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Kevin Raises over $11,000 for autism school Giant Steps Sydney, completing a 2km swim, 83km bike ride and 20km run
Looking
back it is the simple things in life that many people take for granted
and during the past two months it made me appreciate even more the
value of time, especially personal time. Having an autistic child is
incredibly demanding on all aspects of your life and requires non stop
attention. Finding time to train was very difficult and often meant
sacrificing sleep with early morning rises. My daily questions always
persist about my son Carlos, will he wake in a good mood, will he walk
to school, will he eat something different today compared to every
other day, will he let me park the car on the left hand side of the
street, will he say a word today, will he every talk to us and a
question we ask every day . . how will he manage later in life. Taking on the challenge to do a long course triathlon, I seriously under estimated the amount of time required to prepare, 2km swim is not far I thought, 83 km bike is a long way but manageable and 20km run (half marathon) . . . well lets just hope becasue I ran that distance twice before about 15 years ago.
Sunday the 26th was a hot 30 degree day and all was going well after I finished the swim in 33 minutes, watched a few people pass me over the next 2 hours 45 minutes on the bike and then came my mental pain barrier. I under estimated how hard I was going to find it getting off the bike and coaching my body into moving quickly on foot. How do you get off a bike and get your body to move over 20km in the mid day heat along a pathway next to the pristine blue water and white sands of Jervis Bay. Needless to say the lack of running kms in my legs reduced some of my run to a walk. Motivated by the difficulty autistic children have at an opportunity for a normal life as we know it, I did not give up and continued on to the finish line. The big achievement was to finish and I did that in just under 5 hours and 45 minutes. Monday the body was in some physical pain with one challenge being over, however the other challenge will be with our family for the remainder of our lives.
I sincerely appreciate the extremely generous support I have received from everyone who made a donation on via the website or who sent them to me directly. Some donations are still finding there way to me, but all up I have raised just over $11,000. Thank you once again.