Brett Spargo raises thousands of dollars running in Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal event

It was all in support of the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal and, more specifically, his workmate’s daughter, Mia Depuit, who has cancer.

She’s only six years old.

Spargo raised close to $3200 in support of Mia through his campaign, adding to a growing cache of, well, cash, that he’s raised in the name of altruism.

“I never expected to raise that much money,” he said.

“The last couple of years, any event I’ve entered, I’ve tried to raise a little bit of money, and I think the most I’d ever raised in one event alone was about $1500, so to raise $3100 was mind-blowing.

“I’m blown away with the support of everyone and I was very happy with the result.

“Personally, in how much I was able to raise and also how well I ran the event.”

The 39-year-old smashed his funding target, but that wasn’t the only goal he kicked on the day.

Running in the 14.4km long-course event, which started at Melbourne’s Docklands, Spargo finished in 54:07 to land in the top 77 runners overall from more than 10,000 entrants.

That’s seriously quick - clocking 3:43 per kilometre.

But things weren’t so lickety-split for Spargo just three years ago.

He weighed about 100kg and, during a time when ‘long distance’ had different connotations to running — the pandemic — motivation and opportunity was sparse.

“Considering I was nearly 100kg three years ago, I never thought I’d be in this position,” he said.

“I’m a lot mentally stronger now than I was when I was 100 kilos. Life was pretty tough, I had no energy and it was during COVID.

“Now I tell people that I’m running 3:43 a kilometre for 14km, they’re like ‘I can’t even do that for 1km’.

“It’s amazing how quick your life can change.”

After shedding 30kg, Spargo is back to the hardened athlete he once was.

He started as an uber-fit kid who ran at an elite level before the pull of country footy drew him from the track to the oval.

Spargo went on to win flags alongside some of Seymour’s favourite sons, Saad Saad and Paul Scanlon, before injury hampered his career and forced early retirement from football at 28.

From there, Spargo conceded he did “nothing for about eight or nine years”.

That’s not entirely true. He played lawn bowls.

But as he re-enters his physical prime, running has come to play a significant part in his life, where endurance, mental fortitude and cardiovascular capacity combine.

It’s man versus road, mind over matter.

“Running can be fairly lonely, especially in the country. A lot of the guys I follow on Strava are in running groups and they run with mates,” he said.

“Here’s me in little Avenel running along the road by myself and have sheep baa-ing at me and stuff like that.

“There’s those challenges as well, but I’ve loved it — it’s turned my life around physically and mentally.”

Spargo said he’d been called “bloody mad” for completing ultra-marathons at his age.

Yet he’s the farthest thing from it.

Spargo’s physical and mental conditioning grows more and more robust, and after ticking every little goal off — half-marathon, full marathon, ultra-marathon — his next assignment is not yet set in stone.

He said it could be Shepparton’s NorthVic Backyard Ultras event, the GV’s last man standing, which pits competitors to run as many loops of a 6.72km circuit every hour, on the hour.

But whatever Spargo runs in next, you can bet the house on the fact it’ll be for a good cause.

“Just having those little incentives of how many people helped follow my journey and helped me raise money probably spurs me on to go a little bit quicker than I’d plan to,” he said.

“It’s my payback to them to push myself that little bit harder to show that I appreciate their support.”