Murray Halberg will start society fun run

Press, 31 January 1983, Page 10

Murray Halberg will start society fun run

Murray Halberg, one of the great names in New Zealand’s athletic history, will officially start the second annual Crippled Children Society family fun run at North Beach on'Saturday, February 12. Mr Halberg, who lives in Auckland, is a former Commonwealth Games threemile and Olympic Games 5000 m champion, and a former holder of world records for two miles and three miles. He will take part in the fun run after starting it. For those with a background of training or competition. the organisers have marked out a 13.2 km course, from the corner of Marine Parade and Bowhill Road to Marshland Road, via Travis

Road and Lakewood Drive, and back via Mairehau Road and Beach Road. Drink stations will be manned by members of the Pegasus Lionesses. A shorter course for the less fit is along the same route, but turns off in Bower Avenue, for a total of 4.3 km. The runs will start at 9.30 a.m. and the $1 entry fee will go to the Canterbury and Westland branch of the Crippled Children Society for general expenses. Last year, the fun run raised $l4OO, when about 1000 runners took part. About 200 of those were disabled persons. All finishers will receive certificates and will be eligible for spot prizes given by local and national businesses. The idea of a family fun

run to raise money for the society came from Mr Ivan Hawkey, a Christchurch long-distance runner. His impressive feats began with a run from Timaru to Ashburton in 1975. That was a warm-up for a run from Timaru to Christchurch in 1976, followed by a run from Greymouth to Christchurch via the Lewis Pass in 1977 and from Picton to Christchurch in 1978. In January. 1982. Mr Hawkey broke the record for the Greymouth to Christchurch run, which took him three days, 18 hours 46 minutes.

Mr Hawkey is helping other branches of the Crippled Children Society organise fun runs in their areas, in the North Island as well as the South Island