Joining the club: Jack Roberts on racing to the finish line
Golly G’AusHSI at the QUT Classic
In the AusHSI spirit of improving health outcomes, and keen for a fitness challenge, in 2024 a few AusHSI team members formed a new running club known as ‘Golly G’AusHSI’. Beginning with Kelvin Grove parkruns, together they worked up to the QUT Classic and Runaway Noosa running events, helping raise funds for the QUT Learning Potential Fund and HeartKids, AusHSI’s research partners on the CHD LIFE+ project.
Hear about PhD candidate Jack Roberts’s running journey with the group, what inspired him, and his PhD research in an interview with QUT Graduate Research Education + Development (GRE+D).
Jack’s couch to QUT Classic story
What sparked your interest in joining the QUT Classic?
Some colleagues and I were keen on starting a bit of a run club, with a focus on doing the Noosa Runaway half marathon and 10km, and we thought the QUT Classic would be a good opportunity to run distance in a group.
Did you have a plan to move from the ‘couch to the Classic’?
I had been doing a fair bit of running in 2023, including 5km parkruns and the Bridge to Brisbane 10km, and was keen to get my 10km a bit faster. I was using a training program from my smart watch.
How did you go on the day?
It was not my best run! I had been sick in the two weeks leading up to the run, so I took it pretty easy. My best piece of advice is to not increase load, intensity or amount too quickly lest you injure yourself. It’s ok to take it easy on your training runs, and just work on your base fitness.
Completing the Noosa Runaway 10km
Are you participating in any other activities?
I did the 15 Minute Challenge with the same team I did the QUT Classic with, and the Bridge to Brisbane. We also attended the Noosa Runaway event where we completed the half marathon and 10km distances.
Do you have any hints or tips for other higher degree research students looking to get involved in these types of activities?
It’s good to surround yourself with people who have similar fitness goals. Knowing someone else will be at the 7am parkrun is great encouragement to actually get out of bed for it!
Jack’s research
Quick info
Current stage of PhD candidature: Post-confirmation
Thesis: Measuring the economic burden of bronchiectasis in Australia
PhD Supervisors: Steven McPhail, Julie Marchant, Anne Chang, Sanjeewa Kularatna, Vikas Goyal, Nitin Kapur.
Why did you choose your area of research?
My interest started when I was hired as an administrative assistant in a respiratory research team at the Queensland Children’s Hospital. Initially it was just to pay the bills, as I was finishing my first undergraduate degree, but I quickly found I had a passion for listening to the stories that the families of children with respiratory conditions had to tell. Much of the barrier to achieving meaningful change was in communicating the things they had to say in ways that are understandable to policymakers. I chose a health economic approach to this situation because I really enjoyed making sense of complex and often messy data to tell these important stories.
Summarise your experience as an HDR student – the challenges, the highlights.
During my PhD I have been able to spend time in clinics with amazing patients, families and clinicians. I have learnt so much about our health system, how it works to serve the people that need it, and thought a lot about how we can make it better.
QUT has offered ample opportunities for training, and AusHSI has offered formal training to reinforce my basic statistics, academic communication, and health economic methods.
Being part of a community of passionate, intelligent and brilliant students at the School of Public Health and Social Work has been really special to me. I was an executive member of our school’s HDR student club, and together we held numerous social outings, training, and opportunities for students to take their eyes off their work and declutter their minds. We also organised the 4th annual Impact Makers student conference, and I was proud to be a member of the organising committee for such a successful event.
What advice could you give to a new HDR?
Show up. Join the club. Have a go. It’s basically impossible for any experience to be a waste. You will learn important things in the most unexpected ways.
Jack is coming up to his final seminar in February 2025.
