Alice Springs Running and Walking Club save Darwin’s iconic race

A panicked last-minute phone call and a 1500km delivery of an invaluable piece of equipment saved the Top End’s biggest race. Find out how.

Tarra Brain won the women's 12km at the NT City2Surf on Sunday. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin.

The NT City2Surf was just hours away from disaster if not for some quick thinking and monumental teamwork.

It was noon the day before when Alice Springs Running and Walking Club president Katie Stroud received a panicked phone call from Athletics NT CEO Leanne Chin.

Chin was missing the all-important time box, which without, runners would have been unable to obtain an official finishing time.

“I saw that I had a missed call from Leanne around midday Saturday, so I gave her a buzz back and she told me the situation,” Stroud said.

“Their (Athletics NT) box died in testing in the lead up.

“They tried to get it fixed, but the electrician said he wasn’t too confident, stating the box might work or it could blow up.”

A $10k piece of equipment, the MYLAPS BibTag Portable Decoder is not an easily obtainable piece of equipment.

So, understandably not wanting to take the risk, Chin scrambled for an alternative.

And with no more timers available for hire, nor any others in the region, Stroud was the race’s only hope.

The $10K cargo sitting on the floor at the Alice Springs airport. Picture: Contributed.

“Fortunately our timer is the same and it was able to fill the void of the broken one,” Stroud said.

“I jumped in the car and sped to the airport.

“I waited around in the domestic terminal for quite a while until someone eventually told me that I couldn’t just send the box up by itself, and that I needed to go to freight down the road.

“So I grabbed the 15kg briefcase and sprinted down the road on foot, and banged on the door.”

Luckily for Stroud, a friendly worker heard her calls from inside and rushed to her aid, all while Chin was panicking, pondering if they needed to charter a plane.

“Someone inside heard me and cottoned on to the fact that this was somewhat of an emergency and helped race through the process of getting it on the plane,” she said.

“Thankfully no charter plane was necessary.”

The timing device arrived safe and sound at Darwin later however the next roadblock was the freight terminal being closed.

“Leanne knew someone entered in the race who was able to collect the box from the airport and deliver it to the team that evening,” Stroud said.

“In the end, there was enough time to get everything set up ahead of the event and crucially, all the times were accurately recorded.”