GOLD COAST AIRPORT MARATHON 2017 Family battle true test of endurance
LEE Troop has done just about everything in distance running – represented Australia in the marathon at world championships and Olympic Games and run on the track at Commonwealth Games – but his most important runs came at the Gold Coast Airport Marathon over the weekend.
More than running or any accolade he has ever received from it, family defines Troop.
And when he crossed the line with his father in the 10km on Saturday, he completed one of the most significant runs of his life. Troop’s dad Joe was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer two years ago, undergoing an operation and endless gruelling rounds of chemotherapy as he fought the disease he was told would likely claim his life within 12 months.
It was Joe who introduced a young Troop to distance running, having caught the bug himself watching the great Rob de Castella rule the roads in the early ’80s.
The pair ran several events together and Troop turned the clock back 30 years on Saturday, completing the most important 10km of his life with Joe at his side.
“To get the opportunity to be able to run with him in this setting was pretty special,” Troop said.
“He didn’t run for 30 years and it took a near-death experience for him to decide he wanted to get back into running and he used that as a real motivational tool to help him deal with the cancer that he had and the chemotherapy.”
Joe may have introduced his son to running but it was Troop that turned motivator on Saturday when Joe faltered, cajoling his old man all the way to the finish.
“I thought if I stopped he would keep going but in the end he stopped (as well) and he was going, ‘come one dad’,” said Joe, who has defied the odds to have a clean bill of health.
“The first time I ever broke the 40-minute barrier for my 10km was when he was a young boy and I was running Geelong cross-country and I stopped and he said: ‘Dad, come on, you can do it.’
“I said: ‘Son, I’m spent’. “But he said I could do it and that day I ran 38:40 and I know in my heart it was only because he came past and he said, ‘come on dad, you can do it’.
“It was years later.”
Troop was no different joined 30 at the finish by mum Debbie, who welcomed her husband and son over the line in an emotional reunion.
“It’s just such a journey,” she said.
“Joe’s mentally strong, physically strong and a man of faith. Put it all in a melting pot and you’ve got a good chance.
“The doctors with him.
“He wasn’t good, he shouldn’t be here and he’s a miracle man.
“He dug in and he wanted to live. He chose to live.”
And the Troops were able to celebrate that choice as a family over the weekend. are gobsmacked