The alarms buzzes, it’s 3:40am.
I gather our things together, make breakfast, fill his water and head out to the start line- to where he finished the 84km run the day before, marked by spray paint on the side of the road with his initials SB, a timestamp of where his feet have taken him. It’s another day on the road for his world record run around Australia running 14,000kms for Make a Wish.
Sean’s whole focus was running, so crewing involved everything needed to make that possible- from prepping food and hydration, getting his gear ready, planning, food shopping (when there were towns…), making sure we had enough supplies and stopping with the motorhome every 7kms to give him more food, often pulling over where there was nothing appropriate but a small patch of grass (As soon as we hit the NT border the side of the roads just disappeared. I called the ‘cafe’ where bagels and coffee and the 3 rounds of breakfast were made to fuel his morning ‘45 Degree’s because well, that was the angle I usually was on…
I crewed for a month from Townville to Darwin, he’s currently over halfway through.
He’s out there for 13 hours a day shuffling from sunrise to sunset taking strides. It’s incredible to see a dream that he’s had for 6 years become reality each day that unfolds.
One of Sean’s running friends who jumped in for a leg of the run had a chat with me to find out about my experience on the road.
Inbetween the prepping and planning there were moments of stillness under the stars on the deserted roads and breathtaking moments running on the long stretch that laid ahead as the sun set over the golden grass.
In this epside I let Nick be the host and we chat about the perspective I gained, how I found balance crewing and what it was like to be running through the remote stretch of outback Queensland and Northern Territory.
Follow along Seans journey on socials here and support his run by donating to Make A Wish here.
Keep up to date with the latest episodes by following the Explore Your Core Podcast on Spotify .
-Explore Your Core
Photo cred to Angus Mckee.
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