Perth to Sydney Ultramarathon

Posted 12:32:31 PM by Don
Popped into the 'rose town of Australia', Renmark, for lunch and the other neccessary demands that life on the road impose.

Two of my Aunties from Melbourne, Liz and Mary (Sophie's Mum) have joined in their trusty Hiace (Frankie) for a few days.

I must be quick as it is time to hit the road but there our plenty of updates from the past week that we failed to post in Morgan.

We managed to mention on ABC radio, Melbourne, the crew's view on negativity in the media. We hope that stories like ours are found as interesting by the media as 'darker' issues in society. We hope our messages may inspire on a level parallel to the work of The FHF and thank the stations that have covered our journey of discovery as it has unravelled.

Total Km's to date - somewhere around 2800. Raised $16000.

From 21.2.02
We now approach Morgan. Our first glimpse of the Murray River... though we've been drinking 100's of litres of the stuff. Time to put a hat over my 'buffant' hairstyle and slip on my crew t-shirt. Ahh... civilisation.
A very cool morning... refreshing after the encapsulating heat of the previous days. Porridge warms the insides and charges the energy systems. Beanie, trackies and polarfleece stripped off by mid morning, as clouds and sun make venetian blind filters for the light. Plenty more farming country; fenced boundaries by the side of the road. Smiling faces drive by... flicking up a couple of fingers or a hand to acknowledge both runner and crew.

2684Km to date. 130km from the Victorian border.

From 20.02.02
Yet again the morning dished out some strong tail and cross winds and a nippy temperature.
Promising roadside donations ...cars pulling over to say g'day, sign the logbook and slip us a note, or in one case to empty their ashtray of collected coinage... a hearty addition once tallied.
In the afternoon I took the satellite phone as I walked with Don for a leg, soon after receiving the prearranged call from 5RPH Adelaide. We then conducted the first interview via satellite link-up. Don was very happy with the conversation and is becoming somewhat of a pro interviewee. Fred Hollows Foundation... if you need a spokesperson.... He's your man!
We have seemingly been flung back to the Nullarbor as the hills have flattened and the surrounds returned to the expanse of grass, saltbush and scrub.

From 19.02.02
Another chilly morning, we set off from Gulnare (to be more correct, Don set off while I stayed in bed). We passed through Spalding, where we were happy to learn that some of its residents had seen us on the news the night before. A quick refuel and a chance to buy a newspaper before we continued on in the searing heat, stopping for lunch in a farm's shaded driveway, lined majestically with huge, evenly spaced gum trees.
Having lost my sunglasses a couple of days ago I considered myself pretty lucky to stumble upon a decent looking pair (though in pieces) as I ran with Don. Having put them back together and using them regularly I think it quite appropriate/ironic that they are scratched such that (having used the foundations cataract glasses) I am now effectively doing the run with cataracts, in sympathy with the people for whom we are running.

After many struggles with the sat. phone, including the rigging of 5 AA batteries in an attempt to suffice for a broken charger, Andrew submitted to an hour of manual charging with wire held to battery in a successful attempt.

The afternoon saw 'operation Burra' underway, arriving there late in the evening.
Following a quick meal in the van, Steve from the Burra Hotel kindly let us have showers and fill our water tank, but not before we were pumped up by seeing the replay of Emma Champlin winning gold for Australia. What a way to end a day!

Earlier in the morning we were able to tune in to one of our radio interviews. The transcript follows:
Radio interview for ABC Port Pirie Midday - Robbie Preston and Don Maclurcan

Robbie: Earlier I caught up with Sydney student Don Maclurcan who's making the journey on foot from Perth to Sydney all in the name of charity, and is approaching Burra, Good morning Don.
Don: Good morning Robbie.
R: Now, you're on a big journey across Australia?
D: We are.
R: Now you started from Perth on the 6th on Jan, is that right?
D: That's correct.
R: Now, why are you doing this?
D: A number of reasons...if you haven't already explained it, we're running across Australia for the Fred Hollows Foundation in conjunction with Year of the Outback and the See Australia campaign - which is a big tourism initiative, and I guess the run, physically speaking isn't as important, it's providing a medium for a greater challenge, one which is pushing my boundaries mentally and physically, and, sort of like sailing around the world - anything like that, we're just using that as the means for a challenge and combining it with a good charity and some good messages, we hope.
R: How has it tested your personal boundaries Don?
D: It happens every day, for example today. Today has actually been a very hard day. I had stomach cramping all earlier this morning, and the constant pounding... I mean I came into this run, having only ever run 414km as my longest distance and now we've covered over 2500kms, averaging about 60 km a day, so every day, physically, it's tough, but the harder challenge has come mentally - just being away from home for so long and out of contact with loved ones. And... the mental boundary of pounding out so many kilometers every day is just tough.
R: What have you got at home that you miss so much?
D: Meat pies.. and of course my family, I miss them a lot. And a nice bed in the evening's good too, and sleep. I guess were averaging about 16 hours a day of being awake, and we run about 12 of those every day so it s a long time to be out on the track, so to speak, without a lot of rest period inbetween.
R: Are you getting time to dream?
D: Sorry... Am I getting time to dream?
R: In your sleep?
D: I don't know about in my sleep so much as getting enough time to do that during the day. I spend half of the day planning the rest of my life.
R: And where are you at the plan at the moment?
D: Well, I mean you never want to set anything in stone because that's going to limit opportunities later on that may pop up, but I like to think that I'm at a point in my life where I know I want to do something important in this world, and make a difference. This is just one step in that direction.
R: Did you realise that it would be this punishing?
D: I did, but I mean I also took a lot of naivete into this which was always something I wanted to do. I didn't want to come into this, I mean I came across Australia last year as a support crew for a group of twenty-four runners who ran across a little more quickly in a staged race, so I knew exactly what was going to happen in that I'd observed it, but if I'd sort of known the pain it would have been tougher to start with those initial steps at the Perth bell tower back in January.
R: But you're confident you'll finish it?
D: Look, it's going to take a lot to stop us, I mean this morning the van broke down at about seven o'clock, but hopefully those things won't happen too much and if they don't then physically I think I'm fine.
R: What's your time line for finishing Don?
D: We've actually set a date which is the13th of March, eleven o'clock at the Sydney Opera House steps, and we set that just to make it profitable, the more we can prepare the day, the more it can be profitable for the Fred Hollows Foundation and for all our other causes that we're supporting.
R: Yeah, where's your money target?
D: We'll we've raised fifteen thousand so far which was my initial hope because that's what its costing me to fund it myself, but now I guess we're looking... well every dollar counts, because the great thing about the Fred Hollows Foundation is they've reduced the cost of the service they provide. They put in these intra-ocular lenses for people with reversible blindness, and it's now down to twenty-five dollars that can restore eyesight. So every twenty-five dollars is like giving back an eye, and the interesting statistic is that after four years of contracting cataract blindness, on average people die in Africa, so really it's more than just giving back an eye. So we're just hoping for something like fifty thousand dollars, that's a really good goal, but we're happy with anything we receive.
R: So you've been prepared to put up fifteen thousand dollars of your own money?
D: Yeah we'll I mean it started as a personal ambition. The more it's gone on the more its become, I guess more of a community onus to support a good charity and a worthy cause, with our links to commemorating the Year of the Outback, but yeah I always had to do this and get it out of my system, so I mean why not do it while I'm young, and bold and na?e, and then just sort of bask in a bit of it later on.
R: How old are you Don?
D: I just turned twenty yesterday, so I'm out of my teenage years and into the home straight!
R: Can you give us a brief word picture of yourself and your background?
D: Well I'm about five foot seven, not very tall and quite stocky, and in fact I'm a sailor, not a runner at all. I've been sailing all my life and I'm in third year university in Sydney, just about to finish my degree in human movement, I'm halfway through a degree in journalism as well and ...
R: What's human movement, can you expand on that a little bit?
D: It's pretty much sports science with a little less of the science involved. So its really a course that's supported everything I've done in this run, given a lot of background to the scientific side of the biomechanics involved in the running.
R: So you know exactly how much you're hurting yourself.
D: It's scary really. If you looked at the forces involved it's not good for the body but the body is such an amazing thing that it has the ability to adapt.
R: But does it fully recover, will this have a lasting effect on your body until you're an old man?
D: It could, I mean we've got Amanda, a woman from Bondi Junction in Sydney, who's just joined the crew and she's a Shiatsu therapist and she's looking carefully into the way I eat and what I'm doing to make sure that we minimise the long term ill effects of this run, but I think if I just play it easy, I mean we're not running too quickly and we've got good shoes and we're taking it sensibly, we're not running in the heat of the day if we can help it. If we take it sensibly then I think there shouldn't be too many problems a long way down the track.
R: So where will you be by Wednesday afternoon do you think Don?
D: Wednesday afternoon ...we'll probably be further than Burra, just somewhere a bit further east of Burra, I think.
R: And on Tuesday you'd be...
D: We'll probably be, tommorrow ... we'll be in Burra.
R: You'll be at Burra.
D: Yep, tommorrow night I'd say we'll be in Burra.
R: And, why did you start off in Perth?
D: I had to run home, there was no point arriving in Perth and having no one there to see me and also I know the route from Perth to Sydney because of the run last year, and it was just better to follow in their tracks and to fly all my crew over there instead of having to fly everyone back at the end when it's sort of the anticlimax after the finish.
R: So do you have any heroes in this line of work?
D: I don't really have any heroes at all. I'm sort of my own hero in a way. I've got a lot of people I admire, and I'm friendly with Pat Farmer, and I think what Cliff Young did for the sport back in '83 or whenever it was when he won the Sydney to Melbourne at such an old age was quite inspiring, and there's an old friend of mine who's eighty-three years old this year, Drew Kettle, who sets world age group records for six day runs and things like that, and these people are, the great thing about them is they're humble and you know, they're not anyone special in their own eyes other than the fact they've come to the realisation of what they need to do in their lifetime and I think that's important, when you realise what you're here for, then you can be a hero to yourself.
R: What's the best reaction you've had along the highway?
D: We had a woman a few days ago back in Kimba who was just so inviting. She brought us in, gave us tons of vegetables and let us use her showers, and pretty much just wanted to keep us for a few months. But people, especially rural Australia, have been very supportive of the run, a lot of people pull over, we'd hope for more, but there's still a lot of people pulling over and a lot of interest that's been generated.
R: And after Burra you're heading for where?
D: We head through Renmark through the border and then on through to Mildura along the Hay plains, just south of Hay, through to Junee and then the Hume Highway and the little home stretch up through Goulbourn to Sydney.
R: Good luck Don, thanks.

From 18.02.02
Sad to leave Crystal Brook, after a far too brief visit for Andrew and Amanda to their council swimming pool, Sophie to the pub and Don tending to his 'too many to read all of them' email account. A quick photo with a group of local kids for the local paper was all that had to be done before we hit the road once again.
The latest scenery change has brought on gentle rolling hills, and in the afternoon, we were all easily forgiven for thinking that in the distance what we were seeing were sand dunes when in fact they were more golden straw fields.
Running with Don for the last two stages we spotted a cluster of the large white silos that typically mark a small town. When I suggested to Don that it was most likely that it was Gulnare, the place for which we were aiming for the evening, he moaned "that's more than three k's!" realising that again the distance signs had painfully let him down.

Posted 1:19:42 PM by Don
From Andrew:
?An unhappy morning as Don struggled with stomach cramps and we had a scare when the van didn?t want to start after a mid-morning aid stop. Farewell to the sea for the last time until Bondi? We climbed then ducked behind the hills, with the temperature increasing all the while. The turnoff from Highway 1 has brought us to Crystal Brook, where we are now stopped for a long (hopefully) relaxing break in this pretty little town - the main street shaded pleasantly by a generous nature median strip. Love to all? I must away to the swimming pool.?

This morning has been difficult and with intermittent media interviews I am finding it difficult to settle in to any real rhythm. Our sat. phone is busted, but we have transferred the microchip so keep trying and if anything is urgent please call my Mum (Kate) on (02) 99534464 with whom we are in near constant contact.

From Amanda:
?I am not sure what is more awesome, Don?s ability to cover so much ground on foot and return to the ?home base? as if he has been for a stroll?. Or the magnificent country?It feels so good to be back in the country and the people we have been meeting have been so friendly going out of their way to help us, like the lady in the laundry at Port Augusta who happily handed over her garden hose for us to fill our water tank. ?It?s delicious water from the Murray, how lucky we are to have such a good source? said Gayle Dawson. She continued to explain that they haven?t had water shortages like W.A are experiencing? I just want to thank macro again for their generous donation, not only of food and other things but of spirit in their willingness to help.?

From 17.02.02
From Andrew:
?Despite prior planning of a rowdy wake-up with party poppers and all, when the 5am wakeup call came, we were inspired only to give (and I think all he was willing to receive) a quiet and restrained, ?Happy Birthday Don? as he set out into the cold, dark morning session. The birthday presents Amanda brought with her were distributed throughout the day, each expectantly yielding plenty of lollies (much to the delight of our macrobiotic Amanda).

At lunch we drove forward to Port Germein where we were able to use the internet out the back of the hospitable Port Germein Hotel. Setting off for a walk to see where the port meets the Spencer Gulf I wandered onto the jetty, which after walking along for ten minutes with an old crab fisherman, led to the realisation of a mile long stretch, compared with the quick stroll I had invisaged.

Running with Don for much of the afternoon, we meandered with the magically blue coloured Spencer Gulf close on our right, and the lumpy hills of the lower Flinders Ranges on our left.

As I had the night before, I went to sleep with the smell of Amanda?s herbal treatment on the nose, while she attempted to rid Don of his aches and pains.?

From 16.02.02
?After our practical break in Port Augusta, Don set off down the Princes Highway, and while he continued his plight, Sophie and I made a quick trip to a busy pub, where we ?spread the word? and collected a few donations from the drinkers, all too willing to give away their shrapnel.

Shortly after passing the unbelievable, clear, ruffled, pink hues (not unlike aeroplane jelly according to Don) of the catchment just out of Port Augusta, we stopped for a relatively extensive television interview requiring a few takes of Don?s legs, but also starring the marvellous crew!?

Sorrow again leaving the hub of city life. Port Augusta was efficiently condensed and self-labelled the town where the outback meets the sea.