There were 505 people running in the Newrun Marathon in Newcastle yesterday, but only one of them ran the entire 42 kilometres with a lawn mower.
Part of the Newcastle Running Festival, the competitors lined up on Wharf Road at 6am yesterday to start – most were double checking their shoe laces were tight, but Daniel Robinson was double checking that his catcher was secure.
Daniel has done something crazy to raise money before. He spent 12 hours running up and down Mt Tomaree last year doing 40 push ups at the top after every lap to raise money for headspace.
headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, has offices right across the Hunter helping young people experiencing mental health issues.
Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people in Australia and if that wasn’t bad enough, each year one in four young people experience a mental health issue.
Daniel wanted to raise money to help headspace help every one of those young Aussies.
“I wanted to run a marathon while doing something that I haven’t seen before. It took me a while to think it up,
“Then one day, while mowing the lawn, it came to me,” Daniel said.
“It will be quite the effort, but I love this kind of thing. I love pushing myself and this time I will not only be pushing myself, but I also get to push a lawn mower!”
Daniel finished the marathon yesterday with a time of 04:04:37 crossing the line in 198th place out of the overall marathon runners.
“The hardest part was making sure I didn’t trip or mow anyone down. The physical part of it wasn’t too bad. It was hard, but the way the crowd and everyone was getting behind it kind of made hte pain insignificant.
“It was a great feeling crossing the line knowing that it was over.
“I honestly never knew how it would go and I knew it was going to be a battle.It was great to have my wide and kids waiting for me!
“I was surprised with how quickly I completed it. I ended up finishing an hours before I expected at 4:04, I had a pretty steady pace.”
Daniel wants to raise $20,000 for his efforts yesterday, he’s about a third of the way there. You can help here: https://fundraising.headspace.org.au/fundraisers/tomaree12/newrun-mowathon