As the light, sun-brightened early mornings have faded with summer merging into autumn, a running group still meets outside Aquamoves every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday as it has done for years: to socialise, stay fit and, for some, train for the Paris Marathon.
“The little running group”, as they affectionately call themselves, has been regularly running and meeting up for the best part of 20 years after some members met during a fitness boot camp in the early 2000s.
On Thursday at 6am, the group met in the dark to do one of its final runs before heading off in staggered departures to run the Paris Marathon on April 7.
Despite the (rare in recent weeks) cool temperature and a seemingly solemn quietness hanging over Victoria Park Lake, the group was happily chatting and joking away, waiting patiently for its photo for the paper to be taken before heading off on a 20km run.
For Jill Maude, one of the group’s original members, the event in Paris will be the third marathon she has run and the first in more than a decade.
When asked why this social running group was travelling halfway around the world to compete in the city of love, Maude said that, like most things in recent years, it was due to COVID-19.
“Michelle and Wes Teague, who are running the marathon, they prior to COVID-19, had a family holiday booked to Europe with their two kids and, of course, it all went pear-shaped and didn’t happen,” Maude said.
“They had all these (flight) vouchers which were close to expiring and Michelle thought ‘okay, let’s do the Paris Marathon’. She put it out to the group and said, ‘I’m doing the Paris Marathon, Wes is doing it’; Narelle (Pell) said she would do it and so we just put it out to the group and we managed to get five people to do it.
“It’s also an easy one to get into as far as an international event because you don’t have to qualify.
“So it’s just a matter of securing your entry and you’re in.”
Don’t let their charming grins and relaxed nature fool you; this running group isn’t made up of just your average mum and dad joggers.
Members of the group have run marathons in Queenstown, New York and all over Australia, with Pell having run a “seven-in-seven” event — seven marathons in seven days across seven cities — with a friend for charity.
However, although this run club is competitive, Maude said training and social aspects were the main reasons for the group’s longevity.
“Along the way, there are injuries and illness and things happen, but overall we stay together as a group and keep running,” she said.
“The journey of your training is really what it is all about. The event is, well obviously it’s important, but it’s the journey of your training.
“We have been doing a 20-week training program, so we have been following the same program, and all of that is important, and it’s what keeps everyone together too.
“If you have an injury and you’re recovering or you’re not running, it’s dealing with all of that, but you also really miss the social aspect of being together and that’s what keeps you coming back. Because you think, ‘Oh, they are out there running and they are running without me’.”
In terms of the actual race, Maude believes that after the start, they will likely separate as everyone runs at their own pace.
While Maude aims to take in Paris’ sights and sounds during her run, she is still looking to finish with a competitive time of 4.5 hours, as other group members hope to get below the four-hour mark.
“We will be running past a lot of amazing sites, you know, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and all these other beautiful old sites that are in Paris,” she said.
“I think it’s pretty exciting to be running along the Champs-Élysées and the river.
“We might start together, but we won’t finish all together. We will be there for each other at the end.”