PALANA TO LADY BARRON RUN.

What started off a few months ago as a planned one man run from Palana to Lady Barron to raise funds for Cure Cancer Foundation, yesterday turned into a wonderful community event.

On Saturday night a group of runners aptly called the ‘A Team’ stayed at Bowman’s Palana shack (thank you Lois). These included Grant and Edwina Hall, David Green and Mike Withers. We all awoke to a miserable Sunday morning, with the weather gods firmly against us. The wind was strongly from the South East, there was scudding showers and it was quite cold. However, we set off from the boat ramp at 6am with the ‘A Team’ taking its turns to run with me. This selfless support was to prove quite decisive in my finishing at Lady Barron 9.58.23 later!!!

The best guess for my finishing time from many, many different tries was Lyn Matthewson (only a few seconds out) and she won an airfare donated by Liz Grimshaw. The Runner up was David Dunn who received a great selection of John Wells’ mutton bird products. Thanks goes to the prize donators.

Along the way many people turned out to cheer me on and i have to thank you for the lift it gave my spirit. It was also wonderful to have a number of folk join me walking, running and cycling. Thank you Liz Grimshaw the “ultimate shuffler”, (Mick also there to support the whole venture), Chris and Jan Bowman, John Clifford (who ran more than 15km in lousy conditions protecting me all the time), Sue Riordan, Spud (the flash) Murphy, John O’Dell, Jana Harper, D’reen Lovegrove, Carol Cox and young Josh Nicholls. You’ll never know what your appearances meant to me, what times i was really struggling in the face of what seemed a daunting task for so many kilometres.

The sausage sizzle at the finish was packed with people who enjoyed sausages donated by the butcher, bread donated by the bakery and garfish donated by the Cox’s. These wonders were beautifully BBQ’d by Spud, Kim and Noel. Your time was appreciated. Overall we have raised almost $6500 for Cure Cancer, with $600 being donated during the run itself. What a fantastic response. Thank you all so much! My day was made great by Dale’s tireless work in the support vehicle (HQ). She kept my spirits up when they flagged and looked after all the runners when they needed drinks or food. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Finally my warmest thanks go to the A Team who took it in turns to run with me. Mike (the ultimate windbreak) Withers sheltered me with his broad shoulders whilst Edwina, Grant, David and Liz always kept my spirits up. You were all great. Brown Dog was always keen for a run too. It was a day that i will long remember. What a community!! Who’ll join me next year??

David Williams

This article was from the 4 November 2011’s Island News