WHEN they said fun ... they meant it.
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A pack of purple people eaters, a person pedalling a penny farthing and some mixed-up Mexicans helped add plenty of colour to yesterday's Casella Wines Visy City to Lake fun run.
They were among more than 1500 men, women and children who took advantage of the perfect autumn weather to run, walk and roll their way from the site of the St Vincents Community Private Hospital out to Lake Wyangan.
Deputy mayor Doug Curran praised the efforts of all entrants and those who contributed to the day.
"I need to thank everyone for being part of the second City to Lake," he said.
"We had more than 1500 people and $55,000 was raised, which is a great contribution to our quest to make the private hospital a reality."
Mums and dads pushed babies in prams or walked hand-in-hand with their young children.
First across the line was 42-year-old father of three Tarek Heiland, with a time of 35 minutes and 46 seconds.
The Griffith Feral Jogger described the run as “nice and simple”.
“It was a nice run and absolutely glorious weather for it,” he said. “It was really good to see such a big turnout.”
Mum-of-two Farghana Ayesha Khan was one of the last to cross the finish line, but she was smiling as she did it.
Despite suffering from arthritis in her legs, the 39-year-old said she was happy to have been involved.
“It is for the Griffith community,” she said.
“I love Griffith and I’m very happy to be part of this town. I did find it a bit hard because I’m not used to walking. I have arthritis and that makes it painful.”
This year’s fun run brings the community’s fundraising tally to more than $700,000.
Last week the men in charge of the new private hospital, St Vincent’s Private CEO Robert Cusack and CEO of St Vincent’s private hospital division Martin Day, made a flying visit to Griffith to fine tune plans ahead of an imminent lease signing.
Construction is expected to start in October and take around 12 months.