Melbourne Marathon 2009

Monday 12 October

Katie Bird - Media Intern

This year’s St. George Melbourne Marathon provided TeamMONASH™ with yet another opportunity to shine, demonstrating its dominance with 500 participants, earning TeamMONASH™ the largest University team title for the second year in a row.

This year marked the fifth year TeamMONASH™ has participated in the event which offered distances ranging from the 5k walk to the full 42.2k marathon race.

For international student and first time Melbourne Marathon participant Suraj, the 10k event offered an opportunity to live a dream.  “Back home in India I used to watch the marathons on TV and be inspired by the runners.  Now I have my chance to get out and run be one of them.  It was amazing and a lot of fun!”

An impressive performance came from 64 year old Monash running group member, Graham Jenkins who completed the half marathon event in just less than 2 hours.

“It is something I do every year with friends from the running group.  It gives me an opportunity to challenge myself and I was happy with how I went this year.” Said Jenkins.

Supporting Jenkins along the home stretch were the TeamMONASH™ Support Crew with batons and cheers helping TeamMONASH™ across the finish line.

“I’ve been here since 5:30am setting up and helping get everything ready for the runners” said support crew member David Thorpe.  “It’s an opportunity to show your support for Monash and help get people across the line when maybe they thought they couldn’t make it”.

Participants and volunteers combined to make the day a fantastic success.  TeamMONASH™ will hope to carry its impressive showing at this year’s Melbourne Marathon forward to the ‘Around the Bay in a Day’ cycling event to be held Sunday 18 October.

A photo gallery from the event can be found here.

Click here for more stories of success arising out of the day.