Sheer Maddess - family finishes, baby and all
A 10-month-old baby girl beat a lot of runners home yesterday - thanks to her dad.
Michael Maddess, race director of the Action Asia Foundation, carried his daughter, Amber, in his backpack as he made it a family day to remember. Also running with Maddess were his father, Glen and wife, Margie.
'She has a seatbelt on and it's on very tight so there was no chance of her falling out,' said Hong Kong-based Canadian Maddess. 'I had to put her down and let my wife take care of her for a minute, while I used the toilet during the race. Actually, it's great training for me because I intend to compete in the Hong Kong Greenpower 50km race coming up in two weeks' time,' he said.
'She's pretty heavy. She's over 20 pounds [9kg] definitely,' said Maddess of his baby. 'It's not so much the weight, it's trying to run with the weight.
'I didn't see anybody else carrying a baby. A lot of people kept coming over to us and taking photos with their mobile phones, which surprised us. I thought it was more difficult for my 67-year-old father to run the 10km race.'
The Maddess family finished the race in 1:20. 'My father wanted to run in it. He wouldn't run without us, so we all ran together.'
Maddess also intends to compete in the two-day 70km Raleigh Mountain Marathon next month when runners have to carry their camping equipment and food in their backpacks.
Last weekend he competed in the 30km Hong Kong Mountain Marathon last weekend with creditable results.
'For the Raleigh race, you have to carry a minimum of 11-12kg of backpack so this was good training.''
His father had come to Hong Kong from Vancouver to visit the Hong Kong Fire Department as a retired fire chief and new director of fire training at British Columbia, Canada.
'These guys are the fast ones,' said Glen, pointing to his son and daughter-in-law.
'I drank too much liquid and suffered half way through the tunnel. The guys flew past me at Exchange Square.'
