18-24 Jul

There are many questions that everybody asks when I tell them what I’m doing – hopefully these pages will provide answers to some of these. If you’d like me to address a particular point then drop me a line, otherwise I’ll just waffle on a bit about things I think you might like to know!

For now, I’ll attempt to answer what is probably the question – why? There is certainly no simple answer: something glib like “because it’s there” doesn’t really cut it, and in reality there are a whole heap of reasons.

First and foremost is the simple fact that somebody suggested it. My rowing partner Dan is a bit of an exercise freak: really into his endurance events, and he had been considering the race for some time. He asked me if I was interested while we were on a rafting trip in Alaska with a bunch of mates, which I guess was perfect timing on his part. I’d been missing all the adventurous stuff I used to do before Uni, and rafting in the wilderness opened my eyes to it again. I was taken by the idea immediately; it didn’t take me long to say yes.

Secondly is the fact that it’s a race, and one that we have a serious shot at winning, or at least doing very well. It’s an extension of the rowing that Dan and I immersed ourselves in at Uni, and what attracted us to the sport in the first place was that hard work produced rewards. So it’s a perfect fit really, and for a competitive nature such as mine, a challenge I couldn’t refuse.

Also, it just sounds damn cool. Yes, everybody thinks you’re insane, but that’s part of the thrill: if it was easy or commonplace, what would be the point? This is something that I want to be able to look back on and think “Yeah, that was me. I did that. It was really hard, but I did it.” It’s a challenge that will (and already is) force me to redefine what I think I can achieve. After getting myself across an ocean by human power, what is there that I can’t do?

And lastly, we can do some good with it – the money that we raise for charity will go to two really worthy organisations. We picked one each, mine being the Make-a-Wish Foundation (Dan’s is Cancer Research), and I honestly can’t think of many things better than taking an ill child, possibly terminally so, and giving them a moment of release from their pain; putting a smile back on their face.