The Beisty family have been associated with the Newcastle running community for over 50 years. Sue Beisty is a former marathon and long distance runner, she participated in many ‘Fun Runs’ in the Hunter Region, as well as nationally. In March 2022, Sue was interviewed about her running career, she relived some of the special moments and discusses what it was like to be a women runner in the 1970s and 80s.
Sue’s son Mike Beisty also shared information about the culture of running and provided many photos and documents from the family archive. The Beisty Family Collection is available ONLINE HERE
Also see article “A Canadian Connection from Ontario to NSW, a mixed tale of marathons”
By Mike Beisty July, 2022.
“Reflections of an Runner” By Jim Kenny Beisty
Sue was born in Liverpool, England in 1939, she was the eldest of 5 children and she started running as a child, describing how she was often late for the school bus and would have to run the catch it. The photos below shows Sue participating in numerous athletic events in the UK during the 1950s.
Whilst in the UK she met Jim Beisty, who she later married. They moved to Canada in 1963 and it was there that Sue started running again. In 1972, the family moved to Newcastle, Australia where Jim continued to encourage Sue to participate in Fun Runs and later marathons.
Jim Beisty passed away in 2015, he was fondly known as the ‘Godfather’ of long distance running in Newcastle and Liverpool UK.
Our Students
Oliver Salmon, was a work integrated learning (WIL) student (HUMA2000) in 2022. He was keen to get experience working with the community and assisted with the oral history interview, researching the topic ‘running’, formulating questions, videoing and editing the interview, scanning family archive. Finally curating the video for online access. Oliver also reviewed the ‘How to Conduct an Oral History’ online processes. Listen to Oliver speak on his experience as a WIL student HERE
Our Researchers
Women in sport is an area of interest to our researchers at the university. This resource about athletics, women and running contributes to our collections, is a topic whereby minimal resources exist. Sue’s story adds to the region’s amazing women and their contributions and will be of interest to researchers now and in the future.
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