For the last few days, 20 St. Bede’s boys from years 9 to 13 have been on a sponsored CanTeen run from Haast, South Westland, to Christchurch, to raise money for the treatment of teenage cancer. They hope to raise more than $100,000. See more photographs
The 20 boys and 5 staff and parents arrived at Haast on Wednesday 26th, and after spending the night at Haast, set off at 7am on the first 100km leg of their 500km run to Christchurch.
The 20 boys are divided into 4 teams of five members, each team having a spread of age groups. Each team runs 25km each day. The average speed is around 11km/hour.
The run generated lots of community support, both from the South Westland parish, and from the wider community. Accommodation varied according to the town. In Haast, the hotel, in Fox Glacier the local school, in Harihari the Canterbury University lodge, and so on. Food was generally supplied and prepared by the local people, who turned up in force to feed the athletes and their support team.
Being South Westland, even whitebait patties and crayfish formed part of some menus!
Friday’s run saw two major sets of hills to be negotiated, the Fox hills between Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, and the Mt. Hercules hills between Whataroa and Harihari. By the end of the day there were sore muscles, blisters and tired bodies.
During these days, other similar teams from St. Bede’s are running from other locations in the South Island, each team starting about 500km from Christchurch. They will meet up on Monday afternoon at St. Bede’s for the finish.
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