The CrossingSouth Bank parkrun
The Final Five
The final South Bank parkrun brought friends, the Heart Foundation and one surprise I never saw coming.
I had walked into South Bank from Perth on Thursday, but there was still one parkrun to go. We were going back to the place where we’d stopped for the final 5 km, just as I’d planned.
If it looked like I was dragging things out, with a celebration dinner and a half marathon still to come, I was. Today was South Bank parkrun and the official finish of HAA. It was also Bright Pink’s birthday and, apparently, Talk Like a Pirate Day. My West Country accent meant I was already well prepared for that last one :)
Four months earlier, my son had sent us off at Canning River parkrun with “3 2 1 go”. Coming back to parkrun to finish felt right. Friends and local parkrunners joined us at South Bank, along with people from the Heart Foundation. Wendy Mathews had travelled over from WA. She’d been there at the start too, after helping me get HAA off the ground.
We ran the final lap beside the Brisbane River. I was expecting a finish token, but not who was going to hand it to me. A young boy kept trying to get my attention after I crossed the line. It took me a moment to realise it was my son. I hadn’t seen him since we left Perth.
Yani from Gungahlin parkrun had been talking secretly with Ben and Ols and arranged for my wife and son to fly to Brisbane. Gareth from South Bank parkrun had picked them up from the airport the morning before. I knew nothing about any of it. My son, who had started us with “3 2 1 go”, was standing there with my finishing token. There were tears. I hugged him for ages.
I was still shell-shocked. Thank you Yani, Gareth, Ben and Ols. What a thing to do.
After parkrun I went to ABC Brisbane for a live radio interview with Tim. Later, the Centenary Tavern set up a VIP table for 25 for the celebration dinner, with room for more if we needed it. We had reached Brisbane on Thursday, but this was the finish we’d been looking forward to: one last parkrun, with friends, my family and the crew around me.
After two nights at Rydges, we went to stay with Michelle and her family. She’d followed HAA online and was in Rogue Runners, but she didn’t know any of us from a bar of soap. Even so, she and her family very generously opened their home to all three of us. It was the perfect place to wind down, a base for the things I still had lined up in Brisbane, and somewhere to ease back towards normality. We had some wonderful conversations and laughs with the family. I don’t think the remains of a big bucket of Tailwind quite covered it, Michelle, but thank you :)
Images From The Day
