The BRC is blessed with many interesting personalities with amazing stories, but we don’t see you often enough to get your story. That brings us to Marion and Norm – our two Australians. I’m not sure there is a more interesting story than theirs. My plan is to give you the dirt on Marion now and follow up with Norm in the next newsletter.

When Marion was 11 her dad moved the family from Marylebone, London, England to Brisbane, Australia. Like many ‘paddies’, her father, Patrick Joseph and mom, Kathleen Mary left Ireland to work in London after the War. They were married in 1955, had Marion near Christmas 1956, Bernadette in 1958 and ‘baby’ sister Janet in 1965. Marion has childhood memories of seeing the Beatles arrive at Paddington Station, near their home, in the mid 60’s. She remembers picnics in Regents Park, slaps on the knuckles from the convent sisters and getting lost in the London zoo many times (until her vision was corrected in the mid 60s). She has painful memories of collisions with trees and other objects which appeared in her double vision. She had strong perceptions of herself as an ugly duckling until Guy’s Children’s Hospital saved her eyesight in 1964 with their revolutionary surgery. (Don’t ever rely on Marion for directions on the Sunday morning run).

By 1968 Australia was looking for people with certain skills. So her dad, a carpenter-builder, decided to leave London for a new life in Australia – conscious of better opportunities for his three daughters. Later benefiting from free university education, his foresight had been correct. During a snow-covered Christmas season in1967, they had one decision to make: do they take six weeks to go by boat or make it a quick trip by plane? Mom and her three daughters argued strongly for the cruise, but dad’s impatience prevailed and they departed by Qantas on a 707. Moving to Australia was not a tremendous culture shock as the native language was English and people drove on the same side of the street. However, thick with cockney accents, Marion does remember how they struggled at first to communicate with their little Aussie mates. The biggest challenges were unforeseen. The first was that her father would leave the family on Boxing Day 1968 and never return. The second would be the struggles that her mother would have raising three girls alone in a strange country. The third was the 40 minute walk from the nearest railway station – a good 60 minute ride to the state capital, Brisbane. The long hot summers required acclimatization. Despite this, life was good. Soon all three girls would be well employed and living in the Big City (Brisbane). Their mom, Kathleen, would meet her partner of 30 years and all were living a charmed Brisbane life throwing shrimp and snags (sausages) on the Barbie during weekends.

Knowing Marion as a runner, it’s hard to believe that competitive athletics and sport was foreign to her until she was well into her mid thirties. This was partly because she was determined to avoid an underprivileged life in Woodridge by focusing on her academic studies. Her first university degrees were in economics and education, preparing her for the next seven years as a teacher of high school economics and geography. The third university degree in Library Science was the beginning of two interests that remain today – business and, of course, running. She took a job with Halliburton’s Brisbane office working in their research library. It was during these years Marion’s interest began to shift from the library to the business end of things. This growing interest eventually led to her Masters Degree in Business. To us, the second interest that developed while at Halliburton is the most interesting of all – running!

She was active in squash leagues at the time and jogged perhaps 20 minutes three days a week to stay in shape. In 1990 co-workers, who were runners, talked Marion into a large 10K fun run. To their and her dismay she finished 3rd in her age group in 43 minutes, beating them all. She was oblivious to the significance of her time other than that “it hurt like hell”. A year would pass, and in 1992, inspired again by co-workers, she ran her first half marathon with little formal training. Though a stitch forced her to walk, she finished remarkably in 1:35:35. A Runners World issue on the subject of running breakthroughs caused her to shoot for the infamous sub 1:30. By then she had been introduced to the Brisbane Road Runners Club and was participating in weekly interval track sessions at a nearby stadium with the Intraining Club’s coach. At the Gold Coast International Half Marathon that year she ran a personal best time of 1:22:50 and placed 10th in the Australian Half Marathon Championships.

The subsequent two years would seem like a whirlwind of PRs, State (Queensland) age group records, and an endless smorgasbord of weekend fun runs, track meets, celebrations and state and national championships. Marion says the highlight was that mid-summer day in 1993 when she clocked a State age group record in the 3000m (that still holds) at the State Track Championships – a remarkable 10:15 at age 37. This placed her third in a field of 25 women almost half her age. Those nights at the track, club and social runs along the Brisbane River and after training cappuccinos would eventually lead her to a silver medal at the 1995 World Master Games in the 5K with a time of 17:52 (also an age group standing record) and to a shared gold medal in the team triathlon event. This was also the start of her passion for coffee when a local gourmet coffee group, Aromas, sponsored their team uniform and expenses. The owner was so inspired that he entered the Games himself to run a PR in the 400m. A photo of all four was taken atop several imported Kenyan AA coffee bean bags.

After running mainly to keep in shape after 1994, she returned to the track at the 2000 Asian Games to win the 40-45 age group 5000m in 19:00 and a gold in the 1500m in a time of 5:05 minutes. So that I don’t prolong Marion’s running accomplishments and make us slower runners even more humble, I will just list some of her PR’s:

3K (3000m) 10:14
5K (5000m) 17:52
8K 30:00
10K 37:50
15K 58:30
Half Marathon 1:22:50

For you one-dimensional readers, you can stop now, but those of you like me who are more interested in Marion’s personal life than her running accomplishments, read on. One of the first things Marion noticed at the track was a tall slim fast “arty” looking guy with a pony tail flying in the warm Brisbane breeze as he flew around the track. This, of course, was Norm – one of the fastest area runners who had already achieved legendary status. Other than an occasional smile or nod, Marion only admired him from afar. As many of you know, Norm may be the quietest man alive. Unlike me and most of my friends Norm actually listens to a conversation. I only mention Norm’s quietness to accent the surprise Marion must have felt when he phoned her that first time. We can only assume that during this period Marion was not without male admirers. I know there was one admirer who moved to Ireland and wanted Marion to follow. Having spent her first 11 years only seeing the sun partially through the clouds, she chose to stay in sunny Australia. We won’t dwell on the other admirers only to say it was the evening of one relationship ending when Norm made that first call. Norm, of course, would downplay the coincidence, but we romantics think he sensed her loss. She met him the next day for coffee, and the rest is history.

You must be wondering how these elite Australian athletes are now part of a small running club in South Florida. They married two years ago and moved to Bradenton a year ago. Why Bradenton? As luck would have it, Norm’s kids and grandchildren live in the San Francisco area of California and his mom and dad lived in Bradenton. Marion, of course, soon joined Norm on his visits to both coasts of the US. On one of these visits to mom they discovered our Saturday and Sunday runs at the beach. My earliest memory of meeting them is of Norm running off with some of the Sunday morning tempo runners while Marion was engulfed by the social runners. She was probably hoping to break from us and challenge the guys up front, but we had her surrounded. After many visits to Bradenton and bonding with its running community, Norm & Marion decided to leave Australia and settle in Bradenton’s arts community. Their house in the Village of the Arts was purchased (with the help of BRC’s friend and realtor, Roxi McCarthy) with the plan of finishing up their studies in Australia and coming to live in the States by the end of 2005. Norm was already a US citizen, but Marion, being a Brit, needed to apply for a Visa. We all worried when Marion’s application didn’t move through the bureaucracy as quickly as we had hoped. Just when things seemed the darkest, Marion called to say that someone had processed her application and she would be finishing things up in Australia and would be in Bradenton soon.

Marion brought with her a love for coffee and the ambiance that’s found in many coffee shops. Marion and Norm’s first date was at one of their favorite coffee shops in Brisbane – the Bean. Marion of course is adept in almost every subject, but she is never more informative and entertaining than when discussing coffee. Just the other morning at our place she treated her morning coffee as if it were a wine tasting. First she examined the color, then sniffed the bouquet, and finally rolled it around her mouth before the swallow. She already knew it was Starbucks whole bean but then proceeded to describe its boldness and the region of Africa where it might have been grown. She, of course, is qualified to do some very interesting and lucrative things but never seems happier than when she is working around coffee – first at Joe Muggs and now at Starbucks. Even as she is currently assuming Assistant Reference Managerial responsibilities at our main Bradenton library, she’s going to continue working a shift at our 14th Street Starbucks.

Everyone wants to run with her, but of course you never know how fast she’s going to go out or if she is going to cut the Sunday run short and take the Anna Maria trolley back to the start. What’s difficult to convey in this brief look at Marion and how she got to us is the affection we all have for her. Marion wanted to add (despite the importance of competition to many people) that she learned that fitness, mental alertness, peace of mind and the social side are far more important to her than competition in running. This is why you will rarely see her enter competitive events. After all, she is looking after those legs that will help achieve her goal of being a running Centenarian.