The Dragon Runner

2009 Relay For Life

24 Aug 2018

Aaron - 126 laps - 50.4km
Nicole - 32 laps - 12.8km
Michael - 60 laps - 24.0km

The Relay For Life is an annual charity fundraising activity conducted by the Cancer Council. It involves runners & walkers completing laps of an athletic track as individuals or teams over a 24 hour period. On 3 May 2009 I participated in the Sutherland Shire Relay For Life at the Sylvania Waters Athletic Track with Aaron & Nicole.

Running laps of an athletic track can be a boring affair, but at the Relay For Life there is plenty of distraction around the track with plenty of friends in attendance that you pass each lap in their team camps. There was also music on the PA system, and the occasional speach from local dignitaries to break up the laps.

The event was chip recorded with a timing mat passed on each lap, and full results were published. I can remember clearly when Aaron first told me he had covered 20km that I initially thought there had been a mistake as he had never run that far before. I spoke with 'Big Chris' from the Timing Guys and he confirmed that the distance was correct. After the second hour Aaron was in outright second position for the furthest distance covered, and the organisers were closely monitoring the progress of the top-3 runners to ensure laps were being correctly completed. Of course there were no issues with any of these runners.

Nicole took over from Aaron in the third hour and I ran my first lap in the fourth hour. Aaron became our main runner, taking only short breaks to eat & rest briefly before taking over again. As the hours passed his distance total continued to climb with the marathon point (42.2km) being passed in the 8th hour.

After this there were a few discussions among the experienced marathon runners in attendance about the fact that Aaron was so young, and that there was not an official marathon in Australia that would have allowed him to run such a distance. The consensus by Bob Fickel (189 marathons), Big Chris Stephenson (146 marathons) & experienced marathon runners from St George & Southside Masters who were participating was that we should stop Aaron if he reached 50km.

This was a "sensible" position at the time, even though Aaron was extremely disappointed by it. Almost 10 years later he still tells me it was the wrong decision.

Nicole also ran a much greater distance than she had run before this day, and her achievements on this day deserve to be recognised. I am extremely proud of both.