source : the age
Most teenagers mark their 18th birthdays with a party.
Rohan Martin Ritchie spent his running 100km for charity on a hot and muggy Sunday morning.
“I will not be going out partying,” said the Year 12 student, after nearly nine hours on his feet.
“I’m going to have an ice bath and lie down for a long time.”
Friends and relatives cheered, and some ran alongside him at times, as he ran 33 and a bit circuits of a 3km loop beside Gardiner’s Creek in Burwood, in Melbourne’s east.
Just before 1pm, as the temperature climbed to 29 degrees, Martin Ritchie lay on the ground in exhaustion.
But he rallied when supporters, including parents Jen and Euan, sang Happy Birthday. He later said that apart from sore legs and a tender stomach, he felt fine.
“He absolutely smashed it,” his mother, Jen said. The run had so far raised over $14,000 on MyCause for the youth mental health organisation, headspace.
Rohan averaged five minutes and 23 seconds per kilometre across the 100 kilometres.
“We are beyond proud of him because it was really hard work,” she said. He did eight months of heat training, which included training in warm clothes.
Rohan, a Box Hill High School captain, started the run in the dark at 4am and said he never thought of cancelling due to the heat.
“It wasn’t an option. I was never going to not do it,” he said. ”Unless I broke a leg or something. I promised myself I would.”
Of turning 18, he said: “I’ve never been a massive party person. I naturally like going to bed quite early.
“I’ve also developed a love for running over the past few years. So, I wanted to combine that love for running with a way to help people, and do something that I thought was meaningful, rather than just having a party that I wasn’t that excited about.”
He had seen “first-hand how many teenagers and young adults struggle silently with stress, anxiety, and depression” and finds running helps with his own mental health.
Proceeds will go to the Box Hill branch of headspace.
Headspace CEO Jason Trethowan said:
“Not only will the money raised by Rohan help headspace Box Hill to keep supporting young people, but Rohan is also having an important impact on stigma.
“It’s really powerful when young people like Rohan share the message with their friends that it’s OK to get help for your mental health.″
Gill Callister CEO of Mind Australia, which manages headspace Box Hill, said:
“The funds Rohan raises will make a life-changing difference to young people in the Box Hill community who need support.”
She said it would allow headspace Box Hill to expand community engagement with schools and sporting groups, and host activities for young people and the broader community.
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