It's half way through September and the summer will soon be over. Time to stop living on wine, cocktails and junk food, and return to a reasonably respectable lifestyle. I don't know about you but my body needs a kickstart back into health.
So, I'm having a month of detox-ish. I'm not doing a full, proper detox but simply trying to eat healthily and cut out all alcohol for 31 days. Originally, I was just going to quit alcohol for a month but I figured there's little benefit if I continue filling my face with pork pies!!
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Traveling through the rural villages of Malawi, the third poorest country in the world, has taught me lessons on another level. We all know that children are our future. It's a phrase we often hear and I guess some people think more seriously about this than others. I had rarely thought about it. But now, reflecting on my journey in Malawi, I can’t stop thinking about the struggle for the young people here compared to the comfort they have in developed countries.
Back in March this year I took on a challenge of walking the Australian Alpine Walking Track, 670km, solo and unsupported. This was a real test of my power and skill. Thankfully I made it out alive and I have been lucky enough to have had a short movie of the trip made for me. It has been made by Benedict Armitage who is studying to become a film maker. He has done a fabulous job and I'm really happy to share this with you all. Enjoy!! 2016, I decided, was going to be my year for giving back to world. In 2015, I did some amazing things, had some incredible adventures but they were all things that I wanted to do and were basically just for my own pleasure. Of course, this was absolutely amazing but I felt a little lacking afterwards. This year I made some changes, and goals based around helping others and making a difference.
So here I am in Malawi for two months supporting someone who now has become a very close friend. A year ago I didn’t even know Brendan Rendall. We met for a coffee last summer so he could pick my brains about running in Africa. After meeting a few times and learning more about this mans passion, I really wanted to help support his challenge in Malawi. Now, July 2016, I have spent pretty much every minute of every day with him for the past four weeks, and we are having an absolute blast.
You may remember about a month ago, myself and my friend Duncan Brown, attempted to run all of the 7 Peaks trail runs in Victoria, Australia. In total, they add up to about 120km of running with over 750km of driving between them. We started early on the first morning hoping to complete all the runs in about 36 hours and finishing by dinner the next day. To say the weather started off badly would be an understatement but from there on it got worse and worse. Duncan, being a true Australian, had never been for a run in temperatures below 30 degrees centigrade. By the end of the third run, after running in almost freezing temperatures for hours on end, his legs stiffened up and refused to run. Unfortunately, our attempt ended here but Duncan has made a smashing video that displays the conditions we dealt with. Enjoy...
I am so pleased to announce where my bike and equipment will be exploring over the coming few months. After writing this blog and offering my bike out to the nation, I had various applications. I whittled it down to three individuals to use my bike at times that worked together. Unfortunately one of those people has since become injured so there will only be two people making use of this oppurtunity.
Here is a little info about the final two. I'm sure they'd love you to give them a follow... I don't know about you but the thought of running more than 6km is pretty painful to me!
So, increasing the distance of my weekly runs, to train for a long event, is pretty daunting until I apply this process that has worked for me a number of times. At the end of December I wrote this blog offering the use of my touring bike and equipment to someone that wanted to go on an adventure but couldn't. I was very happy that the message got spread far and wide. I even had someone apply from America!
The idea for this came as I wanted to bring my bike with me to Australia and New Zealand but I couldn't due to baggage allowance. This made me pretty upset, and I then thought, well how must people feel if they don't have a bike at all to start with. So the idea of allowing people to share my bike was born... At the beginning of last year I wrote this blog post about how I hoped for 2015 to be. My goal for the year was simple... to live stress free.
Did I achieve that? No. I don't think I ever can as I care too much. If you don't care about anything then you don't stress. But I do stress as I want to be a good person and I care. As I write this blog I am entirely unsure whether what I am about to write is a positive or negative review of the past year. Do you dream of traveling somewhere by bike? Going on a cycling adventure? But missing the main piece of equipment? Well, look no further. I am donating the use of my bike to someone wanting to go on a journey sometime in 2016 between February and May.
I hate the thought of anything being wasted. 'Sharing's caring' is one of my favourite phrases. So, as I will be out of the country traveling for the next few months I would like to see my bike not sitting in a garage rusting but out and about facilitating adventure! |
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