Jason Quigley and Mark Upton are hosting Bravehearts Day Marathon in Wollongong. Photo: Supplied.
After completing the Bravehearts 777 Marathon in July, two Illawarra runners have organised the first Bravehearts Day Marathon in Wollongong in September to kickstart fundraising, awareness and preparation for the 2025 national event.
Wollongong Wolves Football Club general manager Mark Upton and Lake Illawarra Police District’s Detective Senior Constable Jason Quigley are encouraging Illawarra runners of all levels to join them, and other national event runners, on 7 September at Stuart Park, North Wollongong.
Held a day after the official Bravehearts Day, Mark said it aimed to help raise funds and awareness for Bravehearts, a not-for-profit organisation helping prevent child sexual harm or abuse, and start their campaign for the 2025 national marathon.
Each year Bravehearts hosts Bravehearts 777 Marathon, which in July saw 26 runners complete seven marathons, across seven states, in seven consecutive days to raise funds.
“Bravehearts Day is on the 6th of September and part of that is they encourage people to set a challenge for themselves,” he said.
“Part of that challenge is to also try to raise funds and awareness of the Bravehearts organisation.
“I thought what better way to push that awareness of Bravehearts Day and Bravehearts than to run a marathon on the Saturday and get together with a few of the national runners from this year’s 777 challenge.”
He encouraged anyone to participate in the run, with Illawarra runners to be joined by 777 runners from Sydney, Canberra and what will be the Illawarra’s third runner in next year’s national event, Mark Friedland.
“All the national runners that are down on the Saturday, they’ve all signed up for next year’s 777 as well, including myself and two other locals,” he said.
“Mark, who ran this year, he actually moved down from Sydney to Wollongong a couple of months ago, so he’s now a local.”
He said the course would involve six laps of 7 km, equating to a 42-km marathon, with participants able to run whatever distance they were comfortable with – whether half a lap or the full course.
“This isn’t Bravehearts organising it. It’s just myself and Jason coming up with something we feel can do several things – can help raise awareness of the day, help raise awareness of the organisation, and then kickstart our fundraising campaign for Bravehearts 777 in 2025.
“One of the things we would like to do for next year’s Bravehearts is, once we’ve raised our minimum amount of $11,000 each, we are then focused on trying to raise another $11,000 and donate that entry to someone that has a worthy story and would like to take part as a national runner, but may find fundraising a bit of a challenge.”
He said they hoped to attract about 20-30 runners to Stuart Park, along with family and friends offering support.
“There’ll be a table full of drinks and Vegemite, peanut butter and jam sandwiches for each lap,” he said.
“That’s something similar that we have during the national event for Bravehearts 777.
“We’re trying to mirror that, so it’s a bit of a warmup for next year.”
Donations can be made via Mark and Jason’s profile pages on the Bravehearts 777 website and anyone wanting to join in the Bravehearts Day Marathon can simply show up before 6:30 am on Saturday 7 September at Stuart Park beachside (Lagoon seafood restaurant end).
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732, or call Lifeline: 13 11 14. In an emergency call triple zero.
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