'Griffins' are runners who have completed ten or more Canberra Marathons or 50 km events. If you complete 20 events you become a 'Burley Griffin' and after 30 events a 'Walter Burley Griffin.' Griffins receive a free singlet and a certificate on completion of their 10th run and also receive discounted entry and personalised bib in future Canberra Marathons.

There is also a closed Facebook group for the Griffins. If you would like to be added to the group, please let the YMCA Canberra Runners Club admin office know.

The Griffins - 2018

There are now (post-2018 marathon) 179 runners who have who have completed ten or more Canberra Marathons, with Bernie Millett and Bob Fickel still leading the way with 34 runs, closely followed by Trevor Jacobs with 33.

For a full list of the Griffins and the number of events they have completed click here. If you think you should be a Griffin and are not on the list, please contact the YMCA Canberra Runners Club admin office with your details.

We would also like to hear from anyone who has completed nine Canberra Marathons and who is aiming to run in the 2019 Canberra Marathon. This will ensure that all new Griffins are appropriately recognised.

2018 Canberra Marathon Wrap

Congratulations to the 45 Griffins who participated in the 2018 Canberra Marathon and Ultra. A total of 52 Griffins took part in the Australian Running Festival including the half marathon and 10 km events.

In summary:

37 Griffins (including eight new Griffins) completed the marathon,
Eight Griffins completed the Ultra (three more than last year),
Three Griffins completed the half marathon,
Two Griffins completed the 10 km event,
Unfortunately, we had five Griffins who were DNS and DNF, and
Two Griffins volunteered on the day.

Some interesting points:

There are now 179 Griffins, an increase of eight from last year.
In 2018, we welcomed eight new Griffins. These being Ken Smith, Peter Ralston, Peter Lisle, Peter Foster, Giles Lamb, Mark Jones, Peter Blunt and Sebastian Warmerdam. We are looking forward to these eight new 2018 Griffins joining us in the pre-race photo and wearing the Griffin singlet for the first time in the 2019 Canberra Marathon.
Congratulations to Doug Limbrick on running his 20^th Canberra Marathon and becoming the 18th Burley Griffin! This is an amazing achievement for Doug who is a cancer survivor!
Four female Griffins completed the Marathon and two female Griffins ran the Ultra this year. Ruth Baussmann and Pam Muston have both completed the Canberra Marathon 17 times joining Sue Kesson on the Female leaderboard.
Special mention must be made to Clare Wall this year who in February ran the Tokyo Marathon in a time of 3 hours 41 minutes and then backed up to run the Canberra Marathon in 3 hours and 51 minutes finishing 2nd in her F60 - 69 age group.
There are only 14 female Griffins and the goal is to grow the number of female Griffins to 20 in the next four years.
Congratulations to Giles Lamb (our fastest Griffin and a new Griffin this year), Graham Wye (one of our three fastest finishes for the second time in a row) and Peter Lisle (another new Griffin) who were the three fastest Griffins this year, which enabled the Griffin team to finish seventh in the Teams' event!
There were only 13 in the traditional pre-Marathon Griffin photo at the start line this year. We were lined up a bit early and some missed the picture. Hopefully next year we will aim to be at the start a bit earlier so that we can have many more Griffins in the photo!
It was fantastic to see so many Griffins wearing their Griffin singlets in the running festival and supporting each other on the new 2018 course.
Well done to David Cannings who completed both the 10 km event on Saturday and the Marathon on Sunday.
Welcome to our interstate visitors who travel to Canberra especially for the Running Festival including John Diamond who came from Queensland to run his 25^th Canberra Marathon.
This year we had an impressive eight Griffins (Peter Clarke, Pam Muston, Ann Owen, Brad Boyle, Hilton Abkin, Brett Abkin, Barry Abkin, and Glen Lockwood) complete the Ultra Marathon.
Wow, the wind this year was powerful and knocked the wind out of some of our sails. The past two years have been challenging conditions, to say the least, but fortunately the temperature was pleasantly cool.

Finally, I wish to thank all the volunteers at the Running Festival, and the ongoing support of the Griffins by both the YMCA of Canberra Runners Club and Fairfax. I especially want to thank Emily Cheyne from Fairfax and Peter Thomson, the President of the YMCA of Canberra Runners Club, who has lived up to his name of being 'a rock' in supporting me in my new role as Griffin Coordinator.

Let us aim for at least 50 Griffins including 10 female Griffins (come on Girls, that's only four more) completing the 2019 Canberra Marathon.

Ruth Baussmann
Griffin Coordinator 22 April 2018

Birth of the Griffins by Rob Ey

It must have been in January 1994. I was coming back to work after a lunchtime run when I bumped into Dave Cundy, who was at that stage Race Director for the Canberra Marathon. We worked in the same building.

Dave mentioned that he had received a letter from a chap called Kevin Browne, suggesting that the Canberra marathon set up something similar to the Spartans in Melbourne for people who had run the race ten times.

I did a quick calculation and said that it sounded like a good idea as I was aiming to do my 10th Canberra in a few months’ time. Dave, never one to miss an opportunity, said something along the lines of ‘Good. How would you like to look into it and come up with a proposal’.

I had become the first Griffin (although at this stage we didn’t have a name) coordinator.

Read more . . .

The Griffins - 2018

2018 Canberra Marathon Wrap

Birth of the Griffins by Rob Ey

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