Australia to Jamaica for Reggae Marathon 2018. Meet a determined Lynette Bullio from Cairns, Australia coming to Jamaica to run her first Half Marathon at Reggae Marathon, December 2. And she’s coming with a few friends…
I’m from Cairns, Australia on the North East Coast of Australia. My family originates from St. Pauls Moa Island in the Torres Straits. This year will be 3 years since I started running.
I took up running after my cousin passed at an early age due to cancer. I wanted to encourage women my age to become active within the indigenous community. I heard about Reggae Marathon from my cousin and wanted to run my first 21kms out of the country. I love Reggae music and have always wanted to visit Jamaica…it was a no brainer!
Initially there were two of us coming to Reggae Marathon. I set up a Facebook Group, ‘Road to Jamaica’ to let family and friends learn about training and about the trip. With encouragement from another cousin who lives about 5 hours away from me offering advice and encouragement, we now have 8 confirmed that will be coming to Negril for Reggae Marathon this December. 2 out of the 8 will be running the Half Marathon and the others will be supporters.
One special think I’d like to share is that we are coming to Reggae Marathon to represent the Indigenous peoples of Australia. Health and well being is what I am trying to promote for our people and it is so important! In my case, I started running with a group called Cairns Deadly Runners back in 2016. This group is run by a graduate who completed training with the Indigenous Marathon Foundation founded by Robert De Castella former world champion marathon runner. This foundation is for youth aged between 18-30 years of age. This foundation is a health promotion charity that uses running to celebrate Indigenous resilience and achievement and create inspirational Indigenous leaders. Once graduated these young people return to community and start running groups. Any age can join and it’s free. Running promotes “Longetivity of life and well being for Indigenous people…I want to continue to promote that”.
Lynette, we totally look forward to meeting you and your group in Negril this December! We have a lot in common with our mutual love of running…sharing the road with you will be an honour!
Until next time…
Reggae Marathon RunninGuy (aka Sugar ‘Tuff Gong’ Bong)
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