From Walker to 100 Miler: Running for Dementia Awareness

When Emily Black’s parents were diagnosed with dementia, she decided to turn her passion for trail running into a mission to promote awareness of the cruel condition. That journey has seen her fundraise for Dementia Australia, run more than 2024km in 2024, and enter her first 100 mile event. Emily tells writer Samantha Turnbull about her progression from walker to ultra marathoner.

At the start of every new year, Emily Black writes what she calls her ‘DBAMIH list’. DBAMIH is an acronym for ‘dream big and make it happen’ and, for Emily, those dreams often revolve around trail running.

“It’s a list of things that scare me that I might not be able to do,” she says.

“I’m just really curious about how far I can push myself.”

The 46-year-old photographer from Melbourne, Victoria goes by the name ‘the accidental runner’ on social media after discovering her neighbourhood trails during the COVID lockdowns of 2020.

“I’ve always been an outdoor person and I met my husband rock climbing, but during COVID and being trapped in the house and having a finite amount of time per day where you were allowed out, I decided to start exploring what was around me,” she says. 

“So, I started walking, then I started jogging and I realised I could cover more distance in the time I had by jogging and it snowballed from there.”

Emily also describes her progression from walker to runner as ‘accidental.’

“I was a little naïve at the start because I thought if I can do a 5km I can do a bit more…and here I am about to run my first (100) miler,” she laughs.

At the time of this edition of Trail Run Mag going to print, Emily was toeing the line of the Grampian Peaks Trail 100 Miler event. She dubs the challenge her ‘miler for memories.’

She set herself the task of completing the 100 miles after easily reaching another goal of running 2024km in 2024 to raise money for Dementia Australia.

“I knew I’d tick the 2024km off in training for two big events – the UTA (Ultra Trail Australia) 100km in the Blue Mountains, and the GPT (Grampian Peaks Trail),” she says.

“But completing 100 miles at the GPT will be icing on the cake. I’m curious and intrigued about how I’m going to manage, but I’m optimistic and ready.”

Emily chose to fundraise for Dementia Australia after both her parents were diagnosed with dementia. Neither of them were aware of Emily’s trail running.

“Almost three years ago my mother passed away with dementia, she also had Parkinson’s, and as we were nearing the end of her life my father got diagnosed with dementia and I then became his carer,” she says.

As well as fundraising, Emily hopes her story will raise awareness of the reality of dementia and its impact on families.

“I feel like it’s such a misunderstood cause because it’s so varied and it isn’t what we see on television in shows like Mother and Son – it’s not as sweet as that,” Emily says. 

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“I think it’s about creating the understanding that it’s not just memory loss. It’s a 24-7 thing and they may not sleep, or shower…my dad can’t get himself up to walk. It’s really quite confronting and horrible and it steals the people away from who they once were. 

“There’s no coming back from it and it’s so unpredictable. It takes such a toll on the person, the people around them, and the carers.”

For Emily, trail running has been a welcome reprieve from the toll dementia has taken on her family.

“Nature and trails are grounding for me,” she says.

“Trails bring up a lot of memories of camping with the family and joy. It allows me the space to just be and feel the feelings without all of the other stuff.”

But her rapid progression from a 21km to a marathon, to a 50km then a 100km (all Trailsplus events), hasn’t been haphazard. Emily has followed carefully curated training plans along the way.

She is a part of the Her Trails community which includes coaches who create programs tailored to women.

“Each program I’ve done for the long events have been 20-week programs with Her Trails,” Emily says. 

“There’s priming, building, strengthening, tapering…it’s very woman-focused with an understanding about where you are in your cycle, awareness about perimenopause and how you need to train instead of a cookie-cutter plan you pull off the internet. Having access to women coaches has also been really helpful.”

The other secret to Emily’s success is a supportive crew made of friends and family including her two teenage children, Lily and Dylan, and her husband Steve.

“I’m fortunate to have a lot of enablers, especially within the Her Trails community,” Emily says. 

“I throw a big idea out there and I’m given the opportunity to achieve that goal with a program they create, but equally if my goal is too big they would straight up tell me it’s probably not a good idea for now.

“My husband comes along for the ride to support me, and my kids don’t fully appreciate how much it entails. They come along and laugh and smile – they have a chant ‘the faster you run, the quicker it’s over’.”

Despite her children’s teasing, Emily says one of her favourite trail running outcomes has been sharing the experience with her daughter.

“We’ve done some overnight hikes, and she joined a trail run with me,” she says.

“Being able to model something to her that’s recharging, reconnecting, has been really lovely.

“It’s a beautiful by-product of it – I wasn’t really expecting that.”

If you’d like to support Emily’s mission, you can find her fundraising page for Dementia Australia via this link: https://fundraising.dementia.org.au/fundraisers/emilyblack/running-for-the-memories

 INSIDER KNOWLEDGE Samantha Turnbull has been a journalist/writer for 20+ years, but only started running (well, shuffling) in 2019. She’s a self-described slowpoke, but loves the camaraderie of trail events and the feeling of fierceness as she crosses the finish line after a long race. Her fave trail is the Motatapu in NZ.