldest run ever, along the banks of the Danube in Budapest. Note the chunks of ice floating by.

My favourite run of all time, Sulphur Mountain that overlooks Banff, in Canada. When we were here I just couldn't get enough of it! Some days it was clear, other days it snowed. It was perfect.

Well Readers, as you can see, I could just go on and on with stories about running. It has been a passion of mine for so long, and is also my 'quiet time'. I get so much work organised when on a run.

My last quote I often respond with when people say I am obsessed with running...

What some call obsessed, others call it dedication.

Until my next post...

Cheers 😁. 🏃‍♂️