No I am not talking about Julia Gillard, but rather Sarah Mycroft, a 32 year old mum of two from Picton in the New South Wales Southern Highlands. She has for the past 5 months or so been running around Australia in a counter clockwise fashion heading up the coast from Sydney to Cairns, then across the top end to Darwin and now down the west coast to Perth.
Each day she heads out and runs 60 or more kms to enable her to meet her goal. Anyone who has ever driven for long distances in Australia will know just how tough the terrain is as well as how hot things can get out on the road.
Travelling with a small crew of friends and volunteers (and with her two small children), this lady is relatively quietly making her way around the country while stopping off in schools to deliver positive messages against obesity.
Sarah has some good pedigree as a distance runner and as a friend of mine educated me about the other day, the Southern Highlands area seems to have produced some really seriously good runners and in particular really good female distance runners. I am not sure why this is – perhaps this might be the ‘Great Rift Valley’ of Australia.
For any distance runner this journey would rank not only as something of a great adventure, but also a true test of what you are capable of. This is not something to be taken lightly and I would say that majority of us might have given up ages ago.
Having written about the achievements of Jess Watson the other day, I can only hope that young Sarah also commands the same sort of coverage and welcome back into Sydney after her voyage.
I encourage you to look at her website and donate to her cause . May the running gods continue to smile on Sarah – indeed the spirit of adventure is running high in young Australian women in 2010. – Sean Muller
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