A kilometre shared....



Kids, adults - men and women, 30, 40 & 70 yr olds, regular runners, novice runners
 people going further than ever before. Every single one of them absolutely loving it.

This photo was taken with about 6kms to go in our 80km ultra run, just for fun, from Burwood to Safety Beach. Each runner pictured has a story. A life story and a running story.

The man in black, not Johnny Cash but Wighty is his name was going to run 8km and ended up doing over 20km. By far more than he'd ever done before.

The girl at the back, my sister Clare, ran a faster ten km than ever before.

The guy at the front with his two kids is Eddie. He doesn't run, he floats.

The guy leading the second pack is Noel who is over 70 years old. He's a legend. He podium finishes, for his age group, in ten km races he does at Melbourne Marathon.

The guy on the bike in the lead pack, Houeixy,  rode about 70km that day as a support. We were moving pretty slow so I can't fathom how boring it must have been for him. He never let us know.

The guy in the yellow shorts is the Big T. If there is a word of encouragement needed, you can bet the Big T is all over it like a rash.

I am running behind Noel in the picture in the white cap. Behind me you might just be able to see another taller runner with a dark cap. His name is Michael. I'd never met him before that day, my sister invited him along. Over the last 10km Michael lifted my mood on several occasions. He was so positive and happy about what was transpiring. I couldn't help but feel better. One week later Michael was running round the Tan and suffered a heart attack. People came to his aid quickly and he was being looked after and was in hospital before too long. He survived. Maybe he survived because he was so fit and otherwise healthy from running or maybe he was just lucky. Maybe a bit of both. My sister reckons for sure if he was running by himself he probably would have been pretty much cactus. A kilometre shared.....

On the day of the photo if I was to try to run 80km by myself I am sure I wouldn't have been able to complete it. If by some freak occurence I was able to do it by myself I am without doubt about one thing. I wouldn't have anywhere near the amount of great memories that I have of that day now.

All along the way we chatted and laughed and distracted each other from the pain. A kilometre shared.......

I run with a group of mates at Duncan McKinnon aths track on a weekly basis. We chat and laugh as we run. We push each other to go further and faster. When I'm feeling a bit flat the crew will drag me through. The D-Mac crew love to share kilometeres. The improvement in all of us is obvious. A kilometre shared......

For my long runs I head out with Seb & Gully. I love long runs with those boys. It's a guarantee runner's glow at the end.

A kilometre shared has to be the way to go.