How 80 disadvantaged kids are making their way to the TCS Sydney Marathon 10km
- TCS Sydney Marathon
- Aug 6
- 5 min read
The We Run Foundation has been working with Run Beyond, an organisation that supports students in need to take on a "Goal Race", to bring 80 kids to Sydney for the 10k on 31 August.
Founder David Criniti says training for a race helps high schoolers learn skills and capabilities that will empower them beyond the finish line.
While in Sydney, the students – who are aged from 12 to 16 – will also attend the TCS Sydney Marathon’s Youth Summit on Saturday 20 August where they’ll be expertly led in mindset and resilience.
How did Run Beyond begin?
I'd run for years, I’d taught for years, and I’d been involved in lots of programs that use sport to build teamwork and goal setting capacities. I guess seeing that and some of the limitations in the ways that those programs were being run made me think that I wanted to combine my passion for running with teaching.
At the time I was working with refugee students at Chester Hill High School in Western Sydney so I used it as a way to engage a few kids I was working with. I basically said to them, ‘Look, if you're willing to train with me, give up some of your time, we'll do it after school, then I want to give you the experience of getting to a race and that experience of achieving something significant’.
So I got these five kids down to Hobart to do the half marathon in early 2016. It was really cool, but that was the extent of it at the time.
What happened next?
It was basically me knocking on the door of my run club, the Sydney Striders, and they provided most of the funding for us.
Then essentially, as we kind of culminated and I was spruiking the achievements of my runners, I started getting other teachers knocking on my door and saying, ‘Oh, this sounds like a good idea, can I do this in my high school?’
So what was initially intended as just this discrete project, kind of extended, and then people started saying, ‘Hey, I can help out with administrative aspects’, and then one thing led to another and we had people helping us with the legal side of things to get us established as a charity and all the things that go with that.
As a result of that it grew, and essentially it's still the same sort of model, but it's just me training teachers on how to implement the project. They select a cohort of kids, we negotiate a Goal Race, they do the week-in week-out training with the kids to get there, and we fund them getting to that Goal Race.
How many students have you supported over the past decade?
About 1,000 kids over 10 years and we’re in 50 schools this year so it’s just getting bigger. We’ve had schools in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory and Victoria as well.
What are the goals and aims of Run Beyond?
It's beyond running. It's the development of skills and capabilities that empower kids beyond the finish line. It's the development of goal setting skills, the development of commitment, and the development of resilience and community mindedness. It's empowering kids to succeed beyond running.
We don't celebrate the fastest kids in our cohorts – it's not about that. It's about bringing kids into the program and giving a sense of belonging to kids who don't necessarily belong to anything, or have that sense of belonging. It’s about giving kids a platform through which to achieve for kids who don't experience this sensation of achievement regularly.
We're not targeting kids whose mum and dad take them down to Little Athletics every weekend. We're providing a support structure to do something out of the ordinary, so we're targeting kids for who these sorts of things are not the ordinary.
So our beneficiaries are from lower socioeconomic schools, and for many kids it's their first medal. They get to the finish line and that's the first time that they’ve achieved that sort of thing. It’s the first time they’ve had a medal around their neck. For some of our regional kids, it's also their first time to Sydney for example, if their Goal Race is in Sydney.
Do you support students at Goal Races all over the country?
I went to Darwin recently for the Darwin City2Surf where our kids from Nightcliff Middle School completed their Goal Race. The kids over in one of our schools in Perth are doing the Perth City2Surf.
We've got kids that just started at Gulf Christian College up in Queensland who are heading to Cairns for their Goal Race, which for them is like a 900 kilometre trip just to get there. We've got kids in Ballarat going down to Melbourne for their goal race.
How did the TCS Sydney Marathon become involved with Run Beyond?
The Sydney Marathon has been a core Goal Race for a number of years before it was an Abbott World Marathon Major.
Wayne Larden (Event Director of the TCS Sydney Marathon) has been a wonderful supporter, and I think Wayne understands the transformative power of running, having grown up in Mount Druitt.
We're kind of lucky. He really understands, and I have no doubt that his background gives him a greater understanding of that. Running has had an amazing impact on Wayne's life, and not being a middle or upper class boy, he appreciates how that can turn fortunes around.
So it's wonderful to have a Race Director of the biggest race in the country with an appreciation of what we're doing, because we're a small charity and we knock on doors and some race directors don't want to know us or give us a token $5 off your entry fee, and there's not much love or interest or understanding of what we're doing.
So initially we had support from Wayne over the years, and then last year our involvement grew, and so we're kind of cementing a more interwoven partnership now.
What is the atmosphere like among the kids who are coming to Sydney for the 10K?
The kids and teachers are all really excited. For some of them, especially those further afield, it might be their first time to Sydney. We’ll all get together and meet at the youth summit for the first time on the Saturday afternoon, then we'll all go to dinner together and have a bit of a pep talk and really gee them up before the race, and then Sunday is the big dance.
What does the future hold for Run Beyond?
What started with five kids at Chester Hill High School in 2015 is now impacting 500 kids this year alone. We'd love to be impacting thousands of kids into the future. We know that this is a sport that should be accessible to all and we're providing a structure for that to happen. We're providing the framework and the teachers are providing the people power to make that happen. So we want to recruit more schools and more teachers to impact more kids. To find out more and support the Run Beyond Project, visit https://therunbeyondproject.com/