Well yesterday finally came and Lorne certainly turned on a sensation day for us. Beautiful weather with immaculate conditions. We did it.. and if I do say so myself, we did it well.
Our team name – Stay Tuned for One in Five to be None in Five…
Our goal - to raise funds so the current level of mental illness affecting 1 in 5 people can some day be hopefully 0 in 5.
I must say that I was nervous leading up to the day but a few last minute personal sessions with the kayaking great – Tim Altman helped immensely both in confidence and skills. A wake up call of 4:30am on race day so we could get our kayaks set up and in the transition area wasnt the greatest part of the day but you could feel the excitement building even before the sun came up.
The great man, Matt Rowe completed our swim in just over 40minutes and sent me on my way.. With the beach behind me I set off with about 500 other kayaks in what was an amazing 90 minutes of very hard, but very enjoyable paddling. We turned the first buoy and to my surprise I was feeling pretty good. I went along trying to focus on the next paddler and do my best to pass them as I pushed along the 13km course. Of course many far better paddlers than I had the same idea and passed me, but what was great was the many people who said G’day and my fellow One in Five paddlers who also shouted out support as we passed each other.
As the photo’s show I was pretty happy to come into the beach and be greeted, and cheered by a swarm of blue shirts (the uniform top of all the One in Five participants) and passed the bib and timing belt to our great runner, Brooke Taylor who tore off up the mountain and what I am told was a very challenging but interesting run. After she finished the tough run, she then did the same to Matt who went off on a very long and difficult trail ride then we all met to run the last 1.5km along the beach (me bare foot with thongs in hand..).
Overall we had an awesome day and every One in Five team finished the race without too many injuries. A huge congratulations to Steve and Ollie who completed the entire challenge themselves.. Well done lads.
Now onto the next challenge – mountain bike riding, trail runs or even the Melbourne half marathon next year for One in Five again… and who knows maybe a return to Lorne for another Anaconda… all i can say is Stay Tuned….
Thanks to my parents who came down and all of you who supported me and the charity throughout this challenge. It looks like we will raise close to $50,000 for the Mental Health Research Institute.
The good news – it’s not too late so log on (http://www.onlinegiving.com.au/pages/PaulHermann1.aspx) and donate what you can. If you have already – thank you. Good luck with your own challenges..
