The finale (part two of three)

We’d just finished the run of our lives and weren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves...we’d had a goal for the last eight months, and now that we’d achieved it, it was a little surreal. But whatever deep thoughts we had, we put them aside and put our focus towards the fundraiser dinner we were to have that night, in order to celebrate, raise some more cash and talk anything but business.

We arrived at Gymea Tradies before the guests did, but soon enough there were just shy of 400 people in the room-we’d packed it out! We originally thought we might get some interest in a fundraiser dinner, but certainly not this much. In fact, we’d sold out the event within a few days of promoting it and had to turn people away which was a little unfortunate...but it was a nicer problem to have than having a function dinner with just the three of us attending (although that would have boosted our chances of winning in the raffles I suppose).

After the band played some awesome acoustic stuff early on, Ron-our MC for the night-welcomed everyone and told us the game plan.

Before long we were having entree and our first guest speaker stepped up to the microphone. Glenn Gorick had helped us out in countless ways after he contacted us around day 4 of our run. He and his mate Mal were not only physical support (running along with us one day, helping drive Ruby, harassing people in public for donations, etc), but they gave us advice and guidance when we needed it most. We were stoked when he said he’d love to speak at the dinner and he did a great job. One thing he mentioned in his speech was that after looking into the countless past Melbourne to Sydney runs (in all sorts of variations), he was fairly sure that Benny boy was actually the youngest person to do it EVER. Although I jokingly suggested he didn’t tell Ben that (because we’d never hear the end of it), it was the icing on the cake for Ben, and well deserved.

The second guest speaker to share a story was Sandra Kay, one of Mark’s good friends and a breast cancer survivor herself. During the week she had admitted she was nervous about the speech but I have no idea why-she was magnificent. Listening to her own personal story of ups and downs and how she treated Jane McGrath’s book as “her bible” was amazing and very moving, and brought out the emotion (and tears) to a lot of those listening

Ron kept pumping the crowd up and rallying donations for us...he’d give an update every hour or so with an accumulative total and after starting at just under $30,000 in original donations, by halfway through the night we knew we had smashed our $35,000 target.

After main course was served up jumped our final speaker for the night-Tracey Bevan, the driving force behind the McGrath Foundation and Jane McGrath’s best friend. From start to finish she had the crowd listening intently on her every word, she definitely had the knack for it! You could deadest hear a pin drop when she paused, all eyes were on her, and rightly so. She went on to tell everyone the background story of Jane’s battle with breast cancer, and just how much Jane was amazed with the work that breast care nurses could do for one in her position. To paraphrase, she said it was “like she’d met an angel when she first had a breast care nurse”. It was because of this, that Jane wanted to direct her newly created foundation’s  focus on providing more breast care nurses to women around Australia, especially in rural areas.

Tracey’s moving speech was followed by a bit of a change of pace, as we went into “prize mode” and held our raffle, where people won some amazing prizes. We then auctioned off the various goodies that we had acquired for the night. Some of the auction items included a signed Rabbitohs jersey, Dragons jersey, signed Australian cricket bat, artwork, photography among others. We were amazed at the amount that some of these items raked in, and was even better considering most of them had been donated to us.

The one item on the auction list that was quite special to the boys and I (and our support team) was a jar. But not any old jar-inside was all the coins we’d found between Melbourne and Sydney on our three week journey. It was memories. These coins had lifted us in our low times, and provided entertainment when we needed it most. No one knew what the total was, but after counting it earlier in the day I knew it was just above the $60 mark. I can’t tell you exactly how much it was, firstly because I don’t want to ruin the magic, and secondly, because it included a 1961 penny, which I have no idea what it’s value is anyway! Realistically we were thought we’d be lucky to get $100 from it. When Ron started the bidding at $500 we thought he’d lost his marbles, but straight away a hand went up. Then it went to $600, then seven. The crowd was in just as much awe as I was-how could this be happening? When the coins eventually sold for a whopping $900, Joel, Benny and I just looked at each other and laughed...we really wanted to keep the coins as a special keepsake, but selling about $60 worth of dirty old scratched up coins for $900 to add to our total was a bloody good deal I thought!

As the night wound down, Ron told the crowd we’d surpassed our target and it was time for the boys to hit the stage. We all did our best to thank the crowd and give them an insight to how the three weeks had gone, but words can’t really describe it. Tracey also got up once more to address the crowd a final time. It was well past our bedtime (which was pretty easy considering we’d go to bed at around 8pm each night), and we were all feeling pretty worn out. We headed home and wondered what tomorrow would hold, considering we didn’t have to get up at any particular time, didn’t have to run any particular distance, or have to do anything in particular! It was a strange feeling, but we were all certainly proud of ourselves considering we’d achieved both our goals-to run the distance and to hit the $35,000 mark. A good day all around. A very special thank you to Tracey Bevan and John Steel for their time on the night.

As I write this on Monday night, it looks like we will have raised approximately $50,000! We haven’t counted every single cent yet, and there are a few costs that need to be accounted for, but we can say with absolute certainty that we’ve well surpassed out original target . We’d really love to be over $50,000 rather than under it, so if anyone can help us out and make doubly sure that we’ll make this monumental total, please do so at www.gofundraise.com.au/page/runforareason. We are still accepting donations, but will tally it all up properly during the week. If all goes to plan we will hand over a cheque (a novelty over-sized cheque that is) to McGrath Foundation next week.

Once again, we will certainly keep everyone in blog world posted about the fundraising total as soon as we know, so check back here by the end of the week and we’ll give you a nice little wrap up of this adventure we’ve called Run for a Reason.

Cheers

Nick

Table of champions (l-r) Ben, Renee, Nick, Tracey Bevan, John Steel (Jane's brother), Glenn Gorick, James, Carlee, Jacki, Sam, Joel

The barrel girls Nick and Ben doing their thing

Joel strategically placing two raffle tickets over the crap parts of his beard to make it look better than it actually is. And controversy after two people have the winning raffle ticket! 

The Edge doing what he does best...talking

The boys with Glenn, John and Tracey

The finale (part one of two)...

Day twenty one...16th July 2011...the final day of the run. We’d worked hard to get to this point and the excitement in the air was as thick as the hairs on my face (which is very thick, for those playing at home). Instead of waking up in Ruby, my living room was the scene for the morning. We all got ready and got a lift to Heathcote shops to start our running morning off just before 9.30am-much later than usual.

We had a short 17km day ahead of us and had told everyone we’d finish at midday at Cronulla. We gave ourselves plenty of time, just in case we were to get stopped by family, friends or anyone in between. We hadn’t had a scheduled finish time before-it had always been the old “finish when you finish routine”, but today was different. This meant after jogging through Heathcote we hit Engadine and thought “We should probably walk, we’re gonna be really early”. So we walked. After a Maccas stop at Engadine we changed our minds... “We should probably get a move on if we want to make it by midday”...we couldn’t decide whether we were on schedule or not and changed our minds multiple times, so we just decided to do what we were meant to do-which was run.

The amount of honks we received in the morning was as many as we’d had all trip, and although we were in good shape it still boosted the spirits. Spirits were also lifted when I found a 10c piece at Loftus, meaning we’d found money every day on the run without fail!

We hit the Kingsway and ran into a cheering crowd of people at Gymea Tradies. It was all of Ben’s work mates from Tradies and they’d come out to welcome us home. It was all very nice, especially for Ben...we also got to see Carlee again who was working, this time behind the bar rather than behind the massage table.

We continued on through Caringbah and saw a sign indicating we were only 2kms from Cronulla, our finish point for the day, for the three weeks, for the eight months. At Gannon’s Rd we met up with the guys from Cronulla Fire Brigade, who were going to be following us into our destination. The fire truck had been organised by Glenn Gorick, the most connected man we’ve met (not just because he’s an electrician either). The fire truck pulled out onto the Kingsway and turned on the flashing lights. We were hoping for some sort of grand entrance, and having an entire car lane to ourselves with a huge fire truck ushering us in was right up our alley!

We past a sign reading “Cronulla”...we looked over the hill and saw the ocean...we jogged over the hill and could see our finish point. The emotions were high for the three us as we closed in on the last 200 metres. It was what each of us wanted-to finish this run as we had started...just the three of us. We spoke a few special words to each other, just like we’d done only 200 metres into this adventure three weeks back in Federation Square. Although we were close to tears, none were shed...perhaps it was because we hadn’t hit the finish line yet, or maybe it was the rugged manliness of our beards holding them back.

We heard the crowd cheering and clapping as we entered Dunningham Park. We weren’t expecting a crowd so large...I had other things on my mind than doing a head count but it was over 100 people. It could have been 200 or 300, I really have no idea...all I do know was that all eyes were on us as we ran in, smiles plastered on each of our faces. Then something happened that hadn’t happened in a long time...we had nowhere to go! We stopped, looked at each other and gave each other a hug...we’d done it.

The camera flashes continued as we were introduced to (and had a photo with) Malcolm Kerr, the State Member for Cronulla. We then found our family and friends and hugged and kissed more people than you can poke a stick at, as we were congratulated by each of them.

After a few more photos and interviews we had time for a barbeque and a chat. It would have been merely ten minutes after we stopped that I wanted to keep to start back up and keep running again...I didn’t want this adventure to end! We’d had so many highs and lows, met so many amazing and generous people, and seen some absolutely incredible sights on this three week, 900km journey, and for it to end so abruptly was a shock to the system. But at the end of the day, all three of us had reached our goal and we were all immensely proud of ourselves and each other.

We headed home to get ready for the function dinner we had organised at Tradies, which was to be held at 6pm that night.

To add some suspense to tonight’s blog episode, we don’t have any photos from the dinner just yet, so tomorrow will write an entry about the dinner, and the whopping amount of money raised then...We’ll also write a bit of a post-event wrap-up in the next few days...so stay tuned and visit the page then because we’re not done just yet. Or don’t tune in if you don’t want to...but you should. It’s up to you really. But I’m going to do it regardless.

Cheers

Nick

Morning 21. Stepping out of a house rather than out of Ruby to start the day...

Someone thought Nick's face was on fire and called the fire brigade. Turns out it was only his beard. Fire truck following the boys into Cronulla

Who just ran Melbourne to Sydney? We did!

All smiles at the finish line

We got more wet here than we did on all of the trip just about

The boys and the support crew, Sam, Jacki and Edge. Unfortunately Carlee (our most capped support crew member with 17 full days of putting up with the boys) couldn't make it to Cronulla.

The day the boys finished (and were too busy to blog...)

We're done! Finished the run successfully at midday at Cronulla today. Thanks for everyone who were there to welcome us home. Sometime tomorrow on the blog I will give a full run down of today's events and tonight's events and hopefully have a rough estimate of the $$ raised as well.
Stay tuned...in the mean time, here's a picture of an orangutang riding a bike to keep you entertained.
Cheers
Nick

Coastal cruising...

We awoke from within the comfort of Ruby for the final time and wandered into the Austi house after 7am. After reading our article in the Illawarra Mercury while having a nice bacon and egg brekkie (still had to have the Weetbix beforehand) we drove to our starting point at Thirroul and hit the road as usual. Paul, Elese, Noah and Jess, our hosts from last night joined us for the first kilometre or so until we hit Austinmere Beach, when it became the original trio once more. It was a beautiful change of scenery as we hit our strides alongside the Pacific Ocean-the first time all trip we’d been able to see the sea for the majority of the day.

We arrived at Sea Cliff Bridge and took some artsy photos, just as Uncle Adrian turned up to give us a generous donation. The entire day’s route was on the same path as our Ulladulla run, two years ago. Maybe it was because of this that we felt like we “were home”, even though we had over 40kms to go and wouldn’t actually finish until tomorrow.

The Edge rejoined us at Stanwell Park and the boys had to manoeuvre up Stanwell Tops hill. We thought this was one of our toughest challenges on the Ulladulla run, however after just conquering Macquarie Pass two days earlier, Stani Hill was a breeze. We jogged about three quarters of the way up it before walking the rest. If any cars were to beep us angrily (which they didn’t) I’m sure Ben would have just given them the finger anyway...he seemed to be good at that over the paast three weeks-walking casually down the middle of the road and getting offended when a car would justifiably warn him of imposing danger.

Once we were at Bald Hill we had a breather. Another South Coast newspaper had a chat and photo shoot with us, and then we had our own photo shoot, re-enacting photos from the Ulladulla run. We were chatting with Sam’s mates Dean and Ros, when a lady asked what we were doing and donated some cash. She then asked if we had a tin and went round to everyone on Bald Hill asking for donations on behalf of us. She was nearly as ruthless as The Edge, asking just about everyone except for the Hang gliders just about to take off from the cliff. Awesome lady.

When we saw the signs to Heathcote telling us we were 18kms away we started to really feel like we were nearing the end of our journey. However the money game was in the full swing of things and when Mark found a shiny $2 coin and hit the lead he thought he was home. Little did he know that I had a little secret...I’d told the boys about my “secret spot” where I eerily always find decent money when going for training runs. I’d told them that I’d let them in on the secret when we get there, however the competition was still fierce. Each time I’d jog ahead they’d catch up to make sure I wasn’t going for the goldmine. I’d cross the road to throw them off, but they’d follow me across the road-I was toying with them. Eventually when they’d lost the scent I pounced. I got to the particular spot (which will remain a secret to everyone else) and hit the jackpot. A whopping $8.30 worth of shrapnel goodness! They couldn’t believe it. We have found money every single day on the road, and hope to continue the streak tomorrow, otherwise we’ll be doing a nudie run into Cronulla.

We saw the “Welcome to Sydney” sign getting closer and closer as we neared Waterfall and passed underneath it with mixed feelings...pride, joy, excitement and the overwhelming stench of each other’s body odour. It was another one of those “wow” moments, along with our first 100kms under our belt, crossing the NSW/VIC border, reaching the halfway point and Ben’s first shower of the trip.

Another sign we needed a photo with was the Heathcote sign. Nearly three weeks earlier we’d taken a photo with the “Heathcote, VIC” sign, and never did we think we’d reach the same sign in NSW in the tremendous shape we were currently in. As we neared my house we took a slight detour to visit the GU warehouse at the Heathcote factories. GU’s main man Lloydie had hooked us up with lots of GU supplies and we wanted to thank him for helping us out, which they clearly did.

We then trotted on to Heathcote shops where we called it a day and headed back to my house where we saw a sad event taking place...Ruby was being unpacked and pulled apart, ready to be taken back to her home at Mascot. As we were unpacking, the next door neighbour Tim came over with a card and $250 for the boys...we opened it and weren’t sure whether to be extremely thankful or laugh when the card explained that the money was to be used to “pay for Ruby’s dint so it doesn’t come off Ben’s credit card”...but we did both. It was an exceptionally kind gesture and one we accepted graciously.

We spent the afternoon organising bits and pieces for tomorrow and then headed up to Heathote’s premier restaurant the Rusty Wall for a beaut dinner. We were reunited with Carlee for dinner and all of us talked absolute rubbish about the past three weeks. Having a nice dinner (rather than one from Ruby’s microwave) and a few beers to celebrate was tops, however it was a little strange...the run isn’t over and we still have to finish the job tomorrow-although it’s only a short 17km trot to Cronulla to finish, in a way it feels like we’ve made it. It was nice to finish today the same as how we started on day 1-with just the thereof us, as I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be crazy, hectic and chaotic all at the same time. Although I don’t want to put an end to this exhilarating ride we’ve called Run For a Reason, it will be nice to complete the goal and celebrate at the end. It will be hard to stuff it up from here, and I know for a fact all three of us would crawl over the finish line if we had to. But after watching the amazing efforts of Joelo and Benny today, I know all three of us will be galloping over the line together tomorrow with our heads held high, whatever happens.

Cheers

Nick

After deciding that only the three manliest beards would continue, Ben dropped out and Nick's 9 year old cousin Noah was substitued in by default

Sea Cliff Bridge. Recently voted best bridge between Coalcliff and Clifton ever

Bald Hill photo revisited...understandably the first jumping shot of the trip

Joel, Ben, Nick and Rubes entering the southern suburbs of Sydney

Heathcote. Aboriginal for "place of men with hearts of gold and manly beards"

Excitement in the Gong...

We had a relative sleep-in and after Ben had read us out his daily “totally random yet strangely inspirational” text message from Uncle Jim we did a quick radio interview with Marty and Bianca on i98fm. After asking Bianca to run with us and getting shut down, we left Shellharbour around 7am. But we didn’t head straight to our starting point at Albion Park, instead we went to Mark’s office-Albion Park airport. The Edge is a paramedic in the rescue chopper and we got a VIP tour of the hangar. It was like a year 4 excursion again and when the boys got to put our Luke Skywalker style helmets on it made our mornings. Although we didn’t have lightsabers, it was still very cool, Edge showing us the ins and outs of the 6 tonne, $17.5 million beast of a helicopter. After doing our best Arnie “get to the chopper” impressions we reluctantly left the pure awesomeness of the hangar around 8am and got started on what we were meant to be doing-running.

We had a short today (34kms), however we ended up having a busy day. When we got a phone call from Sam (who was driving Ruby) telling us that we had an Illawarra Mercury newspaper interview lined up at Gilmore Park at 10am. There were only two problems with this scenario-It was around 9.10am, and we were over 9kms away, meaning we’d have to run 5 minutes per kilometres. This would be a straight forward task back home but after over 800kms in the legs we’d grown accustomed to a bit of a slower pace. We powered on but not at the required pace-especially after all three of us literally spent about a minute on the ground wrestling all over each other because we thought we’d found a 5c piece and were fighting for it…the money finding game was an intense one today, and tensions were high. When Ben emerged from the rumble with only a silver calculator battery-and not a 5c piece, we dusted ourselves off sheepishly and continued running. The pace got even slower just temporarily when two old fellas starting beeping us and pulled over. It was Glenn Gorick and Mal Butterfield, two champion blokes who had got in contact with us after hearing about our run…they’d both done something very similar a couple of years back. It was nice to “meet” the guys after only having phone conversations with them. The pace then skyrocketed when Mal joined us for the run to Gilmore Park, and we got there just before 10.30am.

The Illawarra Mercury journalist and photographer turned up and one of the first things Lucas (the journo) asked after we introduced ourselves was “so where or who is Ruby?”. He was a bit perplexed when we pointed to our caravan…he obviously hadn’t done his research too well. We proceeded to pose for photos, with the photographer asking for some particularly “boy bandish” poses-leaning against trees, sitting down in staggered positions on the grass…nearly every classic boy band pose other than the “look away from the camera contemplating life” pose.

Straight afterwards we did a piece for WIN television, and did the old “run up and down the street and do fake stretches for 50 takes” trick which was to be played on the 6.30pm news.

After an extended break for the plethora of media (yeah, we’re kind of a big deal) we hit the road again with Mal in tow and followed Ruby up the street. Then Ruby did a U-turn…we’d been taken down the wrong road. We doubled back and followed Ruby down a different street for a few hundred metres, but before long we saw her do another U-turn…she was deadset lost and we were tacking on unnecessary mileage! This would have never happened with the Edge! But the blue skies were glorious and the spirits were high so we didn’t mind-it was just a nice day to be running, even if it was down the wrong streets.

The honks from passing cars continued as we ventured through Fairy Meadow, and throughout the course of the afternoon we caught up with Meagan and Nic and Di (Mrs Edge) who all came for a run with us. With Sam and Jacki taking turns on foot and with Mal and Glen onboard, our Forrest Gump style-followers sometimes numbered up to seven.

The short day, which was actually quite busy finished at Thirroul just before 2pm, where the day-followers left and we headed to Uncle Paul and Auntie Elese’s (and cousins Noah and Jess) for the night. We had a cracker of a meal before tuning into WIN for the news to see our TV piece. It wasn’t the first time on the trip we’d watched ourselves on TV, but it was still a surreal feeling. It was the first time I’d been on TV with a beard though…I’d heard the camera adds ten pounds but what about the changing colour of the beard? It looked like my face was on fire it was so ginger! Ben was a bit disappointed my exquisite explanation about the three of us being “the machines” and our support team were the ones “responsible for fixing, repairing and feeding the machines to make them work” statement didn’t make the cut.

Although we’ve been offered a beautiful home with comfy beds to sleep in tonight, all five of us have chosen to sleep in the Rubinator one last time…we take the old girl back to the caravan place tomorrow afternoon.

Getting ready for another short day tomorrow…we’ve battled through a couple of 50km+ days and several high 40km+ days early on in Victoria so we could take the last couple of days relatively easy. The run up the coast and onto the world-renowned Heathcote shall be a gooden.

Cheers

Nick

P.s. We plan to finish at Dunningham Park at Cronulla at midday on Saturday. If you’d like to say g’day, talk business and celebrate with us we’d love to see you at the finish line.

Maverick, Goose, Iceman and Slider

Nick being really funny, charming and dazzling in an interview-the cameraman is hanging on every word!

Getting directed into poses which clearly have nothing to do with running

What is it with cameramen and fake stretching? We've had to do it every time

Running with our new mate Mal Butterfield

Joel pondering post-run life, Ben pondering about how to grow a beard. Nick watching the pondering

An awesome feed with Paul, Elese, Noah and Jess

Peerlessly and perfectly pushing past the pass passionately

Day 18 was a different day. Our scheduled finishing point for yesterday was Moss Vale, however after tacking on extra kilometres each day for the last week or so, we’d gradually managed to be 17kms ahead of schedule. Today, instead of trying to do extra kms or “earn credit”, we were looking to cash it in for a change-by actually finishing at our scheduled end point rather than keep running past it by 17kms again. This would make today a short day, however we weren’t too sure how long it would take us to descend Macquarie Pass.

After getting ready as usual Ruby took us from the caravan park in Moss Vale to our end point from yesterday-the bakery in Robertson. Ben grabbed a quick meat pie for breakfast and we trotted up the quant main road of Robertson until we reached a potato which was big. They call it the Big Potato. Pure genius. Jacki snapped a photo with us and the 3 metre high potato and we continued on our way, passing the only other attraction in Robertson-a pie shop that’s famous. They call it the Famous Robertson Pie Shop…smart people, these Robertson residents. Joel grabbed pie for brekkie and I grabbed two and we continued on past the town until we saw something we hadn’t seen for a long time…Ben with his phone tucked away in his pocket. But we looked past this rare sight and saw something else just as foreign-the ocean. It was a special moment, as we hadn’t seen it in all our travels through rural Victoria and NSW. It made us feel like we were closer to home, finally being able to see the coast. And it was an even more spectacular view being right on the edge of the high escarpment.

Just before 9am we met Sam and Edge at the top of Macquarie Pass-7km worth of winding roads, switchbacks and hairpin turns with some sections having next to no room on either side-you look up a cliff face on your left and down a cliff face on your right and sometimes the road isn’t wide enough to fit two passing cars. Often times large trucks have to do 3-point turns (or more point turns as we witnessed first hand) on the hairpins they are so tight. We assessed the situation and thought we had it covered-Ruby was waiting for us at the bottom, Sam and Jacki would drive Sam’s car down and check on us twice-as there was only two spots wide enough for a car to pull over, and Edge would run down with the boys, shouting directions and acting like he was in charge.

From start to finish, it was exhilarating. We’d bolt down the middle of the road in single file on the sections where we could see more than 30 metres in front of us until one of us saw a car or truck in from in front or behind. Once this happened we’d all jump off the side of the road where we’d wait until the traffic had cleared and then bolt down it again. If there was no room on the side of the road-which was often-instead of jumping down a dirty cliff face, we’d have to give a sheepish wave to the oncoming car and move to the other side or wait for the car to swerve us. A little bit like the awkward moment when walking towards someone down a footpath and both sidestepping the same way to get past each other…except this time it’s with a car. It all sounds quite dangerous, but it was just another day in the office for three runners with two mean beards between them. To be honest, aside from some of the nice towns we passed, Macquarie Pass was my favourite section of the run…and much nicer and more stimulating than the tedious Hume. Passing waterfalls and 50 metre high trees forming a thick canopy above us was a real nice change as well.

We finally saw solid ground and Ruby at the bottom of the pass and realised we’d made it. It had only taken us an hour! This daunting section was most of the reason why we’d worked so hard to be ahead of schedule, however it was easier than we thought and much more fun-I wanted to get a lift back up the top and do it again!

We continued along the “normal” roads and passed cows and horses in the paddocks on either side of us when Sam’s mum Di (Mrs Edge) and niece Jada visited. Just beyond Albion Park we came across a something really random-not one, but four scooters-fittingly, three blue ones and one pink one. Joel, Ben, Jacki and I looked at each other and couldn’t work it out-it was as if they were meant to be for us and meant to be ridden. So we did. Not to gain any distance of course, but just in circles and doing tricks (Joel called his radical trick the whippersnapper). After a few minutes of mucking around (and realising that we all suck at scootering and nearly injuring ourselves) we left them for someone else to do whippersnappers on and jogged on to end the short day just past Albion Park, around 3km (rather than 17km) beyond our scheduled finish point. It was just after midday.

It was strange to end so early in the day but it was a welcome change. We headed back to Sam’s place at Shellharbour to spend the afternoon and have a beautiful home-made feast from Di, where all of Sam’s family were (Hayley, Lewis, Jada, Nate, Matt, Gemma, and Georgia) as well as good friends Meagan and Thommo came around-they all obviously knew about Di’s magical cooking skills. We’d stayed here for dinner on our Ulladulla run nearly two years ago and still to this day Ben talks about that “biggest feast ever”.

Over the last two and a half weeks we’d met and been in contact with some pretty amazing people in the adventure world…crossing paths with Len & Chris, doing their own Sydney to Melbourne run, meeting Justin Jones who had crossed the Tasman in a kayak, speaking on the phone with Glen Gorrick & Mal Butterfield, two awesome blokes who have done Melb-Syd before and hooked us up along the way with various things, and last night Joel got a text from Deb De Williams who wished us well. Just last year Deb ran around Australia for the McGrath Foundation, amazing stuff! It’s still a surreal feeling talking to these inspirational people and having them tell us that we’re the ones being inspirational...for the minute anyway-they’ve all got bigger adventure plans themselves, just like us. One of these “inspirational person” we’d all looked up to was Tom Denniss, who ran Melbourne to Sydney (albeit slightly differently) in 2009. I saw Tom at his finish line at Sylvania and was motivated to do something similar. To cut a long story short, Joel, Ben and I had a spa together (nothing suss) with a few beers and conceived the Ulladulla run idea, with next to no run experience under our belt, largely after seeing Tom complete his run. Tom rang me this afternoon to have a chat about our run, swap stories and tell us to keep going basically. Was another great moment to receive a “well wishes” call from the man who was the catalyst to our long distance running “careers” and inadvertently and very indirectly gave Ben manky-foot-it is.

Only three more days to go of this crazy adventure, and I don’t really want it to end.

Cheers,

Nick

The Big Potato. The name says it all

Sam warning the cars of the three fearless and handsome runners

Navigating the pass

At the bottom. Haha bottom

Cow

The boys bustin' a moooove

Farewell to the dirty dirty Hume

Our first day after the mistakenly dreaded day 16 was another good one, but altogether a totally different experience.

We leave the Taj Mahal and backtracked down the highway to our starting point around 20km south of Moss Vale. We stepped out of Ruby as Carlee filmed the proceedings-her last morning with us! We started out with a clear blue sky above us, and patches of white on the green grass by the side of the road-although it was warmer than previous mornings at a leisurely 3 degrees, the frost on the grass was the best and whitest we’d seen it yet. Then we dead set ran through a Christmas Tree farm…it was a bit like Christmas! But not really. But sort of.

Only 7kms into the morning we had to say goodbye to an old friend of ours…the dirty dirty Hume. As the turn off signs drew closer and closer, the boys got more and more excited, as Ben even got off his phone for this momentous occasion. We took a photo as we stepped on the old girl for the last time and never looked back. Well we did look back at it once more actually-as soon as we got onto the overpass that crosses the Hume to head east towards Moss Vale…we had to watch where we were urinating. We just wanted to say goodbye to the Hume our way.

Our new “home on the road” for the next two days was set to be the Illawarra Highway, and we were pumped. Within minutes, the amount of rubbish on the side of the road was reduced, the constant whizzing of gigantic trucks merely centimetres from our shoulders was gone, and the words “dirty dirty” were only applied to Joel’s manky hands, not the name of the road we were running on.

We trotted on through the countryside and heard a bicycle bell behind us. Two cyclists (John and Max) were on a three day 300km cycle around the southern highlands. Since the boys are already planning our next adventure on a bike, rather than on our feet, we exchanged stories and they gave us a donation and continued on our way. Around this same time we welcomed back a member of the team for the day…the man, the mentor, the EDGE! Mark joined us in between night shifts as an ambo...saving lives and kicking our arses are his two main priorities at the minute, I feel. We hit Moss Vale and caught up with Renee, Emma, Chloe and Lisa, who had slept in and decided to join us around 11am. This meant Ben was in his element, having the girls running and walking with him and fetching him food and water. This continued until our newest guests made a cameo appearance…my Auntie Suzanne, Uncle Dugald, and cousin Dan. They came bearing gifts-countless Gatorades for the boys which will last us til Saturday! All three had a turn running and walking with us and was great having their company. Our Forrest Gump style followers continued, with Mark’s good friends Sandra and Dave, along with kids Jack and Sarah coming along for a jog. It was great to finally meet Sandra, as Mark has mentioned her numerous times and also as she is talking at our function on Saturday about her experiences going through breast cancer herself.

The three boys (along with our groupies) jogged on to Robertson, making it an average 42km day, and celebrated the end of the day with a bloody good meat pie. As we were scoffing lunch Uncle Dugald presented us with another gift…not one but three Socceroos jerseys signed by the one and only Brett Emerton! One for each of the boys with a message from Brett on it. We were all pretty speechless and extremely grateful for such an awesome present-and that was just for the Gatorade they gave us, but this was freaking awesome! Thank you!

After pies were consumed the pack was reduced to just four (myself, Joel, Ben and Jacki). We said goodbye to our “day followers” and also said goodbye to Edge and Sam until tomorrow morning. Edge had to go and save lives for the night, and not even supporting a life-changing run from Melbourne to Sydney was going to hold Sam back from seeing the Harry Potter premiere at Shellharbour at midnight tonight. She deserves it, after putting up with us for the past 11 days or so. The most meaningful goodbye however went to Carlee, who has been part of our support crew since day 1. Carlee did an absolutely awesome job and we enjoyed her company all the time except for about 15 minutes of each day-when she was making us yelp and scream like schoolgirls while she was massaging us. Of course we returned to being friends straight afterwards after the muscles were relaxed!

We returned to the Taj and had dinner in a fairly spacious Ruby…we’re not used to only having four of us in here! Jacki’s cousin Dee also popped in and gave us slice to help us tackle tomorrow.

Hoping for the same weather and general awesomeness for tomorrow.

Cheers

Nick

Ben...making women swoon since 1989

Generic run photo 17

Six cheeks, four lanes, one word...dirty

Talking bicycle business with fellow men in tights

The gang with Sarah, Dave, Jack and Sandra talking business

Dugald, Dan and Suzanne presenting our awesome jerseys (signed by Brett Emerton) and talking business

The seemingly notorius (but actually glorious) day 16

Ever since our bodies starting hurting on around day 4 we’ve been uttering sentences like “I knew we were gonna be sore, but not this early-maybe day 16 or so”. And “Wait til about day 16, I reckon we’ll be hurting then”, and “Ben, have a shower you friggin stink mate!”. I’m not sure why day 16 kept popping up, but it was the day we kept coming up with as the one when we were expecting to be feeling the effects of the wear and tear on our bodies…So when day 16 came around and we felt really quite fine and able-bodied, it was a great feeling.

We were doing the regular morning thing (having breakfast, getting taped, doing a morning poo, etc) when we got to the last regular job before departing-putting the bike inside Ruby for the roadtrip. Unfortunately when Sam went to bring the bike in, she was missing one key ingredient…the bike. It had been stolen during the night. It’s sad to think the lowlife who stole it would have walked past a 2 metre poster declaring we were on a charity run before taking one of our belongings, worth a few hundred dollars. It put a downer on the morning, as Sam called Edge to tell him his bike was missing. But the show must go on, and we left the caravan park and pulled up to our starting point, which by coincidence just happened to be right next to the absolute best part of Goulburn…the road out of town.

We got down to business and started off with a walk, but after less than a kilometre the strong wind and icy temperatures got us lifting our heels and on the run fairly quickly. Our visitors for the day-my sister Lauren and Jacki’s mum Bronwyn-joined us for several kilometres to see how the boys spend their days and seemed to enjoy themselves. It was nice when the wind died down and the blue skies came out, and fortunately for us, they stuck around for the rest of the day…from 9am or so it was probably the best weather we’d had since leaving Victoria.

We passed through the small highway town of Marulan and continued along the dirty Hume until we reached our set kilometres for the day-a fairly lazy 37kms. To be fair, today had perhaps the nicest scenery on the Hume since Victoria too-it had nice big Gum trees on the medium strip and we crossed lots of nice open farmland, rolling hills and small but serene lakes. However, in terms of the word “dirty”, it couldn’t be more spot on…coke bottles, burger wrappers, cigarette butts and countless types of litter lined the side of the road, the worst we’d seen it so far. Pretty disappointed in the people that would carelessly throw stuff out the window like that…the Hume’s dirty enough as it is people, ease up and chuck it in the bin-disgusting! However the amount of money we've found on the road has been suprising as well-not one day has passed without us finding a single cent. Just quietly, I've been bringing home the bacon in the money stakes each day...$3.81 was my tally today (yep, found a one-center! Woo!) Each time we find a coin we play the "younger/older" game, trying to guess what year the coin was produced. Again, one of the simple ways we amuse ourselves on the Hume. Also quite amusing to see Joel having to concentrate extremely hard as to whether (for example) 1985 means younger or older than a 1989 coin...it's a pretty tricky concept for the kid.

We marked our end point and rolled into Moss Vale to our sweeeet caravan park Moss Vale Village Caravan Park, which the Edge had managed to get us for free for two nights-he told us it was the “Taj Mahal” of caravan parks and he wasn’t far off it. After finding our spot and realising it wasn’t even 2pm yet, we hit up the local pub, where Bronwyn generously announced she would shout us all lunch and drinks as a “donation”, even though she’d already donated. We graciously accepted and enjoyed the first pub meal since that fateful Origin night in Gundagai last week. Thanks Bronwyn! She (and Lauren) then headed back home while the gang went back to the Taj Mahal to shower and relax. The cameo appearances continue, with Ben’s girlfriend Renee-along with friends Emma, Lisa and Chloe having arrived around 6pm to spend the next 24 hours or so with us. She’s getting a cabin however Ben won’t be joining her and is staying in the cove…which is a very smart move on his part because the second he leaves that warm abode…BAM!! I’m gonna strike and be back where I belong.

Looking forward to tomorrow, when we will eventually say goodbye to the dirty Hume!

Cheers

Nick

Getting pumped for another day of Humey goodness

Artsy as

Our supersubs, Lauren and Bronwyn join the boys (and a rare snap of Ben without his phone)

Ruby's dint. Also known as $250 off Ben's credit card (think of the Fly Buys points but!)

The Hume. Bringing mates closer since 1817

Another day another dollar. Trying to scrape together $250 for Ruby in coins found on the road

Pubbin' it up. Thanks Bronwyn!

Wild wind whips weary wunners while wearing wascals

Day 15.

I woke up and looked for the Weetbix-only three left. I opened the fridge for the milk-hardly any left. What about bread? None. Our first morning without our trusty road manager Edge and the wheels were falling off! But we had a solution-Maccas brekkie!

We drove back to our mark around 26km short of Goulburn and started off with a jog in the howling wind-30kph! At least it was coming from the west, meaning it was at our backs. This made the running a little easier most of the time, however sometimes if we’d want to slow down for a walk the wind wouldn’t let us…it was literally harder to slow down than speed up. The passing cars would probably have trouble believing the three of us had run 650kms prior to today when we were SPRINTING down the highway…again, all because the wind was so bloody strong!

Carlee and Sam manned Ruby all day and for the first time on the trip neither of them came for a jog (or walk, or ride) with us. I can’t blame them either-each time we’d hop in the van for a breather and some water it felt like it was 10 degrees warmer inside.

We reached the Big Merino-a 15 metre tall ram which marked the edge of Goulburn, meaning we’d earned ourselves some lunch, and a break from the wind.

We slowed to a walk through Goulburn to check out the sights (which we’d already seen in their entirety when we saw the Big Merino). Joel also decided to stop in EVERY chemist to find a suitable cream for his nasty hand rash which is looking nearly as manky as Ben’s feet at their mankiest. Luckily Goulburn only has two chemists, so it wasn’t too bad. Actually it was quite nice as both chemists were heated and a nice break from the cold.

Once we’d ventured through Goulburn we started running again, and got to about 4km outside town when a car pulled up besides Ruby. Out jumped Bec and Ed, workmates of mine to stop by for some inspiration and a powerade for each of us-legends! We’ve been getting cameo appearance a few times-yesterday Ben’s Aunty Sue and Uncle Laurie dropped by and gave us a beaut meal which we devoured tonight, and my Uncle Paul, Aunty Elese, cousin Noah and Jess swung by to drop off some awesome snacks-people are getting the message that we love food!

Once the 42km mark was reached we jumped in the van and headed back to our caravan park in Goulburn for showers and recovery. At dinner time Jacki returned for her second stint as support crew to help Carlee and Sam, and Jacki’s mum Bronwyn and my sister Lauren have come down to visit and get their fix of Run for a Reason goodness for 24 hours or so.

After checking the weather report for tomorrow, it looks like we’re in for more winds and more cold (tops of 7 degrees) for day 16…but we've bought more Weetbix, bread and milk, we've had our inspirational call from the Edge and we’re more than ready for it!

Cheers

Nick

Artsy sunrise...looks nice, but very deceptive

Joel looking really warm on this lovely morning

Passing a cycle enthusiast trying to pedal into the raging wind

The boys and the Big Merino talking about the processes of the wool industry and also a little business

Nothing like a bit of man-love of the Hume. At our end point for the day (and starting point for tomorrow)

Nick and Joel happy to get out of the cold, and Ben happy that someone told him he had "a little bit of a beard"

Two and a half beards and the Hume

Today began like any other day on our journey back to the homeland they call the Sutherland Shire. It was quite chilly over night, a mild two degree morning awaited us. After a generous night collecting money at various Yass establishments we were all keen to hit the highway. Our 14^th day had crept up on us quite quickly and with this being our shortest day of our journey (33.8km) we were very excited in the potential credit available.

     The wind chill and spits of rain here and there made for an uncomfortable morning but spirits remained high as every step got us closer to our goal. Today was the day “The Edge” left us to go back to work before returning next Wednesday. It was a anxious goodbye as Edge had been the glue that was holding the ship together. Fortunately we were able to group together after the loss and achieve a further 5km credit, leaving our total credit amount at 15km. The main highlight of today was running past the big electric wind turbines just outside of Goulburn. They used to be a distant figure but being able to reach them and take a few happy snaps was welcoming.

Ben

Early encouragement

 Another one of Edge's Edge cuts through Gunning.. We'll miss you xo

Generic sign snap #14

Art on a stick

Joel's worst injury; his seedy hand rash. Also a blister that was ripped by tape today

Time for a cheeky shower