One of the teams supporting Shake It Up at this weekend’s Melbourne Marathon is ‘The Em Dashes’. The runners come from the Melbourne graphic design community (hence the typographic pun for a team name) and collectively they have runners in the 10km, half-marathon as well as one supporter grappling the full-marathon!

They are running in support of Quentin Brown, a graphic designer who was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s disease at just 40 years of age but maintains a positive attitude and is currently climbing Mt Kilimanjaro for Shake It Up!

Shake It Up caught up with the team to see how they were all travelling before the big day.

Smashing out the 10km: Aoife Johnson and Carlos Chavez

Carlos was thrilled that his industry was able to get together for a great cause: ‘I really enjoy being part of the design industry tackling non-design issues. Doing something that helps out someone like Quentin is totally worth it.’ On the training front Carlos even credits the team with keeping him dry: ‘If I run anything over a single kilometre and I want to run into the Yarra from boredom. Having a team changes that.’

Aoife has loved the positive nature of the run and describes her biggest motivation as ‘keeping fit, wellbeing, and the physical challenge.’ She also gave a great insight for anyone looking to set a running goal: ‘It will be a massive challenge but prepare with the right training and lifestyle and you will push your boundaries & feel amazing.’

At the end of the line Carlos is looking forward to having a beer whilst Aoife will be tucking into a big breakfast. Good Luck Dashes!

Hitting up the Half-Marathon: Simon Mundy, Wendy Ellerton and James Yencken

Simon puts it best when speaking about motivation: ‘Running just makes me happy, so it’s not too hard to find motivation.’ Wendy also agreed that a major push for her was to ‘challenge myself to be fit and happy’.

All three have relished training in a team atmosphere with James admitting that he ‘probably would have missed even more training sessions without the encouragement.’ The sessions seem to also have acted as a new-age water cooler with Simon saying they were a good place to ‘Catch up on a weeks’ worth of gossip!’

First thing they will tuck into after the race? Wendy will remain good with a banana and team oranges. Simon isn’t fussed and will tuck into whatever is in the show bag. Whilst James has a yearning for French Fries! Go get em’ guys!

The Big One, the Full Marathon: starring Andy Sargent

Andy reckons it pays to go large: ‘Put in the training and you won’t regret it. It’s an amazing experience.’ As a full-time professional his greatest challenge has been finding the time to train, however he is passionate about the eventual result and has been driven by ‘the wellness that comes with training hard, eating healthy, setting high goals and achieving them.’

Andy has found the team experience to be positive and rewarding. After the race he is going to do the right thing and tuck into a banana, but then he will return to a bit of normality by getting stuck into a ‘bloody big breakfast.’ Go Andy Go!