When the English language does not have a term to adequately convey or embrace a truth, mood, reality or state of being, we will shamelessly borrow or steal from another language. Since Italians know how to prepare pasta, we co-opted their term “al dente”; we take “modus operandi” and “quid pro quo” from Latin; while “schadenfreude” could only come from Germans; paradoxically, the Japanese have blessed us with “shibumi” while cursing us with “karaoke”.
The French have enriched the English language with many wonderful phrases, including “faux pas”, “c’est la vie”, “déjà vu”, “je ne sais quoi”, and of course “bon appétit” … and from French we gain the phrase most applicable to the Sri Chinmoy Mara-Fun-Relays, a phrase the English could simply never come up with on their own, a phrase which in their quest to own and dominate the world, they perhaps never really experienced: the unparalleled “Joie de Vivre”.
Joie de Vivre can radiate through both tears and smiles. On Sunday in Centennial Park, both were on display: while most of the tears were expressed by the solo marathon runners, the relay teams certainly made up for them with copious infectious smiles.
The stand-out performances in the Solo Marathon came from the older age categories, which saw some incredible new course records, notably from Sheree Cottell (4:11:41 in the Female 60-69) and Tae Bong Kang (3:54:23 in the Male 70 and Over), while Cyd Antang became the first lady to complete this event in the Female 70 and Over, with 6:48:20.
Nadene Serman, who ran the marathon with her son Jared, won the Female 50-59 with 4:42:41; while Chantal Josselsohn, who only entered the race on the morning, took out the overall women’s prize with 4:01:46.
Jung Lee won the Male 60-69 with 3:53:19 (only a minute a head of his Korean compatriot Tae Bong Kang in the M70+); Philip Balnave returned to Centennial Park, scene of many wins in Sri Chinmoy races of yesteryear, to win the Male 50-59 with 3:32:49; and James Tanna, competing in only his second marathon, won the race outright with 3:11:59.
The Canberra father-son duo of Jeremy and Eddie Kimpton ("The Fit Happens SUPERNOVAS") paired up to beat all the teams of 4 from all categories, resoundingly winning their Open division in 2:35:29. En route, Jeremy also broke the fastest lap time for Male Over 50 with a round of 14:19. Fastest Open Team All Over 50 were one of 6 Japanese teams who lit up the course with their speed as well as their glee – “Omakase” (Tetsundo Kato, Dai Nakamura, Hidetaka Tanaka and Kayuzuki Tokuhara) recording a superb 3:02:43.
The trio of Team “Onigiri” (April Huang, Ayumi Matsuo and Naoko Tanaka) went home with the All-Female 1st prize with their time of 3:52:25; while “Dazzle Mares” (Myfanwy Pennells, Jacqui Fox, Michelle Woodman and Catherine Rowney) won the All-Female All Over 50 teams with 4:13:28.
2nd placed team overall, and winner of the Mixed Teams was “Yakiniku” (Sachie Wada, Leo Player, Minami Inoue and Yusuke Shibuya). Their star runner Yusuke Shibuya broke his own lap course record of 12:38 set last year, with 12:32 in his second lap today, saving the best till last with the final lap of the day, a scintillating new record of 12:25! “Sukiyaki” (Yukari Lanson, Motohiro Sato, Akiko Akashi and Masaru Sato) were the winning Mixed All Over 50 team with 3:23:21.
