9 minute read
WAYNE: MARATHON WALKER
The Rotorua Marathon has been an annual event for the last 60 years, and Wayne Hart has consecutively walked exactly half of them.
When Diabetes Wellness speaks with Wayne Hart, he has returned from his (mostly) daily walk wearing his blue fundraiser ‘Every Step for Diabetes’ t-shirt. Full of smiles, he reports, ‘I’ve just done a walk today, so I’m using this as a good walking tool.’
Wayne has a couple of different circuits that he does. One he calls ‘just around the block’, which is a seven kilometre walk into the township and back home. The other is up on the hills. Wayne lives in Wainuiomata, near Wellington, and has access to some excellent walkways and quality hills, with awesome views over the harbour. ‘You get to a halfway point, and there’s a seat that looks over the harbour. It’s just stunning.’
Readers might already be familiar with Wayne’s walking history. Earlier this year, as well as celebrating his 50th birthday, he started a Givealittle page to raise money in the name of diabetes, calling himself ‘Type 2 Marathon Walker’. Then he walked his 30th marathon.
RON, THE RUNNER
Wayne’s link to the Rotorua Marathon is through his father, Ron, a sub-three-hour marathon runner. Wayne remembers him regularly coming home from work and going out for a run, and in the weekends he’d be gone for three to four hours at a time. The family would then go and watch Ron when he competed in marathons, acting as his support crew.
But a few years on, Ron succumbed to a knee injury and his doctor’s advice was to give up running. That, of course, only made him determined to find another way to continue his passion. That’s when he decided that, if he couldn’t run another marathon, then he could definitely walk one. The then 19-year-old Wayne was keen to join in.
Father and son decided to walk the Hawke’s Bay Marathon as part of training, a course starting in Hastings, winding alongside the Tukituki river and ending up at the now closed Happy Tav Bar. ‘We turned up and enrolled at the pub and asked how many other walkers are there? The guy looked at us and said, “You, plus four others.”’
The six walkers started at 6am, two hours before the runners.
Noticing that the other four were competitive walkers, Ron was keen to keep up with them on his first walk, and Wayne says before long he was abandoned. ‘Within minutes, I can’t see anyone. Everyone else has taken off. Then the runners come through. Then no-one. So I finished it by myself. I loved it though.’
One marathon turned into two, and father and son ended up doing about five together.
Then Ron took on the role of support crew. ‘They close the road at the 19k section, and Mum would drop in there and Dad would walk over the hill with me.’ Ron provided support but with attitude, as Wayne recounts. ‘I’ve walked half a marathon already, and I’m sore and I’m tired, having gone over bloody big hills. And he’s saying, “Come on, come on, get going.” He’s just got out of the car, he’s happy, he’s fit, and he’s everything. Sometimes, it was like, “Shut up for five mins.” I’d be there, hands on hips, breathing, and he’s going “come on, come on!’”
‘The atmosphere is great. There’s locals playing music for you. You come round the corner, and you hear music that lifts you. You might be having a bit of flat spot, but they’re cheering for you. Cars are going past and kids are waving out, and it gives you a burst. You get that grin back again. They've got hooters going, and you’re already halfway round the course. It puts that little smile on your face and keeps you going to the next flat spot.’
However, Ron’s tough stance was born out of experience and proved useful. With all that encouragement, Wayne says he’d end up going past people who were starting to break down. Ron said that on the hills ‘you could tell the men from the boys’, being able to identify the ones who had put time into training and the ones who hadn’t.
Wayne says that, even though it was hard on the day, he was grateful his father’s urging got him over that point. Both parents spent many years following their son in this way and being noticed by envious others. ‘Everyone around me would say you’ve got the best support crew.’
30 DOWN, 20 MORE TO MATCH
So, what’s behind wanting to do 50 marathons? Wayne says he was inspired by the late Colin Smythe, one of the originators of the Rotorua Marathon. Starting in 1965, Colin ran or walked each and every marathon over the following 50 years until he passed away nine years ago.
‘I used to joke with him every year that he needs to stop because it makes it harder for me to catch him. It’s a massive goal.’ Wayne reckons doing 30 marathons without missing a year is even more of a challenge nowadays. Race requirements change, family have their own timetables, and sickness and fitness obviously play a huge part. And then Covid – when regional lockdowns disallowed Aucklanders to race in 2020.
Wayne agrees he is blessed. ‘There’s so many things that could go wrong and stop you on a winning break. I’ve just been lucky. Healthwise, I’ve been good. Just 20 more years to go. Although I’m not sure if my support crew are happy with 20 more years to go…’
‘I look at some people around me, and when you say you’ve done 30, they say, “I could never do not even one.” You can. As long as you can get up, get out of bed, and walk. I believe most people spend all day at work. Unless they’re sitting on an office chair all day, they’re on their feet. Most of them are doing a lot of Ks, steps. I can reassure you, mostly you should be able to get around. Don’t sell yourself short.’
‘GOOD NEWS’
Wayne was diagnosed with type 2 about 15 years ago, when he was working for Fonterra. The test was part of their wellbeing plan for all employees, and Wayne is pleased that it was identified then, even though the news he received was scary. Some years later, he was told by hospital doctors to start taking insulin but also that at his age he could do a lot more to try stop negative things happening to his body, such as neuropathy (nerve damage). This was when Wayne started walking with his health in mind.
He jokes about how he was recently called into his GP’s surgery to hear about his latest blood tests. ‘I had some good news! I was feeling some chest pains and ended up in hospital. I got the allclear and went back to work. But prior to that, I’d done blood tests for my next check-up. The doctor asked to see me about my results, and I assumed it wasn’t good news. But he actually wanted to tell me I had the lowest result in seven years! So now we’re trialling no insulin for a few months.’
‘It’s so easy nowadays to make a bad call, like getting takeaways, although I still love my takeaways. If only it was that easy to make a call on going for a walk. You’ll see a massive change in everything. How you feel, and you’ll feel a damn sight better after a walk. Just set that goal.’
Wayne doesn’t put it all down to the walking. ‘It’s a bit of everything,’ he says. ‘The diet, the walking. I love facts and figures, so just the motivation of that makes me want to do even more. It kind of shows that you can do it. Like I said, I knew I was going into the doctor’s, and he’s probably going to tell me that it’s high and you can do better. But when I got that news, I definitely felt more motivated to try and push myself more.’
‘IF YOU’VE GOT IT, USE IT’
Wayne is full of wisdom and lived experience when asked to share his advice on completing one or more marathons walking. He says, ‘People always come up with an excuse why you can’t do something. “It’s raining, it’s cold, my shoes aren’t the best.” Then you turn up on marathon morning, and you look around.’
Wayne gives the example of a 100 year old who has done the five or 10km leg, as well as 20-odd full marathons. ‘He can’t quite do marathons anymore, but he still wants to be there on the day. So when you sit there complaining that it’s too wet or too cold, go look at some other people. If they can do it, there’s no excuse.’
He adds, ‘You sometimes see people turn up, and they’re wearing t-shirts saying, “I’m doing this for Mum” or “I’m doing this for Dad.” It’s like, isn’t it funny that you had to have something go wrong to get that motivation? Whereas, if you went and asked them, do you have kids? And they say, “That’s my kids standing there,” and you ask the kid, “Who should Dad being doing it for?”, they’ll say, “He should be doing it for himself.”’
