'She loved going running': Mick Murphy tells of wife Sam's determination

During the week a call was put out on social media for runners to show their support for the Murphy family by wearing a touch of lemon yellow, which was a colour favoured by Ms Murphy owing to her love for the Richmond Football Club.

Ms Murphy went missing after leaving her Eureka Street home for a run about 7am on February 4, 2024.

Her body is yet to be found, but police have since charged 22-year-old Patrick Stephenson with her murder.

Under different circumstances, Mick Murphy said his wife may have been participating in the Ballarat Marathon on April 28.

At the time she went missing, Mr Murphy said she was lengthening her runs with the goal of one day completing a marathon.

Because of this, he said he hadn't initially realised something was wrong when she didn't return home on time on February 4.

"On that particular day when she went missing, I thought she'd just gone for a bit of a longer run," he said.

"It [running] was her time, she loved going running out in the bush - she would leave on a weekday at 5.30am every morning.

"I never called her [while she was running] because that was her time, she loved it ... that was what she liked to do and she liked to do it by herself."

Mr Murphy has no doubts Samantha, who he described as "very determined", would have been well prepared for the event.

"When she put her mind to [something], she was doing it, it's as simple as that, there was nothing getting in her way," he said.

To illustrate this point, Mr Murphy said Samantha had celebrated her 50^th by going on a solo 125-kilometre walk near Apollo Bay on Victoria's southern coast.

"She did that by herself, past other walkers, she was never afraid of going out by herself - I used to say 'watch that bloody bush up there, you don't know what goes on up there'," he said.

"But that gives you an idea of how determined she is, she's a pretty strong woman."

The push to wear yellow during the marathon was instigated alongside the Murphy family by runner Sissy Austin, who has also organised other recent events, such as the "enough is enough" rally to end violence against women on April 13.

Ms Austin, who was also attacked while running near Ballarat in 2023, said the event would be very emotional for the large number of women running over the weekend.

"Every single female runner that you see out there has gone through months and months of training alone that needs to be acknowledged," she said.

"It's been a really hard time to train alone as a female runner in Ballarat, so I absolutely take my hat off to every single female runner ... our training journey has been so much more difficult.

"I think that every female runner that's trying to do the Ballarat Marathon are actually superheroes, and a lot of us are doing it for Sam, and doing it with the hashtag #takebackthetrack, [we will] never allow men's violence to take away running from us."

Mr Murphy agreed it had been a difficult time for runners, as well as the wider community, and said Samantha's disappearance was still on people's minds.

"Until we get some closure and we're able to have a funeral and a nice send off for Sam, I think it will always be on people's minds," he said.

"But as far as the run goes, it's great the community's behind the marathon, and to have Sam's colours on them [it's like] they're running for her as well."