Sometimes you look back on an event and have to say " Holly shit how do we survive that?" The Fred Hollows International relay was one of those events.If anyone asked me what the toughest event I had run in prior to this I would have said without blinking "The Ottway Classic". Indeed until 1995 this was certainly the case.
The Fred Hollows event was organised out of respect for the man himself and consisted of teams from countries in which Fred had helped and had an impact. The nine nations were Australia, Zimbabewe, Kenya, New Zealand, Vietnam, Nepal, Ertirea, China and Tanzania.
The Aussi team consisted of Peter Brett, myself, Marcus Brown, Michael McIntyre, Robert Spurrs and Richard Barrett. The team was led by non other than Gary Henry, one tough bugga when it comes to racing. Gary was also the team driver. At the end of the day the Australian team finished second behind Zimbabewe and ahead of Tanzania.
I will get to my diary extracts in a moment however Ray Kershler wrote for the Daily Telegraph Mirror of the event on April 10th 1995 " The teams tended to make up tactics as they went along. In the end this 500km team relay turned into a race of repetitive sprints of distances as short as 100m. Just imagine it- long distance runners jumping in and out of cars and vans every few minutes and sprinting a couple of hundred metres. On one leg the Tanzanian team counted 90 changes. These proved to be tactics at which the Australians became quite adept but as team manager Garry Henry said at the finish at Westfield shopping centre at parramatta .." It was not something you can train for" ...
The relay itself was brutal. Starting out the back of Burke with the then Prime Minister Paul Keating starting the race all hell broke loose. Initially there was a 12.6km race around Burke. I was the first Aussi over the line and the team was placed 5th overall. All the teams then drove to Dubbo some 300km away. prior to an 800m circuit sprint, this turned out to be more like 600m. Each team had to run there runners twice in any order they felt. For us we simply rotated the list. Our team was placed 4th at the end of the day.
Stage 2 was a 123km leg. Teams had to nominate one runner to run the first 2km out of town before they could commence changes. teams were also restricted to limited changes in the final 10km to help reduce the chances of injury. Initially we ran 500m legs, we followed this process for 70-80km. The team bus would drive ahead and drop us off at 500m intervals. Gary Henry would then follow the runner and pick them up in the small red pulsar we were allocated. With the 6th runner on the road and 5 runners in the car Gary would scream past the last runner and toot his horn, this indicated that you had to hang in there of another minute before your next change. Gary would catch the bus , which we would all get on except who ever was to change next and then the bus would head off and drop us off again and the process would be repeated. Basically we were getting a 500m sprint every 3km. Gary Noticed that the African teams were changing over shorter distances so we dropped to 300m legs for the next 30-40km meaning we got a run/sprint every 1800m. At the end of this stage gary had successfully burnt the brakes out on the car and was guided by a police bike over the closing stages of the stage. We ended up 5th behind China.
At 2.40pm on the same day we started stage 3 a 35.1km leg heading out of Forbes. For 23km we again ran 500m legs, this was reduced to 200m legs and the sprints got quicker. I was assigned 4km of the final 10km leg with Bretty and Marcus sharing the other changes. Teams in the final 10km were only allowed two changes. We upset the Chinese team as they accused us of making three. In actual fact we cut it very bloody fine. Gary Henry (team manager, ) pointed out that if we changed just outside of the 10km exclusion zone we could still make two more changes within the 10km limit. I made the change with Robbie just outside the 10km flag and ran to level peg the Chinese runner however with them only having one change left and us still two we eventually over hauled them and the Eritrean team to finish third. The Chinese protested but we were cleared of any wrong doing.
Friday was brutal again. My diary for 7th April 1995 reads.
Woke 6.30am feeling stiff but nothing out of the ordinary. today a 121.9km leg. Started out (after Bretty's 2km) with 500m repeats, running once every 3km. They seemed to come around bloody quickly. match racing with China. Switched to 300m then 250s then 200s for the hill climbs then back to 500s for the long flat sections. Gazza drove like a bloody legend and kept up the humour which helped to relieve the agony. Came to running with 5 guys when Robbie Spurrs achilles became inflamed. My left knee is sore and the ITB is not good. ran the last 4km into Orange. Massage, physio, bath and then alight jog around the hotel. team is in good spirits but rooted.
Saturday 8th April reads: Slow warm up.8.30am start for the 65km leg. Bretty lead out then we quickly moved to 300m legs, these were alternated between 200 and 100m depending on the undulation. Gary was stoked, you blokes are blow'n them away. he loved it. I ran the final 2.5km into Bathurst. Australia won the stage. you beauty.
Arvo. I lead the 2.5km out of Bathurst for the next 67.1km leg. Same process as the morning stage and the team ran aggressively. Brownie in trouble with a knee glitch and mine was taped to ease the discomfort, physio thinks its not tracking right. Not sure if its the running or getting in and out of the bloody car. ( The Chinese runner was withdrawn from the race by the event doctor, this was ignored and he limped in for the stage)
Sunday final stage into Parramatta.Diary Reads Sunday 9th April 1995:
Stage 7 26.8km Bretty lead out then bang into 200 and 100m sprints. I ran the last 3.5km stage for another stage win. All team moving well except Robby , Achilles is not good.
Stage 8 final into Parramatta Bretty lead out again only this time we dropped to 80m sprints Gaz loves it, his face just seems to say this is insane. Brownie put in some corker legs as to did Mike and Richard... I covered the second last 3.5km before handing over. team was third in the stage and 2nd over all.
These extract do not do the race justice, it was brutal but the team just worked so well together. Gary Henry was brilliant as the manager and his light hearted humour made the event just that little bit more bearable. Gaz went through 2 cars (brakes) to get us to the end but given the chance to do it again I would because the event has never been run again...
Ray Keshler writes " At the end of 500 gut wrenching kilometres more than 50 runners sprinted into Parramatta yesterday. Those last bursts to finish the Fred Hollows International team relay were acts of sheer defiance. So the Aussies finished second and scalped Kenay and Tanzania in the one race, a mighty effort for a team cobbled together only two weeks before the race started.They chewed up a 12minute deficit in the last stage.
...Chinese runner Wan Min Su ran into Parramatta with an aggravated shin fracture. The Event doctor Seamus Dalton said " what can you do they are running on national pride"...The Nepalese runner finished with a broken shoulder and broken ribs after being hit by his support car...The Fred Hollows relay will claim an honoured place in Australian sport"
One thing I do know is that those of us that made up the team will never forget one week of being wombats and digging deeper than we may ever have gone before
Barrel on wombats...
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