On Sunday 28^th April 2013, the Have a Ball Foundation held their first annual “How far can you run?” fun run. The run/walk started at the Port Melbourne Yacht Club at 8:00am and all participants were challenged to test their physical & mental toughness to see how many kilometres they could run or walk in the day.

There was plenty of determination displayed by all participants as they all achieved some fantastic results to cover some of the distances reached.
 
Jason Crawford led the pack early closely followed by Brett Whatley & Peter Fanning who all made it to Beaumaris to run a half marathon. All the kids running on the day put in a fantastic effort and made it to Black Rock doing 18-20km runs. There were only 5 participants who were able to make it past Beaumaris and all pushed through their pain barriers to reach Frankston at 45kms. Correna Beard staggered into Frankston which was an amazing achievement considering she had a fractured ankle not that long ago. She met her husband Dan & their 4 kids at the finish who were supporting her all the way. Jodie Poort & her friend Carla Henriques were still walking at a great pace & high on adrenalin with their music pumping, and managed to make it to just over 47km to the top of Oliver’s Hill which was an amazing effort. Only about ½ hour behind them came Nicole Gerrand who walked all the way due to a knee injury & showed great determination to reach her goal of 50km. Unbelievable!
But it was hot favourite Garry Hicks, joined by his son Josh for support during the event, who was able to survive the longest distance reaching an amazing 52kms. Well done Garry, your mental strength is to be truly admired!
It was great to witness the last five participants really push themselves to the limit to reach the distances they achieved.
 
Amazing results for all who participated & everyone should be really proud of their efforts!
 
Being a bomber supporter, Garry selected a signed football by Michael Long from the prize pool. Congratulations also to Jodie Poort who raised the most funds through her sponsorship with a great effort of $520. She has selected a signed football by many of the Richmond F.C players & coach.

A special thanks to the support crew – Sophie, Jason, Sean, Chris & Jennifer who were such a great help on the day & we couldn’t have run the event without you!
 
Thank you all so much for supporting the first annual Have a Ball Foundation’s – ‘How far can you run’ event & hope to see you all back again next year.