I had the pleasure last week to attend a film screening and Q&A with Richard Bowles about the documentary on his running adventure of South Australia’s 1200km Heysen Trail.
The Heysen Trail travels along some of South Australia's most stunning scenery landscapes. Beginning in Parachilna Gorge in Australia's desert outback, the trail navigates, rocky ranges and gorges, through pine forests and undulating hills in to region’s famous wine country, through rich farming pastures, before reaching its conclusion at Cape Jervis with the picturesque backdrop of the South Australia shoreline and views out to the Great Australia Bight.
photo: heysentrail.asn.au
The film follows his physical and mental journey in his attempt to complete the challenge of running the entire Heysen Trail. This included dealing with the unexpected – the need to detour off the course due to bushfires and a flat car battery with his support vehicle.
Richard averaged 86 km a day (more than 2 marathons) on what was a demanding trail with many climbs and tricky trails to manoeuvre across the picturesque countryside. The previous record was 35 days. Richard broke the record and finished in 14 days, 8 hours and 32 minutes.
Richard gave an inspiring and insightful Q & A after the screening on dealing with, and overcoming his fears, pain, self-doubt and persevering to achieve his goals and dreams (and how you can too!) in this running adventure and his other amazing runs around the world.
I think his persistence was perfectly captured in the film when Richard was clearly mentally struggling at a particular moment during the run and he achieved a moment of clarity to admire a beautiful moonlit sky above in spite of all that was going on around him. It’s sometimes it’s the simplest moments in life you treasure most.
Richard was asked why he does it, incredibly he says he, ‘doesn’t much like running but it’s a feeling he gets to undertake these adventures’.
I asked Richard about his next adventure, he replied, ‘I don’t know yet’ but he did allude to a couple of other projects coming up.
With Richard Bowles at the Film Screening
Richard ran in support of Red Dust Role Models to raise awareness and funds for remote indigenous communities who deliver health programs with focus on sport, music, art and dance activities.
To find out more about Richard Bowles click here
To find out more about the Heysen Trail click here