Darren Kent Wilson - 13 February 1972 - 16 January 2006

A beautiful human being lost their life on Monday 16 January. Yesterday his family, friends, work colleagues and students said farewell to a great bloke.

Life is cruel and very unfair - a young man taken in his prime.

I'm shattered.

I first met Daz in 2001 at the Sri Chimnoy series around the bay. Darren and Andrew Adams would often win one of the races and what impressed me was that they would stand at the finish line and clap everyone in. Darren as a school teacher and running coach would often have a contingent of students and parents running in these events, always encouraging everyone.

When Darren asked me did I want to train with them I was chuffed. I couldn't wait for each Sunday to come. Every week we would meet up for a long run and gossip - Andy, Macca, Freespirit, Imogen, Spareribs, Malcolm, Victor, Abel and lots of others from time to time.
Over the weeks and months we learnt a lot about each other - interests, hobbies, girlfriends/wives and families. You can get know someone very well in a 2hr run each week. Who can honestly say they talk to any of their friends for that amount of time each week.
Sometimes Daz's brother Brett would run with us - they were like twins, arriving together in the car shirtless. They were cool !
Andrew called him the 'results king' as he was always the first with the latest race results. He always wanted the lowdown on every race that I went in. Who won, how did I go, who did I beat, how did so and so go. He loved it all. He was also the text message king. He pestered me for ages to get a mobile phone and when I finally did, he was the first person I called. About 2 minutes later, Andrew and Tim SMS'd me - he'd already told them my number before I had a chance to !

He wasn't just interested in me - he wanted to know all about my family as well. He came to watch my girls run in x-country and to watch them play soccer. The girls thought he was cool too !

We called ourselves the 'BAY BOYS' as a pun on the more infamous 'Bra boys' gang of Maroubra fame. We would joke that they can have their fucking beach - we've got the Bay ! A silly joke - the bay is nothing special but we ran there and we loved all the regulars who did as well.
I have many running friends but only a few cross that boundary that divides family/friends and enter my personal family space - Darren was one of them.

I'll miss you mate.

Livestrong .