Meet the R4R Runners #69
Chafe Chasers
Welcome to the 69th edition of the Meet the R4R Runners where this week, we get to meet another great community. We believe that one of the things we need to do in order to achieve our goal of a suicide-free ACT is to champion other communities based around exercise.
The concept of exercise and community is incredibly impactful. It’s not simply just a great thing to do, it’s arguably the most important preventative measure and remedy for improved Mental Health. We’ve known of Chafe Chasers for a while now, we’ve seen them at some of the R4R runs, and we are proud that Canberra is home to other great communities like theirs.
So, without further ado, let’s meet the Chafe Chasers!
What is your name? / What are your names?
Laura & Lucy
How long have you been in Canberra? Were you raised here?
Laura: I grew up in Canberra! Moved away for uni and then moved back after I graduated (just couldn't stay away)
Lucy: I moved to Canberra at the start of 2020 for a 'gap year' to live near my sister that was studying at ANU, 3 years and a pandemic later, Canberra has me now!
What do you love about it?
Laura: I love the easy lifestyle, and that it never takes any longer than 10 minutes to get anywhere. Autumn and spring scenes are an additional bonus!
What do you enjoy about R4R?
Accountability during the winter and great community! We especially love what you guys stand for.
Can you tell us a bit about Chafe Chasers?
We are a small run club that started amidst COVID in 2021. It just started as a few friends going for weekly runs and has now turned into a pretty cool little social club!
Why did you start it?
We started the Instagram page after we struggled at our first trail running event in Jindabyne, and when it's started to gain some traction we started the club! It then turned into a way to catch up with friends and then when new people joined it was a way to make some new friends in Canberra.
It looks like a great community you guys have built, and you're using it for good to raise money for Lifeline through a Gala event. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
When we first started, our goal was to raise money for rural health care through the National Rural Health Alliance. Lucy works as a physiotherapist and I am a dentist and we've both had some first hand experience working rurally and seeing how underfunded and difficult it is to access.
Our second gala last year was to raise money for flood relief- which was a great success! This year, we've decided to donate to Lifeline- mental health is very important to us and especially over the last few years, services like Lifeline Australia have been essential to a lot of Australians.
Great stuff. Before we finish, as always... what does Resilience mean to you?
Being able to process and rebuild in the face of challenges and adversity
If you could go back to the hardest moment in your life, what would you say to yourself?
Laura: life is full of ups and downs, even though you're feeling low, I promise you the highs are coming.
Lucy: no matter what the day has thrown at you, the sun will rise in the morning.
Thanks ladies!
City 2 Surf
The Running 4 Resilience road trip to the City2Surf is back! And after learning a few lessons on last year’s inaugural trip, we’re excited to announce a bigger and better trip with tickets on sale now! The cost will be $120 which includes the bus trip, the recovery session, and lunch (race entry and drinks aren’t included). If you have any question, please email Benny A by clicking here
Around the Grounds
Another great turnout for Parkrun for the weekend just gone. It’s something we’ve noticed ourselves with R4R, but there are worse ways to anchor your week with some exercise and community.
A few legends!
The R4R community is full of legends! For the weekend just gone and as far as I know (please let me know if you’re aware of others), Singh and Simmo completed the UTA 100km race. It’s a great achievement and it was achieved by two great blokes.
Beyond the 100km notch in the belt, there were a couple of community efforts that brought a lump to my throat. Simmo’s family and support crew treating Singh like their own, and Murray B creating an audio file full of messages of support for Singh to listen when he entered the hurt locker.
Simple efforts like these underpin a strong community.
A few more legends…
The lads from Crusade for Connor that featured in the rag a few weeks ago raised more than $65k for schizophrenia research. As we learnt, these fellas lost their mate to the disease and banded together to turn something tragic into something positive.
We also met Shannon recently who’s a key part of the I Got You community. Similarly, after losing someone close to them due to mental health struggles, they raised more than $50k for Oz Help. Both of these groups are the epitome of people trying to make the world a better place, and they represent a desire from our community to make a difference.