Rewind back to the Philippines, we’d just swam with the magnificent whale sharks in the controversial waters of Oslob and were one week out from the Bali-Hope SwimRun. Things were going Swimmingly, literally, until we hit drove into a gravel-covered bend on the road. Our motorbike slipped out and we hit the deck. One of came out with a fractured wrist and I came out with a few cuts.
Two months on, the wound on my ankle has been through infection and still hasn’t managed to close over. In turn, the edges of the ‘chronic wound’ (as labeled by the doctor) scarred along the edges and ulcered underneath. I delayed the inevitable but I had no choice other than to go and see a doc to get this fixed once and for all. The doc said a small surgery was necessary, so I opted for the next possible appointment. Fortunately, I was able to jump into the operating room promptly and have my ankle fixed up. Things were back to going swimmingly, except I could no longer do the whole swimming thing, or the beloved running thing either.
Mr Doctor said I couldn’t run or swim for 9-10 days. That’s always a tough one to swallow when one of my main priorities is to be training every day at the moment, building my fitness and work capacity towards the Bali-Hope Ultra Marathon in May. Taking things from another perspective, I hadn’t missed a day of training for 3 months (excluding long haul transits) so maybe I was due for a couple of days of rest. They might even do me well? Adding on from that, there are people with injuries out of the game a lot longer than me. So 9-10 days is nothing in the big scheme of things.
Moments before entering the Doctor’s operating theatre, I thought I’d take an opportunistic approach to life and spontaneously book a flight to Melbourne. Leaving two hours after the Doctor would make the first incision into my ankle. I know it’s not advised to fly, and I should be doing those things like ‘R.I.C.E’ but I can’t sit still for too long.
Out of the Doctors I walked, (there was no running, or skipping or bounding) to quickly pack my bag before leaving. I’m very efficient at the art of packing now, so it didn’t take me long at all.
With a busy year ahead of me and many projects that I want to work on, I decided the goal for my time in Melbourne was to get on top of as many of these ideas and projects as possible. If I could lay the foundation and get the ball rolling for as many of these projects as possible, it would be a successful time away.
Photoshoot from Melbourne, shot by Christopher Robert.
My time in Melbourne was spent with close friends amongst the tall trees of Mount Macedon. I spent my days bouncing ideas around with close family friends and working on the first projects of this year. Namely, my speech at the Rad Livin festival in March (Sydney) and The Growth Mindset: The Siargao Session that I’ll be hosting in April (Philippines) were the primary projects. I am very excited to speak at RadLivin to a crowd of 500 young and innovative people, as well as host 10 people in Siargao with the intention of springboarding them into the rest of 2019 with a positive and motivated mindset.
I believe sometimes to get great work done, you have to put yourself in environments which you can fully immerse yourself in your thoughts allowing you to put out your best work.
Jog for Joey – Sean Bell
I pushed the boundaries whilst I was in Melbourne and jumped in for a run with my mate Sean Bell. He is currently running 50 marathons in 50 days. The overall run he has named ‘Jog for Joey’ as he raises money and awareness for The Compassionate Friends Charity which looks after bereaved families. Sean’s best mate Joey died at the age of 18 in his sleep. To this day, they still don’t know why. Unfortunately, Joey’s parents have lost many friends since his death as people often don’t know how to talk to someone after they have lost a loved one. Sean is an incredible guy, his positivity and passion were truly infectious. I stated before the run I was only going to do 5km, but once joining him, I ended up doing 27km. I wanted to help get him through at least one of the many marathons he is due to complete.
Check out Sean on insta @seanbellfitness. His journey is seriously worth following.
Hope you had a great week,
JL
