Fred Schneider returns after absence from last year’s Dirt N Dust
Fred Schneider is almost 90, but that will not stop him driving 500km to run 5km in an obstacle course which included a mud pit.
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Charters Towers man Fred Schneider is 88 years old, and has driven 500km west in a Voltswagon Kombi van annually for more than three decades to enter the Dirt N Dust’s triathlons and obstacle courses.
His presence with his battered hat, his beard, and his budgie smugglers is so iconic for the outback festival that people mistake him for the similar looking man that forms the outback festival’s logo.
Mr Schneider has had a heart bypass, bowel cancer, and a broken leg, but considered himself to still be in good health because he regularly committed to park runs and tennis.
Last year some people noticed Mr Schneider’s absence from the outback adventure run, but he explained why after returning to the competition this year to wade through a mud pit and to challenge himself on as many of the obstacles as he could in the 5km race.
Mr Schneider drives an 82 Kombi 500km each direction to Julia Creek for the festival held late April, which he camps in.
Two festivals ago he barely made it home before the engine blew up, and it had taken until late last year to find a specialist mechanic willing to fix his car.
“I took it to Sydney on a trailer to fix it,” Mr Schneider said.
“People don’t bother with them.”
He was challenged with climbing equipment, hay bales, nets and a mud pit in the shortest distance of the obstacle course, and needed a bandage after bleeding from his leg after grazing an obstacle.
But he did not even feel it, and said he felt good during the run.
He had no plans to stop making the journey to run in the race but would not make any commitments to continue until he reached his 90th year.
“I used to say I’d like to do it until I’m 80 and now I’ve just exceeded that.
“I don’t expect things, if I get them I’ll air a blessing.”
The festival previously held a triathlon which Mr Schneider competed in, although struggled in the swimming section, which was replaced four years ago with an obstacle course designed by Townsville athlete Sam Stedman.
The obstacle course has distances of 5km, 10km, and 15km, and was designed to include a wider variety of people, whether it be to challenge serious athletes, test children, or to amuse fun runners.
Cloncurry woman Maygan Pippard tested herself on the 15km course and said it was the first she competed in.
“I didn’t train for it so I knew I’d be slow.
“The 5km definitely doesn’t need to train for, the 15km (racers) were fast so if you want to keep up with them you’d need to train.”
Townsville woman Linda Maskell was drinking during the five km course with her drinking buddies, and celebrated at the rodeo later that night wearing matching duck designed outfits.
Last year was their first attempt at the adventure run, during which a search was required to determine why they were taking so long.
They were disappointed after rolling their bodies across the finish line to realise they had not come last place.
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Originally published as Fred Schneider returns after absence from last year’s Dirt N Dust
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