By
POPT Scott Harriden
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Members
of Darwin’s elite fitness squad after the CI Marathon.
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Photo
courtesy HMAS Darwin
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During
her recent patrol around the waters of Christmas Island, some
of the ship’s company of HMAS Darwin took the opportunity
to participate in the annual Christmas Island Marathon (42km).
The marathon is an annual fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation
and draws runners from far and wide.
The course starts on top of the island, 260m above sea level,
runs through tropical rainforests and finishes in the settlement
area.
The crew was quick to jump at the chance to give it a go, some
having never run more than the 2.4km required for the annual fitness
test.
The event allows each runner of the team to run 7km each in a
relay fashion.
“This sounds like a piece of the proverbial” we grunted
as we put pen to paper on the nomination forms, each of us bragging
about how good a runner we ‘used’ to be and how many
races we won at our local primary school.
Not only did Darwin enter five teams of six in this event; we
even had someone crazy enough to nominate for the entire 42km
on his own.
POMT Al Bowman was eager to dance with the devil on this unforgiving
and extremely challenging course. Having little time to train
for the event, Al spent most of his off watch time hogging the
treadmill from the rest of us elite runners.
What we didn’t know, was that the 42km course was mostly
dirt, filled with large potholes, and did they forget to mention
the incline of some of the hills here?
Standing around at our starting position scratching our heads,
we all reflected on that one sentence on the nomination form that
nobody paid much attention to, ‘an undulating course’.
But, as keen as mustard, and as fit as Steve Monagetti, or so
we made out to the swarms of onlookers at the starting line, we
sucked back one last ‘durrie’ and did something that
resembled a stretching routine.
“Get set...... Go” yelled the marshal, and we were off
- thundering down the track with our hardened well-oiled bodies,
pusser’s socks and Dunlop Volleys. “Eat our dust”
we screamed before each of the more professional runners overtook
us.
Well into the first leg of the race and thanks to the two litres
of Powerade and the hot-dog he had consumed prior to the start,
LSNPC Rowland took the lead for his team and finished the first
leg of 7km ahead of all other team entrants.
The course was long and hard, with the legs copping a hammering
from the surface on the track and the heat incredible. But I guess
the endless stream of water bombs that were ‘pegged’
at us by some of the local supporters cooled us off as they yelled
words of encouragement before reloading and taking aim at our
heads again.
Just over three hours into the race, the temperature became bearable.
By this stage most of the runners were just past the 36km mark.
Finally, the downhill leg of the race, and when I say ‘downhill’
I mean ‘downhill’. The angle of descent was a killer
on weary legs, and the continuous pounding on the knees and joints
was at times trying. Stopping for a break would only make us an
easier target for a water bombing.
Just on dusk now and the lights of the finish line were almost
in sight, none of us more appreciative than PO Bowman. Past the
last water station and on the final 300m home stretch we could
hear the crowd and smell the sausages. By now our team runners,
one through to five, had mustered at the finish line and were
providing lots of vocal support for the last runner of their team,
and to the marathon man himself, Al Bowman.
The
finish times were:
