July 2010

Mr Hogan, one of the teachers at my school (Elanora High), has worked very hard over the past few years to get a very popular program going revolving around tackling the grueling 96 km Kokoda Challenge for charity here on the Gold Coast.

This year the school had 3 teams of 4 students and a teacher competing in the full distance (96 km) (I think there were 66 school teams in total) and quite a number of teams doing the half Kokoda.

I was in one of those 3 teams tackling the 96 km track along with:

  • my brother Harry,
  • friends Ryan and Nathan and
  • Mr Hogan.

We Won & Broke The Old Record

We were lucky enough to have everything go right for us – including having an incredible Support Crew of parents and brothers and sisters – and were able to achieve our 2 goals for the trek:

  • be the first school team to finish, and
  • break the old record of 19 hours and 36 minutes (we beat it by 21 minutes).

We were awarded the Stan Bisset Cup for being the first school team.

Thanks to Mr Hogan, teachers, our Support Crew and the other Elanora High lads who we walked/ran with for most of the way.

An incredible achievement by all teams to finish.

Met Stan Bisset MC OAM MID

Harry and I read up on Mr Bisset – he’s a Kokoda Hero, a recipient of the Military Cross and Order of Australia Medal and Australia’s oldest living Wallaby (Australia’s Rugby team players).

We found out he lives on the Sunshine Coast and called to see if he’d like a visit from a couple of lads who are very proud to have won the Cup named in his honour.

Mr Bisset and his lovely wife Gloria made us feel very welcome and were a real joy to chat with.

Harry and I feel very honoured to have met such an inspirational and giving person.

Mr Stan Bisset and I

Mr Stan Bisset and I

Jack

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Lots of Flying & Some Running

by admin on July 5, 2010

I’m back from flying for a couple of weeks at Tamworth as part of the flight screening to get accepted as a pilot in the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Did a ton of flying with lots of aerobatics, fantastic instructors and a great group of guys on my course.  The flight back home was a little dull after flying rolls, loops and lots more!

I was lucky enough to be recommended.

Ran Gold Coast Half Marathon Yesterday

Arrived home on Saturday and then ran the Gold Coast Half Marathon on Sunday morning.  I did the full marathon last year and thought I’d see if I could do the Half in under 1 & 1/2 hours.

Ran okay and slowed in the last few kilometres to come in at 1 hr 32 mins and 34 secs.

My mum ran her first ever marathon and did an amazing job – her 3 goals were:

  1. to finish,
  2. run all the way and
  3. run under 5 hours.

She did all that and we’re all bursting with pride.

Next up I have the 96 km Kokoda Challenge where my team (my brother Harry, and friends Ryan and Nathan and teacher Mr Hogan) are aiming to break the schoolboy record.

We’ve been training really hard, so we could give it a decent crack.

Then It Gets Easier!

After that it gets easier!

I then have a school trip to tropical Herron Island, the school skiing trip, then a trip to New York to do some work with Big Brothers Big Sisters International.

I’m also going to run the Brisbane Half Marathon on August 1 – trying to get under the 1 hr 30 mins for the 21.1 kilometres.

Still Doing Speeches

I’m still doing a few speeches around the place to:

  • Scout groups,
  • community and
  • business groups – so if your organisation would like me to come along (usually with my dad) to talk about our ride across Australia to raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Australia then I’d love to hear from you:  jack@jacksinclair.com.au.

Cheers

Jack

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