Almanac (Running) Memoir: Once Was a Marathon Runner

 

Memoir – Once Was a Marathon Runner

 

The Essence of Running:

 

“Running is a road to self awareness and self reliance…you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations, or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet, but when you are through, exhilarated and exhausted, at least for a moment everything seems right with the world”. (Poster on my study wall – author unknown)

 

Another City to Surf done!

 

When I was young I didn’t really enjoy running.  I loved sports but not necessarily the running part.  I was okay, especially over a short, sharp distance but running for a longer time and length I loathed.  I was quite quick when chasing the footy as a rover, winger, centre man or half forward or running a quick single at cricket. I hated being made to run in the annual school ANZAC Day sports carnival and school house cross country races.  To be honest I never really tried very hard but was serviceable.

 

Inspired by an office colleague who had taken up running, it all started for me one evening nearly 40 years ago when I went for an evening run – it was about a 6k street circuit or so, with some walk breaks, but I started doing it more often until I could run the whole course without walking.  Little did I know that this simple – yet not easy at that point – physical activity would end up playing a central role in my life thereafter.  Not a hobby, not a career, but a calling, an obsession.

 

There was something about pulling on the shorts, t shirt and shoes and heading out – no TV, no music, away from people, away from my job pressures, just alone (mostly) with my thoughts, just the sound of my feet and breath, in the present.  At the time I would have been bereft without it.

 

Longer distance running provided me with wonderful experiences and I’ve met so many great people through running. When residing in the ACT during the 1980s and 90s I loved the feeling of freedom that running brought me, especially out on forest trails among the trees and the beautiful scenery and the excellent bike and walking paths in and around Canberra. It was uplifting and gave me such a boost physically and mentally.  When I returned from my runs I felt motivated, energised and better able to cope with the demands of a busy day.  I loved running in the many fun run events around the ACT, NSW and Victoria, on country trails, in forests and parks and along suburban streets and bicycle paths. I enjoyed the camaraderie and socialising that all of this brought me.

 

When I ran sometimes it felt like the desire was beyond my control. I needed to run because it made me happy and I ran for freedom from a lot of things and for the adventure of it all. Running gave me some of my best ever highs. It made me feel good and I believe, a better person.

 

My great love for running came from personal goals and motivations, also the desire to explore new places and testing new limits for myself.  The Canberra running scene in the period 1970s – 2000 was excellent for doing this. At one point my obsessiveness got me to a point where I ran to race and I raced to set personal bests (PBs) and beat as many others as possible.

 

Work took me overseas quite often and I always sought out safe places to run and when in doubt ran on the hotel gym treadmill.

 

Sometimes I ran in fun runs simply just wanting to run and I used to love travelling the countryside to run in these events.  I loved the crowds, I loved the cheering people, I loved running in a pack with friends.  You feel the exhilaration of it all as you set off together. While saying this though, I really did enjoy the uplifting aloneness that running can offer. You do it for you. That’s the wonderful thing. On some runs I would be devoid of grace and style, heavy and breathless but at other times I would feel good and simply fly. That’s just how it is and always was.

 

Why do I still run?  Well, because it still makes me feel good and it makes me feel alive. Nowadays what gets me out the door a couple or three times a week for 5-6ks is the knowledge that if I don’t I’ll regret it.  I now run for myself and by myself to stay fit and feel good about myself.  Why do I want to remain fit?  Well, to remain healthy, mentally as well as physically as I grow older? I’m now in that last third of life (but feel in my forties!) and I want to continue on feeling good about myself for as long as I can. These days my mantra comes from Tom Hafey’s ‘…when you get up in the morning you’ve got to be doing something, keep the body moving’ and Clint Eastwood’s advice to ‘…not let the old man in’.

 

I completed many half marathons. My first half marathon was at Lake Macquarie, NSW in 1983 – a weekend away with two mates Terry and Ken. It was also their first half marathon.  We ran (jogged!) and chatted together all the way. We ran just to finish (in 101minutes), celebrating at the end with refreshing amber fluids.

 

 

Ken and I – first half marathon

 

My first marathon was the Melbourne Qantas marathon in 1986 from Frankston to the Art Centre in Melbourne’s CBD. I finished in a respectable first time effort of 3hrs 31 minutes. As I struggled post run, walking sideways down the steps at Princes Bridge near Southbank, hands hanging onto the guard rails, I realised how much all the training for a marathon had changed me.  I had caught the bug and I had proven to myself that my body and mind were capable of far more than I ever thought.  A particular highlight for me was running the last couple of kilometres down St Kilda Road to the finish line alongside former star Melbourne footballer Brian Dixon – we crossed the line together. In those moments there was nowhere that I would rather have been.  I had climbed the pinnacle of uncomfortable comfort. I had finished my first of many marathons to come.

 

 

Another Melbourne Marathon bites the dust!

 

One fond running memory I have is running with my friend John “Bull Bar” Shaw through his first Melbourne marathon in 1989. John ran the whole course from Frankston to Melbourne while listening over and over to Mondo Rock’s ‘Eagle Rock’ as his mantra. Much to my envy, John got the bug and went on to run marathons not only in Australia but in New York, London, Belfast and Cape Town.

 

1989 post Melbourne Marathon shenanigans!

 

When I first started to run it soon became all about personal best times (PBs) and commemorative T shirts and medals, but these days I run for health and fitness. Then, and still to a large extent nowadays, running makes me a calmer person; I can’t imagine my life without it really. Apart from fitness, I run for solitude and to be sociable. To indulge and to purge. For a sense of accomplishment or release. To escape. For freedom and to bury feelings of anger. Running is a part of my identity and as much a part of my week as is a Friday night beer at Geelong’s Cockies Brewery or Valhalla brew house. It makes me feel strong, it allows me to challenge myself because it gives me time to myself and time with friends.

 

Now that I’m past middle age, I realise that for better or for worse, running and me will always be together in some form.  These days I combine running with hiking/walking, cross fit and other gym activities hoping that I will be able to forestall or halt any likelihood of my legs or any other body part giving way.  Then I would find it hard to cope.  At the moment I’m nose thumbing at Father Time! I would like one more marathon!!

 

In all the marathons I ran I usually finished around the 3.15- 3.30 mark and I always wanted to break the 3-hour barrier. I nearly did it in the 1986 Sydney marathon when I ran 3.02. I was on schedule and feeling good when I suddenly cramped in the last 3-4 kilometres. This cost me several vital minutes and I was gutted.  For the next few marathons I couldn’t seem to get under the 3.15 mark until a marathon in Hanoi in 1991when I ran a 2.58. Imagine my horror though, when later it was discovered that the course had been measured 200 metres short!  I have a medal and and a certificate and I claim the time, figuring that I would have got under the mark at any rate.  A part of me though, still remains unsatisfied.

 

I always wanted to break the 80-minute barrier for the half marathon but failed.  Despite my best efforts I could never seem to get under the 86-minute mark other than the one time when I ran an acceptable 82 minutes in a Canberra half marathon.

 

In the early 1990s I wanted to achieve a PB for the Canberra 32k Three Peaks run.  It was a tough, challenging event over three of Canberra’s best known mountains, Mt Majura, Mt Ainslie and Black Mountain. I always wanted to break 2hrs 30 minutes but couldn’t do any better than around 2hrs 40 minutes.

 

Probably two of my best shorter runs was a cross country 5.25k in 18 minutes and 11 seconds and a mile race (1.6k) in 5 minutes and 1 second.

 

I have run over 20 Sydney City to Surf races. I strived to run the 14k in under 60 minutes and managed this on a couple of occasions. My best was 57 minutes which I was always happy with considering the crowds. The City to Surf weekends were wonderful social occasions. With mates I travelled to Sydney on the Saturday morning in time for an afternoon Sydney Hash House Harriers (HHH) hosted city run followed by a party of bad food (for runners!) and lots of beer at the Woolloomooloo Hotel.  All before running in the City to Surf on the following Sunday morning!

 

Back in the day the program I followed was based on the long distance training program of former NZ world champion female marathoner Alison Rowe. This was a relatively standard approach for many runners of combining long and short distances, with fartlek and hill sessions and running in short and longer fun runs and cross country club events.  I ran no less than 10k a day and averaged anything from 70k to 100k per week. Sunday mornings was always the longer slow run of the week – anything from 18-30k but sometimes on a Wednesday lunch time I ran up to 15k with friends when training for a particular event. I also used to run with the HHH on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Their motto was ‘drinkers with a running problem’.  Sometimes too, on a Saturday morning I complemented my running with a solid 20-40k mountain bike ride on hills and forests around the ACT.

 

When I am just jogging along in a good state of mental health, I find myself thinking about all sorts of things that are in the background of my mind – usually, those drumbeat worries that you don’t really realise are there until you find yourself thinking about them as you run along.  Running is such a good space to think through those sorts of problems, because when you are running you can’t get distressed by them because you are having to think about your breathing, your running form and about where you are going. Running keeps dragging you back into the present. It is a kind of mindfulness.  Running for me can become that personal space where you can think of new ideas, problem solutions and the like. Sometimes when I come back from a run, I feel I have tidied my mind – at least for a short time.

 

At the Outback Marathon weekend Uluru.

 

It would be wrong of me to claim that running is an anti depressant as some are prone to claim, or that it can transform your mental health, but certainly it can make a one hell of a lot of difference. In essence it can be a form of physiotherapy for the mind. There is no doubt though, that running does burn fat and help you lose weight, and the effect is very good. Compared with dieting and taking weight-loss pills, running is a healthy way to lose weight.

 

I have found running good for my bad moods. I can start off grouchy say, but usually come good after a kilometre or two. I get into a metronome rhythm of running and start to feel the flow. Running is an excellent way of forcing us out of our heads and into our bodies with its familiar rhythms of breath and footfall.

 

These days I am no longer the obsessive runner I was but combine my few weekly runs with a combination of activities including, cross fit classes, golf, hiking/walking and spinning classes. I have also undertaken long distance bike rides and hikes around Australia and overseas including in the UK, Spain, France, Portugal and New Zealand.

 

Backroad cycling down the centre of Tasmania from Devonport to Cockle Creek

 

Tasmanian Three Capes hike

 

For a while now, I’ve had a dream to run another marathon – just one more before Father Time calls me in. I’m finding though, that while I am able to complete 3 short 5/6k runs a week easily and well, the passion and commitment that I once knew and had, to do the longer distances, is hard to resuscitate. I would love to do one more in honour of several of my running mates who have passed away in recent years; also to once again feel the great sense of achievement and exhilaration.

 

Let’s see how 2024 pans out!

 

The proof is in the bling!

 

Completion of the Whitecliffs of Dover three day walk

 

 

You can read more stories from Allan Barden Here.

 

 

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