6-year-old too fast for most
Next time you’re running through Christchurch’s Hagley Park, you might notice the little boy racing through the crowd with his father riding on a bicycle alongside him.
At 6 years old, Harrison ‘‘Harri’’ Brown set his personal best last week, running the Hagley 5-kilometre parkrun in 21 minutes and 26 seconds – faster than most adults, including his father.
His time placed him 20th out of 9577 people who have completed the Hagley parkruns in his age grade.
However, what makes Harri’s running truly phenomenal is that marking his 7th birthday tomorrow also marks exactly seven years since doctors were fighting to keep his heart pumping and the newborn was diagnosed with a critical heart condition – aortic stenosis with severe left ventricle dysfunction. He underwent openheart surgery at less than a day old.
‘‘It was pretty heartbreaking, the uncertainty of what his future would look like,’’ father Rod Brown said. ‘‘He was a really sick kid.’’
Brown said he did not think it would be possible for Harri to take part in sport and run like other children. When Harri asked to run with his father when he was 3, Brown thought it ‘‘probably isn’t for him’’. They began by running 100 metres, then Harri was carried the rest of the way on his father’s shoulders. But by the time he was 4, he was running up and down Halswell Quarry on his own.
He has now completed 24 Hagley parkruns, achieving personal bests 15 times.
‘‘He just keeps getting faster,’’ his father said.
So much so that by the time he was 5, Harri had completed his ultimate goal in running – to ‘‘drop Dad’’. Brown had since had to ride a bicycle to keep up alongside him, while Harri said it ‘‘just feels like I’m walking’’.
Harri’s personal best last Saturday was faster than the Association of Road Racing Statisticians world single age 5km road record for 6-year-olds – although Hagley was not a certified measured course. ‘‘It’s quite amazing that Harri can do what he can do . . . I never would have thought,’’ Brown said.
He had the green light from a cardiologist to run and had not been on medication since he was 1, but was monitored yearly.
Their neighbour, Robert Loveridge, who won 10 titles in various Coast to Coast championships, was supporting Harri in his running, as was former Olympian Donald Greig, who represented New Zealand in the
1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games. ‘‘He’s pretty amazing . . . I don’t know any other young fella who is that quick,’’ Greig said.
Harri occasionally joined Greig’s running training groups where he was among 30 to
40 people, at least four times his age, and was in the third fastest group. ‘‘He drags older people of his ability along,’’ Greig said.
Harri said he liked running because ‘‘it was fun’’, and enjoyed challenging himself to beat his personal best.
Brown said it was important with children to keep running fun, so they did not burn out. Having competed in crosscountry competitions, Harri was now part of Peninsula and Plains Orienteers, a Canterbury orienteering club, and planned to join a football team next season.
Brown decided to share his son’s story to help raise awareness for the Starship Foundation’s fundraiser to expand its paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and tackle the bed shortage.
The shortage meant six patients had experienced delays in surgery this year, as of April 13, and another six experienced delays in 2020, with the average delay about 14.5 days. More than $1.3 million had been raised since the campaign was launched on April 13.