Gone Nuts 50k 2025

 My preparation for this event certainly wasn’t ideal, but that can happen sometimes. It was far more important for me to be the almost full-time carer for my beautiful wife who has been my reliable crew on all my long runs. Even though she is recovering well from her super major op just over four weeks ago, she still has a long way to go.

It was when our good friend, Sam Schroder, told us that she was going to participate in the Gone Nuts 50k event that I made up my mind to register as well. The plan was for Sam and I to stay together the whole way to encourage and support each other while her husband, Luke, was our crew for the day. Later on, our son told us that he was registering for the 50k as well, but he is far too fast for me to be able to keep up with him. Now that he has the ultra-running bug, he doesn’t want me to retire from the sport.

Leading up to the event, I was so busy caring for Val, trying to get the house and gardens ready for a trip away that my training wasn’t ideal. Also, I hadn’t been sleeping as well as I needed to for this event. Everything was going against me and for the first time (and I’ve already completed Gone Nuts twice for both the 25k and 50k events, as well as numerous other events) I wasn’t looking forward to the run. I was nervous and apprehensive to the point of wondering if I could finish the distance.

The day before I began getting all my gear together (including a bag of clean clothes to change into after the event). But, and this was a big mistake, I totally forgot to trim my toenails and this came back to bite me as the race continued.

The alarm was set for 3:00 am and I bounded out of bed to make a pot of tea, have some breakfast and get my running pack packed with the mandatory gear and the things that I would need for the journey—including a kilometre by kilometre chart with the breakdown of elevation gains and losses and three different times for each kilometre, based up my slowest result when I had a couple of falls and broke some ribs. The idea was to leave home at 3:30 am … but it was 3:45 am before we drove out, heading to Wynyard Yacht Club (the finish area) where we would catch the bus to Rocky Cape for the start of our event. We arrived as the bus pulled in, but I had time for a quick toilet stop before getting on the bus with Sam as we made our way to the starting area. We arrived with plenty of time to spare … but it sure was cold and an icy wind blew. After a visit to the toilet and catching up with some friends who were gathering in the dark, I went for a walk (getting a couple of CityStrides nodes on the way) to try and keep a bit warmer.

After a bit of a briefing, we were on our way. Sam and I knew that we would be slower than most people, but that didn’t concern us as we wanted to finish the event. We jogged and walked along Rocky Cape Road in the dark, following a long line of headlamps bobbing along in front of us. After a couple of kilometres I knew that this would be a slow run, because of the times we were ticking over. Just before we were to leave the road, I knew that I needed a toilet break and began to look for a convenient spot. There wasn’t one, so I thought that I would head further down the road while Sam began the long climb along a rocky track. Then I saw a sign to a toilet so decided to head for that … but this added another 700 metres or so to my total distance. It couldn’t be helped. I turned to run back up the road and arrived at the beginning of the track which I began to follow. It was very stony, so I went as carefully as possible. I hadn’t gone too far when I came across Sam who, very kindly, was waiting for me. We were a team, and we were sticking together.

During the course of the event, we traversed every imaginable type of terrain … except ice and snow. Someone had recently been through the early part of this stage and cut back grasses and other vegetation to make it easier. Even so, I thought that the track had deteriorated since I first ran it (if my memory is right) and the deep and narrow ruts could still easily cause a trip if I wasn’t careful. In places, it appeared as if Parks had imported gravel/rocks to place on the track to prevent erosion. They weren’t always the easiest to walk on.

Somewhere along the way, I noticed a Ziplock bag with a used gel sachet. I picked it up, thinking that someone had inadvertently dropped it rather than just throwing it away. From then on, I began to pick up every bit of rubbish that I found and later put it into a bin when I found one. I even picked up an orange whistle, a lip balm stick, some bits of wire and old pink tape used as track markers for previous events. I kept this up until I found it too hard to keep bending down. Mostly, I assumed that this rubbish had not been thrown away on purpose, though towards the end I began to sense that some was deliberately discarded.

By now we were mainly walking rather than doing some jogging (except for the road in Sisters Beach and the final sprint home, both of which we ran). We were content to do that. Even so we thought that we would still pass some of the others ahead for us … but that didn’t occur. At Sisters Beach I took a couple of little detours to knock off some CityStrides nodes and complete three streets. At one stage, Sam had a fall but, fortunately, there was no real damage, and she was able to get herself up and keep walking. The same wasn’t true for me, however. We had passed through Boat Harbour and were at the end of the rocks, just before heading uphill along a track when I over balanced. Down I went. I lay on my back, not being able to move to get myself up. Fortunately, two ladies were nearby—Carolyn and Jodie—and Jodie helped me up, for which I was so thankful. We walked with them for a bit, until they disappeared in front of us.

At times I was lagging behind Sam, but she didn’t get too far ahead of me. At other times, I found that I was leading, or we were walking side-by-side. She was great company, and I appreciated her encouragement. Because we had been walking so much, I found it hard to start running—though at the end we were able to sprint home down the boardwalk, over the bridge and to the finish line.

Towards the end I was talking to Sam about this probably being my last run and that I would instead concentrate upon parkrun events. I was really feeling the strain. My heels were sore, having inadvertently picked up an old pair of trail shoes that had already done around 1200 kms, so that I could feel the stones beneath my feet; some of my toes felt terrible; my knees (the left one especially) felt the jarring from my worn-out shoes; I hadn’t been taking gels and ended up with a cramp (this disappeared when I took my first gel); I had a strain in my left calf and a pain in my chest, just like when I had broken some ribs a few years earlier. However, I’d had this soreness for some days (the jarring on my back when I overbalanced didn’t help that though). But there was no desire to pull out.

One great memory of the day was running down the boardwalk to the finish with people clapping and cheering but especially having my two Hobart grandsons (aged 4 and 5) running beside us shouting, “Go Pa. Go Sam”. That was a bit emotional. Thanks Oscar. Thanks D’Arcy.

It was when we stopped at Burnie to go to Maccas for something “proper” to eat after everything I’d had out on the course, that I looked down at my shoes and discovered that they were the wrong ones. So that is how my running career, when it comes to long ultra runs and those over difficult terrain, has come to an end. In 2021 I finished first in my age category (60+) with a time of 8:44:56. In this year’s run, I came in second last overall and with a PW (that’s shorthand for Personal Worst) of 13:32:18, that’s a minus 4:47:22 PB. Surely, that must be a claim to fame. So, the time has come to hang up these trail shoes … but to hang them up with no regrets at all.

Oh, the story doesn’t end there, though. Come Sunday morning, the thought entered my mind that I could run the 75k next year. All I would have to do is get through Boat Harbour while it was still light, as the third 25k is so much easier. The soreness and pain will be gone in a couple of days; I’ll be able to move a bit easier. I wonder, I just wonder. Or is it just a pipe dream?

Greenvale Backyard Ultra Marathon

For those not familiar with the concept, the Backyard Ultra is a 6.71k loop that must be completed within the hour. Then, at the beginning of the next hour you start all over again. You keep running/walking until you time out (you don’t make it back before the hour is up), you decide that you’re not up to starting the next loop, or the medical officer pulls you out. The odd distance of each loop gives you a total of 100 miles in 24 hours—for those who get that far. The world record stands at 110 yards/hours for 458.33 miles/737.61 kilometres!

This year hasn’t gone as I had hoped. I didn’t do either the Scottsdale Rail Trail or the Bruny Island Ultra. So many things got in the way of enabling me to attend these events—though I did manage to complete my virtual run around New Zealand with Run the World. Over the last couple of months, I have also had hip and leg issues. I finally went to the physio about 2½ weeks prior to Greenvale, telling him of my plans and that I needed to keep on training. He tested me out and gave me four exercises to do daily—along with saying that I could still run, but that I should avoid hills for the following week.

With these various ups and downs, I found myself eagerly anticipating the event but then dreading it the following day. The last few days have been spent resting or just walking, and I felt much better for the reduced load. I spent time researching the internet for ideas on nutrition and hydration for ultra marathon events and made a stockpile of drinks and eats for the big day. I’m think that I was even better prepared in that area than when I did Bruny in 2018 as a solo runner.

The day before the event, the farm was open for people to set up and check out the course. We had a short walk on the first part of the course and decided that we needed to get ourselves a gazebo. We called in to Anaconda on the way home and bought one as well as some screwed tent pegs as it was quite windy out there in the middle of the day. We also got a new camp chair for Val. After a late lunch I returned to set up our gazebo beside the Bosveld family, who helped me erect it. Back home, I made up my peanut butter and honey sandwiches and jam sandwiches, as well as slicing up some of my oranges.

This morning, I was up before the alarm and made us our pot of tea after having breakfast of yoghurt and banana and two slices of white bread toast with peanut butter and honey. I then packed the BT50 and we left home at 7:30 am to continue getting everything set up for the day.

After an 8:45 am briefing, which included an inspirational speech by Tim Blair from the Tim Blair Run for Kids Foundation Inc., it was almost time to start our first yard. Not only did the 3-minute, 2-minute and 1-minute whistles sound, but Tye Binns also walked between the gazebos to warn us. I started at the back of the pack, which is my preferred place, as I knew that I was planning to run slowly but aiming at around 7:45-8:00/k pace. The first kilometre, some of which was on road, was mainly an uphill slog that meant I had time to make up for the rest of the loop. The fully exposed course was on a farm, which meant that the mown “grass” (perhaps that should read clover/crop) needed to be treated with respect. I wondered if there would be rolled ankles because of the terrain we were traversing. The course had its undulations in which I basically walked the uphill sections. I finished the first yard with about 6 minutes to spare, which enabled me to grab something to drink and some nibbles (chips, jellies and jam sandwich quarters). The second loop was similar in time to the first, though my first kilometre was slower (in fact, each of my first kilometres were progressively slower than the previous one). It was sunny and warming up, though intermittent cloud cover meant that we had some cooler times. By the time we were part way through the third loop the wind began and it grew in intensity from there on. Thus, it became, for me at least, a real struggle running into the wind and up the hills/inclines at the same time. It was in the third loop that I began to feel the challenge of this course. I did complete the loop, but it was getting harder to keep going. In the fourth loop I was running like the Old Man that I am frequently called while running. In this loop, with about 1.5k to go, I had my head down watching the ground when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw safety tape fluttering in the wind. I kept it on my left when there was a whack on my head as I hit the nozzle part of an irrigation sprayer. Looking back, I saw my mistake. I opted to climb over the tape rather than do the extra to get to the start of the tape. I safely stepped over with my right leg, but my left leg cramped, and my foot became caught on the tape as I attempted to lift it over. As a result, I tumbled to the ground. A young lady stooped to ensure that I was OK, before I rolled over and stood up to continue. We ran together for a little while before I drew ahead of her. I still managed to complete that loop in under the hour, but I didn’t have as much time to spare. Then it was onto the fifth lap and I could feel the difficulty in continuing to run—and I really thought that I was going to time out on this one. As I came into the tented area I cramped in my left leg and had to stop to rub it. However, I was able to run to the finish line reasonably well but, having crossed it with only a couple of minutes to spare, I cramped quite badly. The medical officer came over and told me that she was pulling me out of the event because the cramp was so bad.

Anyway, that was the end of my day, but I did complete 5 yards with several people behind me failing to finish that loop. We stayed around for a while as Val took more photos and I ate and drank. At home, I had a bath but cramped badly again—much worse this time. Val brought me some salt to help ease it but I threw up in the bath. I’ve never done that before at the end of any run.

I certainly fulfilled my first goal of not being the first person to not finish and I made my second goal of 5 yards. However, I had higher hopes of making it to 10 yards for my longest ever run (Bruny in 2018) and then maybe going on the run 100 kilometres or even 100 miles. However, my old legs have been failing me over the latter part of this year as they have lost a lot of their strength. I also had some left hip soreness which affected the IT Band. Would I do it again? At the moment, I’m not sure though I do have the 50k run at Gone Nuts in March. During the run I questioned myself as to whether I should stick to something shorter—like parkrun! I suppose I am a bit disappointed that I couldn’t go further—but I still did 5 yards on a tough course!

One thing I did find strange was the number of people talking about the fact that I am 76 years old.

Even though I was always at the rear of the field, I stopped/paused on a few occasions to checked on other participants who seemed to or were having troubles. I even ran with some of them for short distances.

Gone Nuts 25k

 As sometimes seems to happen when I’m preparing for a race, things don’t go to plan. Four weeks out from the event, I had a surgical procedure to remove some skin cancers from the back of my right hand. Then, a fortnight later, I had another procedure to remove more. That meant a fair bit of time off from having long runs and plenty of tough hills. As well, my left knee had been playing up again. I resorted to my physio exercises from the last time this happened, but I couldn’t do much about my two procedures. That become a matter of grinning and bearing it.

With my preparation being somewhat handicapped because of these things, I did something that is not recommended, and which probably did have a negative effect upon my results. Five days before the event, I ran 22k and walked another 6k; the following day it was a 1.5k walk and a 9k run; and then on the Wednesday, I ran 9k. The next two days were just walking. The challenge I face is that I am part of Run the World, and I need around 10k per day to maintain my estimated finish time. So, it all became a matter of juggling what I need to do.

We were late leaving home for our event, and we arrived at Boat Harbour just in time for the briefing, which I missed because of last minute preparations with changing into trail shoes and joining the long line for the toilets. The great news is, our youngest son was running with me in his first trail run, having been a teammate last year in the Bruny Island Ultra relay event. But I was far too slow for him, and we ran our own race.

The 25k event was crowded and it wasn’t easy to get a good position on Boat Harbour Beach. As usual, I started near the rear of the field, but I was high up on the loose sand rather than lower down where the sand was firmer. It wasn’t easy jostling for position along the beach—and even more difficult when we had to clamber over rocks, some of which were a bit slimy. We are always warned about the need to take care on these rocks so that we don’t have an accident. Participants were moving all over the place on the rocks and I had to grab hold of one lady’s shoulder, when she had veered in front of me, so we both didn’t come to grief. We offered each other an apology and kept on. I’m amazed that my ability to run on these rocks belies my age as I seemed to find it easier than so many of the other participants (I hope that this is not a case of famous last words for the next time I run this course).

Then it was up, up, and even more up as we climbed rough tracks and half roads. I was carrying with me, in the hope that I might be able to better my time from 2018, details of my splits so I could make comparisons and see how I was going. By the time I had completed 5k I was already more than 2:30 behind what I had hoped might be my time. But for the next 7k I was able to record faster splits, even up the Hill of Death! It was interesting observing how we each handled different sections—at least for those participants who were around me. I would drop back on the inclines only to find myself passing them on the declines. One early decline had me concerned. It was steep and I found myself running downhill way too fast for my liking. It was so hard trying to hold myself back and my eyes started to get a bit blurry from the effort and jarring. By the time this happened for the second time my knees were feeling the strain, even though I had taped them. And, at the bottom of some of these declines, the track took a sharp turn. At times, there was a big drop awaiting if I couldn’t slow myself down.

The views are always great, and I occasionally stopped for photos. It’s obvious that I wasn’t too worried about my overall time as I was happy with my progress at this point. I also stopped numbers of times to enquire as to how some other participants were going when they had to stop to stretch or take a break. Then there was helping a young lady over a stile—a stile that I found hard to get myself up onto as my legs had begun to weary later in the event.

It's always amazing how local farmers and their families are out beside the course to cheer people on and, in some cases, to provide drinks and nibbles for participants. At the top of one road a young boy and an even younger girl gave me a high five. And how generous are the landholders who allow us to run on their properties. What disappointed me, however, was the number of pieces of rubbish that had been abandoned on their properties—an empty water bottle, gel and bar wrappers carelessly discarded. At aid stations I had three cups of water, one of coke and a couple of chocolate Cadbury Freddo frogs as sustenance. At the same time, I continued to sip on my water as I felt I needed it. It wasn’t until around the 22k mark that I had my first gel. That was partly because I thought that I had nowhere to keep the wrapper and partly because I felt that I didn’t need it. This meant that I hadn’t learnt my lessons from previous events.

The course travelled along a beach, sealed and gravel roads, rough tracks that were discernible because of the amount of foot traffic that had worn a path—all the while following the pink trail markers. There were stones and rocks to navigate, roots that were designed to trip the unwary, fine loose dirt that would become a dust cloud at every footfall, and stubble. There were also puddles to get around, a few mud patches to avoid and paddocks with both plenty of cow pats and hoof marks that could turn the ankle if you were unwary. Entering one property, I found myself stepping over a shiny snakeskin—at some point it had been there. We were so fortunate that a lot of the event took place under cloud cover, which made such a difference to the conditions.

The first point at which I really struggled was the zigzagging steep and rough track not long after I had conquered the Hill of Death. It took me 3:31 more than in 2018 to get myself up it as it twisted and turned its way around and between trees. From that point on, I was mainly slower than 6 years ago. Even though I was slowing in those latter stages, I was still able to manage a sprint finish on the boardwalk and was just pipped by the faster finishing young lady whom I had helped over the stile.

Once I reached the Inglis River Track I basically hit the wall and the remainder of the run became a hard struggle, as I found myself slowing quite a bit. My feet must have swollen as my toes were beginning to get cramped in my shoes. So many people sailed by as they had judged their run far better than I had. What I should have done in the lead up was to begin my taper much earlier and, during the event, to use my gels more often than I did today.

I have really been wanting to run the 101k, but today proved that I am not up to it—at least not up to it yet. I found that today’s 25k—at least in the final stages—was far harder than my 50k run in 2019 with a couple of cracked ribs. Despite these “disappointments”, it was a very enjoyable day! And I managed a somewhat respectable 8^th position in the male 60 and over age category out of 24. If only they had a 70 and over age category!

Now, what will I attempt next year? That’s too far away, but at the moment I have the Scottsdale Rail Trail Run, Bruny Island Ultra and the Greenvale Backyard Ultra in which I’m planning to participate, in the latter half of this year.

24 parkruns in 24 hours

Technically, this should be called “24 parkrun courses in 24 hours”, because only the first run was at an official parkrun event. The rest are more correctly freedom runs. However, that is the name by which these types of events are commonly known.

For a couple of days before this event I was feeling nervous—the old butterflies were winging their way around my stomach. Was I endeavouring to attempt too much at my age and ability? How much of this event would I be running solo because of my pace and choice of courses? Would I sleep the night before and be refreshed or would the thought of what lay before me keep me awake that last night so that I couldn’t cope with either the runs or the travel? Sometimes the thought of just not turning up scurried across my mind like wind-blown clouds! The day before I had everything out that I would need for the event—even things that would only be needed for the whole 24 hours if I could possibly get that far. Yes, I was dreaming big—but that dream was like the boy who saw the table loaded with all sorts of delicious goodies that he couldn’t resist. He heaped his plate to overflowing, but soon found that he couldn’t eat it all for his eyes were bigger than his belly.

I had seen the official schedule for the progression of events from Devonport to Bells Parade to Port Sorell and then on to Westbury Town Common and some of the Launceston parkrun courses. I knew that I would not be able to keep up that schedule, so I wrote my own—and that was perfectly acceptable because this is an unofficial event, the purpose simply being to try and run 24 parkrun courses in 24 hours. I thought that if I ran the various courses in 35-40 minutes each then that would be a good pace to enable me to do the most that I could manage.

The first course was Devonport for their official event, which I took at what I thought was an easy pace of 6:33/k for a time of 32:56. That was way too fast, but I thought that I handled it reasonably well. After having my barcode scanned and meeting up with Adam, our organiser, I headed out for my second run at Devonport, which I completed in a time of 34:30 or 6:51/k. That was closer to my goal but still a tad fast. I then had a coffee with Val and some of our Devonport parkrun friends at Drift Café before heading off for my third run at Devonport. While I was running, Val went for a wade at Bluff Beach and was ready for me at the conclusion of this run in a time of 34:40 or 6:55/k.

I dropped Val home and then drove out to Port Sorell where I was planning on doing my next three runs, which would have taken me to a quarter of the 24 hours. I started my first run there alone, but after a while had caught up with Adam who was walking/jogging because of a rolled ankle. He decided to run with me, which meant a faster pace than I had planned, as I completed the course in 33:15 or 6:40/k. For my break I headed back to the car for a gel and a drink. As I was getting to the car fridge I was bitten by a large ant because I had inadvertently stood on their nest. That left me concerned in case I had an adverse reaction to the bite. My next run took me 36:23 or 7:20/k. During this run I had cramping in my left calf and the beginning of a back spasm. When I finished, Deb Hicks, the ED at Port Sorell parkrun, who is also part of the Port Sorell Surf Life Saving Club, caught up with me and very kindly offered to help me in any way that I needed. That was so thoughtful of her. Fortunately, I had everything I needed. For my third run at Port Sorell, I started off with Todd as he wanted to run there again before we headed back to Devonport to complete the rest of the event on their course. I kept up with his 7:00/k pace until I needed to stop after 2k for a bubbler as I was getting so thirsty, in spite of having had so much to drink in my break. That drink still didn’t fully relieve my thirst, but I kept on and thought that I was slowly catching up to him until the effects of the heat and humidity began to get to me. My back spasm worsened, and it slowed me down quite a bit.

As I was driving back into Devonport for my next runs, I began to feel lightheaded and dizzy. Was this a bit of heatstroke? I took it carefully, finishing off one bottle of water on the way. Arriving at Devonport, I immediately had a jam sandwich and more fluid before walking down to the start of the parkrun course. Adam and Todd had both left earlier. I crossed paths with Todd after about 1k and Adam before the halfway turn. However, I was beginning to suffer with my back spasm which were progressively getting worse. There were times when all I could do was walk to ease the pain and I had to start asking myself whether I should continue or pull out. When I finished my seventh course, I told Adam that I wouldn’t continue, so I drove home.

Val ran me a bath and provided mugs of tea as well as a banana, an apricot, raspberries, and some chocolate while I also finished off one of my bottles of energy drink. After an hour of lazing in the bath I thought that I had better get out, which is when the cramps really started. I did manage to finally get out and the cramping began to ease up for the rest of the day. Later, much later at 9:15 pm, we drove down to the start of the Devonport parkrun course, and I did another freedom run (a walk this time) to bring my total to eight for the day.

One lesson that I hope I learnt was the need to keep hydrated. I thought that I had been drinking copiously (even pausing at bubblers along the way), but obviously, with the heat and humidity, it wasn’t enough as my mouth was continuously dry.

My parkrun journey to 250th

 parkrun 250^th: 16^th December 2023:

When our South African friend, Johan Duvenhage, recently completed his 250^th parkrun and shared his parkrun journey in a blog, I was inspired to write my parkrun journey. Just as Johan’s story was an encouragement to me, I hope that my story might be an encouragement to others. And while this is my story with my accomplishments, it is also a shared story—all those with whom I have interacted over the period of my parkrun involvement are part of my story and I owe you all so much. And I would love to read your parkrun stories if you would care to share them so that we can be encouraged by what you have done.

You might say that my parkrun journey began on 19^th March 2008. But how can that be, considering that parkrun didn’t commence in Australia until 2^nd April 2011 and in Devonport, where we live, until 30^th May 2015? The answer is that that was the day I took up running in response to my brother-in-law, Bruce, running the Six Foot Marathon. When I read what he had achieved, I was inspired to take up running with the hope of being able to replicate what he had done. Well, I haven’t been able to do that, but I have kept up my running.

Being a minister in the Presbyterian Church meant that I was not going to enter races on a Sunday, so I was looking around for something that I could compete in on a Saturday. Bruce did put me onto an event in the Launceston area which I competed in twice, but there was nothing else available. When we were in Perth in 2015 for six months, while I was looking after a little church following my retirement, I searched for a fun run that might be available. All I could find was a thing called parkrun, the nearest one being at Canning River—which was about 12k or 17 minutes’ drive away. My immediate reaction was that that was much too far to travel to go to a 5k event, so I didn’t bother pursuing it any further. The following year, when we were back in Devonport, Val heard one of her friends talking about parkrun, so she researched parkrun and then suggested that I go down the following Saturday and participate. I registered and nervously turned up at Devonport’s event on 16^th April 2016 to participate in my first event, which I completed in 27:06. 

At a later event at Risdon Brook where I was Tailwalker and Val was Photographer

The following week, because we were in Hobart, I participated in my first tourist event at Hobart parkrun, in a time of 27:59. This event is now known as Risdon Brook parkrun. The next five weeks were back at Devonport and, on my eighth week at parkrun I volunteered at Devonport in the, for me, daunting role of Timekeeper. I was so nervous in case I messed the results up with the stopwatch—but I didn’t have to worry because of the encouragement and help I received. Not long after that, it was another trip to Hobart and then a fortnight later I was at The Ponds in NSW. Everywhere I had to be for family reasons I took the opportunity to get to a parkrun when I could. It was around this time when I was totally surprised to receive the “parkrunner of the Month” award at Devonport. I was just so overwhelmed that I didn’t know what to say.

I think that it was on my second run at Devonport that Val asked me if I would like her to come down and take some photos of me. But it wasn’t just me she took photos of, for she also took some of her friends! A couple of weeks later, the RD talked to her about registering with parkrun and for the remainder of that year she filled the role of Photographer—taking much appreciated photos of volunteers, walkers, joggers, and runners. She took so many photos each week—often over 2,000—that she would often be still at the computer at 6:00 pm each Saturday night editing them before they were uploaded.

Without knowing anything about the then suggestion of participants volunteering once in every ten events I volunteered nine times in my first year—six times as Timekeeper, twice as Barcode Scanner and once handing out Finish Tokens. I don’t know why I was volunteering as much as I did but it was just something that I wanted to do because of the need, so Devonport parkrun could take place.

Breakfast celebrating my 100th

In 2017 we spent eight weeks with the people of Cobram parkrun as I was looking after three little churches on the NSW side of the border. It was a wonderful time, especially with the event team for they made us feel that we belonged and were a real part of that parkrun community. One of the highlights of those weeks was being invited to a team meal. To be included in this way meant so much to us.

You might even see one of the local koalas at Cobram

Throughout our travels across parts of our country, we’ve been amazed at the way in which different parkrun communities have warmly welcomed us, accepting us as part of their local parkrun family and warmly inviting us back anytime we could make it. People have gone out of their way to host us; to look after us; to include us in non-parkrun activities. We have made so many wonderful friends as a result of parkrun and our being able to visit other events.

Vollies at the launch of Collie River Trail parkrun

New friends at the launch of Collie River Trail parkrun

Tailwalkers at one of the trials for Kadina Trail parkrun

Caroline and Val at Pioneer parkrun

Finding genuine Treasure at Quinns Rocks parkrun

Albert, Melbourne with Helen

Breakfast after Eastern Gardens parkrun

Obviously, my 250^th is one of the highlights in terms of achievements in my parkrun journey, made all the better because Val was RD at Bells Parade that day (I specifically arranged my activities so that that would be the case as I couldn’t think of a better person to have as RD for that occasion). What was so moving about my 250^th was that two young men in their teens chose to run with me for the entire 5k. They are so much faster than I could ever be, but they chose to do it with me, offering encouragement along the way when I found the pace getting to me. Thank you, Ben and Daniel. What great young men you are—a credit to your parents. They helped me to achieve my fastest time this year since 14^th January. I also shared the celebration with Carol for her 50^th and Jane for her 100^th. We each wore a cape though I ran with just a sash (I took the cape off for running so it didn’t hinder me, but I put it back on afterwards). We also had Cheryl, one of our regular vollies, reach her 25^th milestone though we weren’t aware of it at the time. A special gingerbread parkrun course was made for the event, along with other goodies to celebrate. Our celebrations were, however, tinged with some sadness as Kim, one of our outstanding ED’s, was leaving us for work interstate. Our loss is surely Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens parkrun’s gain.

Being accompanied by Ben and Daniel

With cape and sash

Gingerbread parkrun course

With Carol and Jane

Thank you, Kim, for being a fantastic ED

Along my journey, one of the other major highlights has been playing the role of the Gingerbread Man! I’m so grateful that the 2022 Ugly Christmas Shirt has a Gingerbread Man on it. In this role, I am able to take my cool down to encourage the young ones, with parent’s permission, to get to the finish line. I tell them, “Run, run as fast as you can, You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread man”. I hope that they enjoy the challenge as much as I do—especially when they beat me to the finish line (which I don’t cross a second time). I also find it a joy to run home with others—whether they be people I know or don’t really know well. One of my favourite photos is from Bellerive parkrun, where, after asking the boy’s mother if it was okay, I was able to run her son home while holding his hand. Another special memory from Bellerive is walking with Kylee and her daughter Veronika.

The Gingerbread Man runs again

I am, to my wife’s frustration, one who likes stats—and I have quite a few spreadsheets to keep track of things. So, my 250 parkruns have taken place at 82 locations, but I also have 146 volunteer credits from 36 locations—giving me 84 different locations in all. I set my PB of 23:12 at Devonport on 2^nd June 2018 (when I doggedly tried to stay with a couple of our ladies—I saw myself as an aging greyhound chasing bunnies to get to that PB) and my best age grade is 76.84%. Twice I have finished in first position—Railton and Yeldulknie Weir Trail—but I’m still after that elusive 7^th position. Several times I’ve just missed getting it. The closest I’ve come is at Geeveston where I was in 7^th position until the runner in front of me strained his hamstring and pulled out. I did consider slowing down to let the next runner overtake me but decided against it. At 75, I doubt I’ll ever have the chance for another first finish so I judge things by both whether I can get to the 2k mark before the first runner gets to me on the way back and the age grade results. The most parkruns I’ve done in a year is 42 in 2018 and the most volunteer credits in a year is 33 in 2022. My volunteering includes 17 times as RD in 3 locations. I am grateful to Deb Hicks at Port Sorell for mentoring me in this role and Lisa Ireland for allowing me to gain further experience at Railton. I have a P Index of 6, a V Index of 8 and a Wilson Index of 17. Being in Tasmania makes it harder and expensive to chase numbers. We still haven’t been able to get to NT and Queensland (though we will be in Toowoomba for PALM24 and we also hope to do Zillmere to complete our alphabet challenge while we are there), and I haven’t been able to volunteer in ACT.

Some mornings I wonder why I’m doing it when we have to get up early and, sometimes when I’m pushing myself hard in a run, I also wonder why I’m doing it. But I keep coming back because parkrun is such a great place to be—whether I’m volunteering, walking, jogging, or running So that’s my parkrun story. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when there’s an opportunity to encourage others.

PALM23 in Perth

With my doppelganger Johan at South Beach Recreation Reserve for PALM23

PALM23 in Perth

With our Franklin family at Geeveston parkrun

I've decided to add a few more photos of some of the wonderful friends we have made.

With Leonie, Brendan and Jodie at breakfast after Kate Reed parkrun

Breakfast following Our Park parkrun

With Raoul at Jarrahdale Heritage parkrun

With Abdul at Mundy Regional parkrun (my favourite course)

The Adventurers at North Wollongong parkrun

The Troll of Wagi Bridge parkrun meets Phil and Gemma Gore at Shipwreck parkrun

Volunteers at Carinne Glades parkrun

Lunch with Luke and Sam after Carinne Glades parkrun

With Bruce and Debby (whom we first met at George Town parkrun) at Carinne Glades parkrun when we joined the Pirate Club

Bruny Island Ultra Marathon 2023

 This is truly a stunning course and, following my solo run here in 2018, I have always wanted to come back and do it again. However, circumstances have prevented me from running here again until this year. So, it was great to be able to return this year. Unfortunately, though, a fall damaged my right quad, and, with travelling on the mainland for an extended period, I wasn’t able to get the necessary kilometres under my belt for a solo run. Instead, I became the captain of a two-man relay team with my youngest son.

I initially planned that we would run 10k legs each and do the last 4k together. Thus, I looked up my schedule from 2018 and put a table together with what I had planned for 2018 and what times I actually did back then—I did this for each kilometre of the legs I was going to run and the total time each leg took me to complete. As I was now running as a team, I decided to keep the same planned times from back then for this year’s event. The rationale behind this was that, even though I am now 75 years old I would only be running half the distance. I printed my planned schedule out and carried it with me during the event so I could compare 2018 with this year.

All of that changed, however, when my son, who hasn’t run much more than 15k in training, said that he didn’t want to run 14k at the end and would prefer to run that distance as his first leg. I quickly changed things around a bit to reflect the different stages of our run. Because he has two young boys, I opted the run the first 10k leg so he wouldn’t disturb them too early in the morning. As it was, our alarm was set for 3:15 am so I could commence at 5:00 am at Dennes Point.

Our support crew was my wonderful wife, Val. I decided that I wouldn’t need her to stop each 2k as I would have stretches sitting in the car when I could rehydrate and eat to sustain my energy.

For the first leg I opted to wear an old pair of Soloman Speedcross 4 Trail shoes as, apart from the starting few hundred metres, it was a gravel road. As support vehicles drove passed, they left clouds of dust that could be tasted with each breath. The morning was overcast when I got away at 5:10 am, for which I was grateful. My aim was to sort of powerwalk the first 2k because it was all uphill. I accomplished this in 5 seconds faster than I did in 2018. From then on, I forged ahead, not worrying too much about conserving myself for the latter stages of the run. As a result, I ended up completing that leg in around 5 minutes faster than 2018 (in saying this, I’m not taking into account the difference between watch pace and our change overs because they didn’t happen exactly on an even kilometre). Having an old man’s bladder meant that I did have to have a stop at around 3.5k and I also paused to chat with a few people and check on one young lady who dropped back. That was just to ensure that she was okay. For me this is a race, but I always remember how John Landy stopped in the middle of an important 1956-mile race to help Ron Clarke to his feet after he had fallen. Keeping an eye out for others and trying to help or encourage them is always more important than setting a good time or getting a good finish position (but at my age top finish positions are out of the question). I did ask the person with the stop/slow sign near the CWA Hall if I was expected to run more slowly because the slow side of the sign was facing me. Aren’t I cheeky?

In my second leg from 24-34k where I wore my Brooks Adrenaline 21 shoes, I had ample opportunity to encourage others whether they were faster or slower than I was. A couple of “highlights” of this leg was when I caught up with one young lady and spoke to her. She must have had her mind on other things and hadn’t heard me coming and I gave her such a fright that she squealed loudly, and I jumped aside. I slowed down to talk with her for a while before heading off at my pace. A bit later, I caught up with a parkrun friend just before 9:00 am and commented that, as it was almost time for parkrun to start, we had better have a 5k parkrun sprint. There were so many people driving by or sitting in cars waiting for their runners who yelled out words of encouragement as I continued. It’s one thing I really treasure about Bruny—the amount of encouragement that people shout to you as you pass them. Sometimes, what they say just overwhelms me. By now I was running very fast (at least for me) and completed my leg in something like 16 minutes faster than 5 years ago. I did begin to feel the strain on my injured quad and the fact that I wasn’t carrying any fluids. I was able to tell Val that I wanted some at the next vehicle support point.

My third leg, 44-54k, was again quite fast, sometimes up to 3 minutes per kilometre faster than last time. When one young lady said that I was on fire, I did tell her that that was how my legs were feeling. It was beginning to hurt even more but, for once, I didn’t let that slow me down. It surprised me that I could, at least for today, roughly keep up the pace I was running at without fading badly. Again, there was so much encouragement being offered by people as I went by, or they drove by.

It was then my son’s turn to take over, but he was showing signs of struggling with cramps and I didn’t know if he would be able to continue. I made the decision to join him at the 58k mark to run the baton home. Our times to the finish dropped off dramatically as he courageously continued on, not wanting to go against his promise to get to the line with me.

I’m enthusiastically looking forward to next year’s event already—whether as a solo run or part of someone’s team who could use a runner. I shall just wait and see how things pan out over the coming months with the events in which I would like to participate.

First One Falling or An Impossible Dream?

It all started back in March 2017 when I was running my first Derby Half Marathon that was put on by Tassie Trail Fest. As I approached the last part of the run home I heard a voice resounding across the countryside, “Come on, Old Man”. And I’ve heard it many times since. Even on Saturday as I came to the halfway turn at Devonport parkrun, I heard it again. In fact, that term has stuck with me over the last five years. So much so, that when I ordered a singlet from Sole Mates and I had the option of having my name on the back, I chose “Old Man”. So, I guess that that title (or is it a term of endearment?) has stuck with me. I suppose that it is appropriate for someone of my youthfulness. 😄😄 It’s usually the case, for the events in which I participate, that I am the oldest (or close to the oldest) person entering.

But have I now gone too far? There is the possibility of a “Last One Standing” ultra-marathon taking place south of Hobart at the end of December and it has my interest. Ever since we discovered that our friend Phil Gore was running and winning this type of event, I longed for the opportunity to participate in one of them. So, when I heard about the possibility of such an event taking place in Tassie I immediately began my planning.

I’ve found a 6.71k loop around the Don River starting from the swimming pool and have begun doing multiple loops. As I was out running today (I did four such loops) I began to visualise my goals:

Goal 1: I do not want to be the first runner to pull out and be awarded a DNF.

Goal 2: I want to run blocks of 4 loops (that’s one 6.71k loop starting on the hour every hour with a bit of a rest after each loop for rest, refreshments or whatever is needed).

Goal 3: I want to break my record for the longest distance I have run to date, which is the Bruny Island Ultra of 64k set in December 2018.

Goal 4: I want to finally record a run of 100k. As much as I dream of being able to run 100 miles, I think that that is out of the realm of possibility.

Today (16th May, 2022) I ran 4 loops with the last loop in the dark. It was slower as my legs were tiring and feeling sore and I was more cautious in the dark, even with my headlamp.

So, am I a foolish “Old Man” dreaming an impossible dream or am I a foolish “Old Man” who forgets that he’ll be over 74 when the event takes place or am I an “Old Man” who’ll give it his best shot?

 Today’s 4 loops were a reality check as it was the furthest that I have run by almost double since Gone Nuts in March 2021. The last loop was hard and my legs and shoulders are feeling it - and that was only 26.8k altogether.

I’ll keep training and preparing for this event and see what happens in the coming months before I commit myself. It’s not something that I can do alone. I will definitely depend upon the Lovely Lady to be my support crew and that will be very hard on her.