TLP MAG 4 - The Special Edition 2012

travyyel peopleAn interview withRob de CastellaRob de Castella, ‘Deek’ as heis affectionately known, putmarathon running on the mapduring his athletics career. Hisamazing runs in the 1980’sencouraged many peopleto watch or participate inmarathon races. He was rightlyinternationally acclaimed as thenumber one marathon runner inthe World in the 1980’s.Rob began running at ageeleven and was an outstandingschoolboy athlete at Melbourne’sXavier College where he wasfortunate to have as a teacher,1962 Commonwealth Gamesrepresentative Pat Clohessy. Patand Rob became a close knitand successful unit as coach andathlete, a partnership that enduredthroughout his career.Rob became Director of theAustralian Institute of Sport in1990, a position he held until1995. As of 2008, he continuesto live and work in Canberra andremains a passionate advocate forathletics and marathon runningin particular.“There’s a very closerelationship betweenself-confidence,emotional well-beingand physical healthand fitness....”TLP: Thanks for joining us at The Last Post.Rob de Castella: Thanks very much Greg, it’s apleasure.TLP: What have you been up to lately?RdC: Flat out. I think I’m busier now than I’veever been. Even busier than when I was running240, 250 kays a week. I’ve still got a children’shealth and fitness program that we run throughPrimary schools. We screen Primary schoolchildren, identify children who are at physicalrisk of lifestyle related illness and then we run anafter school program with those kids. These arekids who are overweight or underweight, kidsthat have very poor cardio-respiratory fitnessor very poor motor skills and coordination. Itoriginated through the epidemic of childhoodobesity but now it’s extended out to try andensure that young children are developing thebasic fitness and fundamental motor skills thatthey need to be inclined and to enjoy a healthy,active life. Each year we screen about twoand half to three thousand kids through theACT Primary schools in conjunction with theGovernment. We also run HELP which is HealthyEating and Exercise and Living Program. That’sdelivered to about 250 of the highest risk kidsthrough the screening process. That’s an afterschoolprogram that runs for about eight weeksand we’ve seen great results working with thosekids. Obviously our Indigenous running programis getting bigger and bigger. We took elevenindigenous runners who’d never been runningbefore we met them and in nine months we tookRob and 2011 IMP member Nadine Hunt during the 2011 National Selection Tour.Nadine is now works full-time for IMP as a Project Officer.them to New York and they all ran and finishedthe New York marathon. We’ve just collectedour squad for 2012 and the New York marathonis on in November each year so we work withthese young men and women aged between 18and 30 and they come from all around Australia,some very, very remote communities. We teachthem about health and fitness and use runningas a way to instill personal pride and dignityand work with them to have that flow into otherareas of their life. I’ve also got a small businessthat produces health foods, Deeks HealthFoods which really focuses on people who haveauto-immune diseases. We produce all grainand gluten-free foods. So that’s a commercialbusiness that I have with the other things I do,the indigenous Marathon Project and the SmartStart for Kids, non for profit programs.TLP: All coming from a good place there Roband personal pride, that starts from an earlyage and if you can help the kids get healthy andfit from an early age, then they’re on the way tobecoming productive, positive adults, I guess.RdC: That’s exactly right. There’s a very closerelationship between self-confidence, emotionalwell-being and physical health and fitness andwhat we find is that a lot of these high risk kidsthat we screen through Smart Start are alsothe kids that have problems paying attention inclass and that flows onto other social problemswhether it’s insecurity and they become very shyand withdrawn or whether they go the other wayand tend to become bullies and try to becomeeither emotionally or physically dominant overtheir peers. We really do believe that physicalactivity and exercise is absolutely paramountto developing a healthy mind and body andthere are many ways to get these high riskkids onto that and make it a lot of fun and alsoeducational. It can short circuit the downwardspiral that a lot of them would continue to be inso we’re trying to get these children at a youngage from say, 6 to 11 and try and change thembefore they go onto high school because oncethey leave Primary school, High school is muchmore intimidating environment where there is a

“We took elevenindigenous runnerswho’d never beenrunning before we metthem and in nine monthswe took them to NewYork and they all ranand finished the NewYork marathon”.Rob with the 2010 IMP team after they all finished the 2010 New York Marathon: CalebHart, Joseph Davies, Juan Darwin, Charlie Maher and Rob De Castella, November 2010lot more pressures and obviously the girls andboys are going through physical maturity aswell so that adds another level of complexityto their lives. We want to give them a sense ofphysical confidence and then work with themand their families to have that go into other areasof their lives. Healthy and happy individualsin society. It’s the same with the indigenousprogram as well. We have this massivedisconnect and disparity between the health ofnon-indigenous and indigenous Australians. Wework in communities like Alice Springs whereAlice Springs is the largest dialysis centre in theworld per head of population so there’s morepeople on dialysis machines in Alice Springsthan anywhere else in the world. Obviouslymost of them are indigenous Australians sowe’re spending a lot of time up in the Alice andmore remote areas working with young menand women and getting an appreciation of thechallenges they go through on a daily basis.Two of the runners we worked with last yearboth have friends who suicided and anotherone had a friend who was killed in a motorvehicle accident. That’s only out of a groupof eleven so it’s a pretty challenging situationbut we believe that something as simple, yetpowerful as running can help. Even if you goout for a 3, a 5 kilometre run, you come backand you feel good about yourself, this sense ofpersonal contribution and accomplishment andyou can only begin to imagine, anyone that’srun a marathon, when you cross the finish line,what it’s like. A lot of these kids don’t knowthat distance running is a sport or even what amarathon is, let alone that it’s 42 kilometres.When you take them to New York, from notknowing anything about the event to a city likeNew York, from their red-dust communitiesand towns to the streets of New York, TimesSquare. Wow. And to put them in this race, theNY marathon is the biggest in the world, there’s48,000 runners, 2 and a half million spectatorson the course. For them to go from such a small,isolated community to such a city and eventhelps to give them a realization that the world’san amazing place and if you’re prepared to doeven simple things like put one foot in front ofthe other on a daily basis, to do some training,there’s an amazing wealth of opportunities outthere and things that you can experience.TLP: Sometimes simple things are the bestand it does give you a feeling that anything ispossible, I guess.RdC: It does and there’s been a lot of booksreleased that chronicle man’s development andrunning is one of the things that set’s us apart.Our ability to run long distances has set ourspecies apart. They say that man is the bestlong distance runner of any animal and thatit’s our ability to run over long distances thathas allowed us to become such great huntersand gatherers and for hundreds of thousandsof years that’s what mankind did and thatallowed us to get the very important proteinand nutrition that we needed to evolve. It’ssomething we’re very good at and it resonateswith us so it’s a great opportunity to help andsupport and encourage these young indigenousmen and women. The other side is the hope thatone day we may be able to find an indigenousrunning champion. The distance events aredominated by the Africans and we know thatindigenous athletes have had enormous successon the football field in all the codes and in menand women’s basketball but we’ve never had anendurance athlete. One of the girls we’ve hadhad been struggling to run 3 kilometres and bythe time she went to New York she completedthe 42 kilometres at a good pace. Wonderful.TLP: With the life expectancy of nonindigenousAustralians along with our generalhealth, we owe it to take the indigenousAustralians with us and not leave them behind.RdC: Absolutely. I think it really goes both waystoo, Greg. We can learn a tremendous amountfrom indigenous Australia. There’s a realizationthat the technological world that we have createdfor ourselves may not always be good for ourhealth. Up until white man came here, the nativeAustralians were still operating as basic huntersand gatherers and there are aspects of that culturethat are good for mind and body. Our mental andphysical health can be put at risk by some of thethings that we’ve built up around us in the 21stcentury. I’m learning a lot Greg and it’s been aprivilege to work with indigenous Australians overthe last three, four years because it’s teachingRob with 2010 athlete Joseph Davies at the finishof the New York Marathon, November 20102011 IMP squad member Jamie Wunungmurrawith Rob at the Boston Marathon, April 2012me so much about the fundamental values andprinciples that I think are imperative to our ownhealth and well-being. Some of these sometimesget lost in our quest for the latest plasmatelevision along with the other technology thatwe’ve created and convinced ourselves that weneed. We need not distance ourselves from thesetools and culture of comfort. We must challengeourselves and only through that can we grow.TLP: Was running something that you felt goodabout, from an early age?RdC: Well, back when I went to school itwasn’t a matter of whether you did sport, itwas compulsory. I tried cricket and footballand gravitated towards running. It was a caseof finding a connection with running and itbecame a personal thing, getting together withmy mates and going for a run after school. Thepersonal satisfaction of bettering my times wassomething good also. I became more committedand grew through that. For over 1000 days Iwent without a day off. I was constantly pushingthe boundaries to get myself into a position torun marathons. You don’t need to go to thatextent but it was a great period for me and I lookback very satisfied. I feel very privileged to havedone what I’ve done. Coming from a health andscience background, I now want to pass that on.TLP: Thanks Rob, it’s been a pleasure and allhe best for this years Nw York Marathon.RdC: Thank you so much GregTHE LAST POST - The Special Edition - Aug/Sep 2012 4 5