Molesworth marathon pays off

Dean Metcalf completes his 24-hour run at Molesworth this
morning, accompanied by other runners including young Corey,
left, who ran for about 12 hours. Photo by Ngaire Glover

MOLESWORTH volunteer firefighter Dean Metcalf's fundraising marathon ended in triumph this morning, raising more than $5000 for important equipment for the local fire brigade.

Dean's 24-hour run-a-thon around the Molesworth Recreation Ground finished at 10am. His laps of the recreation ground had covered 135km and raised about $5627 for the fire brigade.

Other runners joined Dean at various stages and a good group of supporters completed the last lap with him.

Colleagues from the Molesworth Fire Brigade kept score on a whiteboard outside their station as Dean completed each lap. A computer kept track of his progress and produced a graph showing how quickly each lap was completed. Great cheers and a burst of the fire truck siren heralded the successful completion of the run. Dean exceeded by 15km his aim to complete 120km.

Olympian Anthony Edwards,
left, ran two stints with Dean
 Metcalf. Photo by Ngaire Glover.

Among the support runners was local Olympian Anthony Edwards who ran with Dean yesterday and again for about 90 minutes this morning. Anthony said Dean had done a great job and it was wonderful to have such a high level of community support. Anthony also congratulated 12-year-old Corey Kelleher who ran some 75km with Dean over a period of about 12 hours.

"Corey was absolutely amazing," Dean said. "He not only ran 75km but barely seemed to break a sweat and he had never run more than 5km before," he said. Dean also paid tribute to fellow firefighter Paul Foley who co-ordinated the event and worked tirelessly on the fundraising.

Dean's inspiration to raise funds for important items including oxygen equipment comes from a smoke inhalation incident during this year's bushfires at Molesworth, when oxygen had to be provided by a visiting fire brigade.

Congratulations to Dean and all who supported his run this weekend. Molesworth displayed a great self-help spirit during the bushfires and has continued to do so in the months since.