January 23, 2026 • 4 mins
The annual Long Run around Rugy and Malvern Parks took place in Christchurch last week, with the Crusaders, public, and many corporates taking part.
The aim of the event is to raise money for child cancer, conceptualised by Aaron Webb, who joined Lesley Murdoch to reflect on what’s become an iconic charity run.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Web and Aaron. You must have been thrilled until
that weather.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Came in morning, Leslie. Yeah, amazed again. I think every
year kind of blows you away with the growth and,
like you say, the joy of it all. But it
was a bit disappointing with the weather. But you can't
control that, so you and we have to keep everybody safe.
So the right call was made on the day.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Absolutely it was. Yes, Now it was bigger, brighter, better,
wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, Oh, for sure. The track was actually a little
bit wider this year than it has been in the past,
so it was still full. It was still hard to
find space out there to run around. But you know,
the stories and the conversations you have along the way,
and you know some of the people you've interviewed yesterday,
(00:50):
you know, just phenomenal efforts out there, and just so
much laughter and fun as well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, that's the good parton Look, I don't mind saying
it again. They had often on this program that you
guys at the Crusaders and Canterbury Rugby connect really well
into the community, probably better than any anybody else.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, it's a real privilege I think for us to
have the position that we have with a bit of
promotion and we can get the community together like that.
And our players, you know, they want this. They've talked
about it in numerous end of season reviews as well,
and how much they want to be able to connect
with community off the rugby field. So what a perfect
(01:31):
opportunity a daylight yesterday was to do that.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So for you, you know, the whole aim this is
all about child cancer awareness, which is the other brilliant
part about it. And you had a definite mark involved here.
You wanted to get to what three hundred thousand?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, that the aim. Yeah, that's the aim. Yet we're
we're at about I just checked it before I came on.
We're about two hundred and thirty thousand at the moment,
so and there'll be a few more to roll in.
But there's still opportunity for people to donate or if
they knew people that were in there yesterday, to give
them a little bit of a donation to say well
(02:08):
done to the effort that they put in. But yeah,
the Child Cancer Foundation, as we've talked about previously, an
amazing organization that does a great job for the families
and high needs. So we want to help them as
much as we can.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah. Absolutely, So what did you raise last year?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I think in the end the wash up was about
two hundred and fifty thousand at the end, but it
takes a few days after the event to sort of
get all the rest of the donations, and so we're
still really positive that will get up to that three
hundred thousand dollar goal this year as well.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Look, did you tell me? I was just thinking about
the people and the joy that I did see out
there yesterday morning. Did you say where people can donate to?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
They can go onto our Crusader's website and there's a
link on there to called the Long Run. Click on
there and they can donate on there. Or if, like
I said, if they had people that they knew in there,
they'll have fundraising profiles as well that they can give
them the direct link to. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Look, I know just in talking to people who I
haven't been able to get on our ear waves this morning,
but just the fact a lot of people don't know
how to give back, you know, in terms of doing
something for the community, and this is just such a
good way to see them come out in their droves.
Do you have any idea how many people joined the lapse.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I think we were up around three thousand or just
over three thousand different entrants, and there's probably a few
people that you know, just came and had a few
laps anyway without officially entering. But yeah, I'd say over
three thousand, which is so exciting. And you would have
seen that yesterday. It was pretty busy.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
It was hot too, wasn't it. My goodness, So you know,
what you're doing is you're raising money for a great cause,
you're getting community involvement, you're making them healthier by doing stuff,
and of course everybody gets to see the Crusaders having
their hit up as well.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah. Right, there's so many parts to it, isn't there.
And we had corporates and doing corporate challenges and team
building and all of those things, so that, yeah, there's
so many facets to it, which is part of it
that we love as well.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, fantastic. I just love it just it is and
it needs to be We need to be talking about
it because it is such a good thing. Anybody who
didn't get down there, we've tried to paint a picture
of the involvement. But Aaron, we're well done. Thank you
so much for coming to the phone this morning. We
salute you. It's brilliant, wonderful and the job that Kirsty
Brown and who team have done is just superb.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Oh yeah, Kirsty and Courtney are amazing and what they've created.
I just had the crazy idea at the start. They've
made it happen. So yeah, anyone who wants to get
in there next year. It is a really fun day
and you can push yourself to whatever limit you think
you have. For more from News Talks the B listen
live on air or online, and keep our shows with
(04:50):
you wherever you go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.
On Web and Aaron. You must have been thrilled until
that weather.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Came in morning, Leslie. Yeah, amazed again. I think every
year kind of blows you away with the growth and,
like you say, the joy of it all. But it
was a bit disappointing with the weather. But you can't
control that, so you and we have to keep everybody safe.
So the right call was made on the day.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Absolutely it was. Yes, Now it was bigger, brighter, better,
wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, Oh, for sure. The track was actually a little
bit wider this year than it has been in the past,
so it was still full. It was still hard to
find space out there to run around. But you know,
the stories and the conversations you have along the way,
and you know some of the people you've interviewed yesterday,
(00:50):
you know, just phenomenal efforts out there, and just so
much laughter and fun as well.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, that's the good parton Look, I don't mind saying
it again. They had often on this program that you
guys at the Crusaders and Canterbury Rugby connect really well
into the community, probably better than any anybody else.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, it's a real privilege I think for us to
have the position that we have with a bit of
promotion and we can get the community together like that.
And our players, you know, they want this. They've talked
about it in numerous end of season reviews as well,
and how much they want to be able to connect
with community off the rugby field. So what a perfect
(01:31):
opportunity a daylight yesterday was to do that.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So for you, you know, the whole aim this is
all about child cancer awareness, which is the other brilliant
part about it. And you had a definite mark involved here.
You wanted to get to what three hundred thousand?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, that the aim. Yeah, that's the aim. Yet we're
we're at about I just checked it before I came on.
We're about two hundred and thirty thousand at the moment,
so and there'll be a few more to roll in.
But there's still opportunity for people to donate or if
they knew people that were in there yesterday, to give
them a little bit of a donation to say well
(02:08):
done to the effort that they put in. But yeah,
the Child Cancer Foundation, as we've talked about previously, an
amazing organization that does a great job for the families
and high needs. So we want to help them as
much as we can.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah. Absolutely, So what did you raise last year?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I think in the end the wash up was about
two hundred and fifty thousand at the end, but it
takes a few days after the event to sort of
get all the rest of the donations, and so we're
still really positive that will get up to that three
hundred thousand dollar goal this year as well.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Look, did you tell me? I was just thinking about
the people and the joy that I did see out
there yesterday morning. Did you say where people can donate to?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
They can go onto our Crusader's website and there's a
link on there to called the Long Run. Click on
there and they can donate on there. Or if, like
I said, if they had people that they knew in there,
they'll have fundraising profiles as well that they can give
them the direct link to. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Look, I know just in talking to people who I
haven't been able to get on our ear waves this morning,
but just the fact a lot of people don't know
how to give back, you know, in terms of doing
something for the community, and this is just such a
good way to see them come out in their droves.
Do you have any idea how many people joined the lapse.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I think we were up around three thousand or just
over three thousand different entrants, and there's probably a few
people that you know, just came and had a few
laps anyway without officially entering. But yeah, I'd say over
three thousand, which is so exciting. And you would have
seen that yesterday. It was pretty busy.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
It was hot too, wasn't it. My goodness, So you know,
what you're doing is you're raising money for a great cause,
you're getting community involvement, you're making them healthier by doing stuff,
and of course everybody gets to see the Crusaders having
their hit up as well.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah. Right, there's so many parts to it, isn't there.
And we had corporates and doing corporate challenges and team
building and all of those things, so that, yeah, there's
so many facets to it, which is part of it
that we love as well.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, fantastic. I just love it just it is and
it needs to be We need to be talking about
it because it is such a good thing. Anybody who
didn't get down there, we've tried to paint a picture
of the involvement. But Aaron, we're well done. Thank you
so much for coming to the phone this morning. We
salute you. It's brilliant, wonderful and the job that Kirsty
Brown and who team have done is just superb.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Oh yeah, Kirsty and Courtney are amazing and what they've created.
I just had the crazy idea at the start. They've
made it happen. So yeah, anyone who wants to get
in there next year. It is a really fun day
and you can push yourself to whatever limit you think
you have. For more from News Talks the B listen
live on air or online, and keep our shows with
(04:50):
you wherever you go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.
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