Rob de Castella still knows what it takes to run a 2:07 marathon, but lately his interest lies in how running 26.2 miles can changes lives and communities.
Sales & Deals Australian Institute of Sport, in conjunction with a nonprofit program founded by de Castella, the former marathon world record-holder, four-time Olympian and 1983 world champion, launched an ambitious program called The Marathon Project to discover and develop distance running talent among indigenous Australians. One of the ultimate goals of the program is to have an indigenous marathon runner on the Australian Olympic team, perhaps as soon as 2016.
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| Former marathon world record-holder Rob de Castella helped Joseph Davis, Caleb Hart, Juan Darwin and Charlie Maher finish last fall's New York City Marathon. |
In the meantime, though, the hope is that the program can foster healthy lifestyles and counter various health and social problems that plague endemic communities in remote regions of the country, ranging from diabetes to drug and alcohol abuse.
"The difference in life expectancy between white Australians and indigenous Australians is about 15 years, and that's just a disgrace," says de Castella, 54, a native Australian of Swiss-Italian descent. "There is so much poverty and social unrest and drugs and violence and social dysfunction in the indigenous communities, and we as a nation have to do something. And I really think running, and especially the marathon, has the capacity to change lives."
To conclude the program's first season last fall, de Castella brought four determined but perhaps undertrained runners to the New York City Marathon. Charlie Maher, 27, who had the best fitness of the bunch, ran 3:32, followed by 18-year-old Joseph Davies at 3:54. Juan Darwin, 21, and Caleb Hart, 18, struggled at times but each finished.
When they returned to Australia, they were hailed as conquering heroes in their communities. Not because they'd suddenly become elite athletes, but because they'd taken a challenge on behalf of their entire community and succeeded. Each has continued his dedication to running, fitness and positive change. Maher returned with de Castella in April to run in the Boston Marathon, where he lowered his PR to 3:22.
"To be there when each of them crossed the line in Central Park was amazing," de Castella says. "For me, it was one of the most emotional things I've ever been around. I couldn't have been more proud of those guys. But it was never about one marathon, one trip to New York; it's about an ongoing commitment, and they've all lived up to that."
De Castella and coach Tim Rowe will bring 11 more runners to this year's New York City Marathon, including four women. Four of those runners broke 60 minutes at the Aug. 14 City to Surf 14K race in Sydney, including Nathan Sutherland, who ran 51:29 (5:55 mile pace) and placed 165th overall in the field of 69,000 runners. Bianca Graham, the program's top female runner, ran 1:05:18 (7:30 pace) and finished 217th in the field of 34,000 women.
"I think there are potential world champions and Olympic champions walking around the streets of these communities, but it's all about training and developing a culture of distance running," de Castella says.
Last summer, the Indigenous Marathon Project, which is supported by both public and private funds, launched a series of short races in six indigenous communities this fall, offering a little bit of prize money as well as a scoring system that de Castella hopes will conclude with a national indigenous running championship in 2012. The group also developed a running program for teenage boys in a youth detention center in Perth with the goal of having them run a makeshift marathon on a 1.2K loop inside the walls of their facility.
De Castella thinks three or four of his runners will break the 3-hour mark in New York on Nov. 6. That's still a long way from developing Olympic-caliber runners, but it's a start.
"It might take five or 10 years, but we'll just keep chipping away," he says. "But one of the most rewarding things is that the social change is already starting to happen. If we can keep the interest growing and get more physical activity in some of the indigenous communities, we're going to have a real good chance at making a difference in the health problems. We all know that running and running marathons can change lives. It's a very simple concept, but it's also very powerful."
