Records broken to help sick kids

Two, he beat the time he ran in last year’s event by more than two minutes, bringing it down from 54:06 to 52 minutes.

Three, he shaved one minute off his 10km personal best, for a new record of 35:59.

“(I’m) absolutely blown away I was able to maintain an average pace of 3:37min/km for the entire 14.4km race,” Mr Spargo said after the weekend’s event, which supports the Royal Children’s Hospital’s Good Friday Appeal.

And if that trifecta of goodness wasn’t enough to make him smile proudly already, he placed 66th in a field of 13,132 runners.

Mr Spargo had initially set a fundraising goal of $5000 this year and had put no pressure on himself to beat running times, but he said the support he received was a great motivator to evolve his expectations.

“The goals definitely changed after the original story made the Shepparton News,” he said.

“As the donations kept coming and my target of $5000 was getting closer and closer, my training stepped up the pace.”

He said he’d only been running 30km to 40km a week to train in the beginning, but as the event drew nearer, his average lifted to 50km per week.

“The old saying goes, ‘the more you put in, the more you get out’. This is exactly why I was able to run the time I did and I definitely think it was because of the support I was receiving from businesses, family, friends and complete strangers,” Mr Spargo said.

“It just motivated me to put more effort into my training, and because I ended up exceeding the target of $5000 to raise $6060.80 before the start of the run, I just gave it absolutely everything I could to thank people for their support of not only myself, but for kids like Mia.”

Seven-year-old Mia Depuit was diagnosed with stage four adrenal cancer at 12 months old.

Throughout the course of her treatment, her family relocated from the Whitsundays to Shepparton to be closer to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital, where she underwent open heart surgery and had an adrenal gland removed.

She was cleared six months after the procedure but was dealt another cancer diagnosis — bone cancer — in 2023.

Mia had the small bone removed from her left leg and grafted into her right leg in a successful surgery.

She is in remission.

Mr Spargo raised funds and ran in Mia’s name as a way to thank the Royal Children’s Hospital for saving her and to help save more kids.

He was met at the charity run by other men who have also transformed their fitness in recent years.

“We all met through The Man Shakers page on Facebook, which helps men lose weight and motivate and support each other in whatever their journey or goals may be,” Mr Spargo said.

“We regularly meet up at events now, but this was the first time we had four of us at the one event.

“There’s no way any of us would have been able to complete a fun run before getting our physical health back on track.”

Still buzzing with endorphins, Mr Spargo said he wouldn’t hesitate to lace up for the challenge again next year.

“Run for the Kids is now my favourite event to compete in. I was lucky enough to be at the front of the starting line thanks to my finishing time at last year’s event and was standing right next to the new Australian men’s marathon record holder Andy Buchanan,” he said.

Buchanan won the Run for the Kids event with a time of 41:39.

Mr Spargo said while standing alongside Australian record holders and running across the Bolte Bridge, along the West Gate Fwy and through the Domain Tunnel were “just amazing experiences”, the event was mostly special for other reasons.

“Seeing people run for children who are seriously ill, or in memory of loved ones who passed, make the event a very special experience for all who enter the event and for those who are watching on and cheering,” he said.

“Sometimes crying from the sidewalks is very moving.”