Marathon effort for the kids

NOT many people have the mental fortitude to complete a marathon at any stage throughout their entire life, but Geelong’s Richie Egan has just completed seven marathons in seven days as a part of the Bravehearts Foundation’s 777.

Last week child protection organisation, the Bravehearts Foundation, held its annual 777 Marathon in the state of Queensland to help raise funds and awareness to combat child exploitation and sexual assault, where participants completed seven marathons over the course of a week.

One of the participants was former St Mary’s footy player Richie Egan, as he looked to cross off seven of his 100-marathon goal with the added aim of raising funds for the Bravehearts Foundation.

“I had not even heard of the 777 until I was scrolling through the list of Australian marathons a couple of years ago,” Egan said.
“But it was late last year when I decided to do it.”

Egan set up a fundraising page prior to the event and set a goal of $10,000 to be raised.

Since then, the 22-year-old has surpassed his target raising more than $10,500 in donations which will go directly into education programs in schools, counselling services and more.

According to Egan, following his fifth leg of the seven “it got real”.

“About halfway through the fifth leg my Achilles were really starting to feel it and it just hurt to land. There have been about 30 national runners who have been on this journey together with me and with all the high fives and cheering, it has been wild,” he said.

In a COVID-19 version of previous 777 events, this year’s legs remained in Queensland, with legs one and two in Toowoomba, leg three in Mt Isa, and legs four and five in Cairns before the event was cut short.

Due to the most recent lockdowns in other states around Australia, Egan chose to complete his sixth and seventh marathons at home in Geelong and then in Melbourne over the weekend, capping off what he described as “the biggest week of my life”.

“The thing I love about running,” said Egan, “is it gives you the greatest return for what you put in. The more work you put in, a lot of the time you are going to get a reward.”

The final day of Egan’s 777 run also marked the end of what was his 520-day continuous running streak and the 22nd of the 100-marathon mission that he decided to undertake a few years ago.

He will now enjoy his much-needed rest until the next event appears on his radar – set to be marathon number 23.

To get up-to-date information regarding Richie’s 100-marathon goal, follow along on his Instagram page @my_marathon_mission100.