It’s a bit hard to see in the dark, but this is Mount Taylor on an early winter morning. Photo: Todd Smith.
It’s the time of day when the bush capital is still asleep, dawn is still two or three hours away, and shift workers are getting into bed.
Despite the early hour of 4 am, there’s a small group running in the early-morning dark of Canberra’s south.
For the past several weeks, members of Canberra’s newest run club have been spending more than two hours each week summiting Mount Taylor.
Co-founder (and marathon runner) Todd Smith says everything about their club has been picked to make it a challenge.
“It’s probably the worst, as far as what it asks of you and all the elements surrounding it,” he tells Region.
“Monday’s the worst day to go for a run and winter’s the worst time to run … The idea is you get up and you eat the frog.”
Why do they purposely make everything so hard? Because they’re Canberra’s Worst Run Club.
Todd (left) and Michael are long-time runners – and Mount Taylor is their latest challenge. Photo: Supplied.
Todd developed the club with a friend, having developed a passion for running after the birth of his second child.
That was in 2022, meaning he’s spent the past four years getting out of bed at around 4 am to run 15 or 20 kilometres before breakfast.
Todd eventually decided it was time to see if others wanted to hit the pavement (or rather, the gravel trail) outside of the ‘normal’ run club schedule.
“They’re either 6 am or 6 pm … I was like, ‘There’s nothing that’s wildly out there that suits people with a weird schedule’.
“I don’t want to miss out on putting the kids to bed to run 5 km around Lake Burley Griffin.”
Their route starts on Sulwood Drive in Kambah and takes six passes up and down the hill, for a roughly 16-kilometre route.
They start from the carpark and head up Mount Taylor, before running down the other side.
Todd is the first to say it’s a big commitment.
“I don’t do as many kilometres during the week.
“You can’t walk for the first couple of days afterwards. Then you get back moving, and by the time you recover, it’s Monday again.”
You might remember the frozen windshields that greet you on your commute and wonder how they handle the cold.
Todd says they refuse to bow to it – stepping out into the cold is part of the experience.
“If we call it off because it was minus-4 degrees, it defeats the purpose. It’s a winter run club!”
Sure, it’s daylight in this picture, but the run started 2 hours 35 minutes earlier. Photo: Todd Smith.
While Canberra’s Worst Run Club will only run until the end of winter, Todd’s hopeful their “annual pilgrimage” up and down Mount Taylor will return in 12 months.
“Winter’s really hard in Canberra … The minuses are hard; getting out the door is hard.
“You lose a lot of motivation. My point was, ‘What if I just did something and created a very small community?’”
The social aspect of heading out for a run with mates is echoed by Strategic Psychology’s managing director, Nesh Nikolic.
The clinical psychologist encourages us to make time for exercise at this time of year.
“As it gets colder, we do tend to be a bit more reserved, more insular, less active,” he says.
“Sometimes people talk about a seasonal type of mood that they experience, where people feel flatter, more fatigued in the wintertime. … Being active, it obviously offsets that, if you will, or it can work as stress reduction to improve their mood.”
Mr Nikolic says that these “quite considerable” social benefits are matched by exercise’s support for our health (including for our brains).
“When we do something strenuous and tough, it makes us more resilient so that we can carry discomfort in other parts of our lives,” he says.
“If we do something hard [you can later think], ‘When I meet something else hard in my life, I feel more confident to carry that discomfort, burden or whatever it might be.”
For Todd, their run club stands as even more proof that the bush capital loves running.
He believes that Canberra’s trail runners will find it a welcome addition to their training plans.
“Canberra’s blessed. It’s got so many hills, and there’s a huge trail running cohort.”
Follow the adventures of Canberra’s Worst Run Club on Instagram.
