![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckycanuckIt feels great.
The first hour was very quiet, but my friends Sam and Justin came by on their way to work and joined me for a while. They were both with me when I hit the 1,000 pushup mark at 7:40am. It was great to have the moral support.
The rest of the morning was pretty straight forward. I was in the shade, I had a lot of interested (or confused) parties coming by, including some media, some friends and colleagues whom I hadn't seen for a while, some school kids who wanted photos with me, Santa Clause, and some locals who wound up helping me out by making me lunch so I could relax. At all times, every minute I got down and did my prescribed ten pushups.
Jake "Pushup" King from Richmond Australian Football Club came by a little past noon. He once did 303 pushups in a row in training, but by the time he came by I had already done nearly 4,000 so I told him he had some catching up to do. We got a good photo of him cheering me on that appeared in the highest circulating newspaper in the state the following day.
After everyone left the photoshoot, I found the shady spot I was in was now off limits to me, and for about an hour I was stuck doing pushups in the sun. Despite a visit from a supporter bearing drinks and snacks who has his own depression blog, my time in the sun took a lot out of me, and eventually I had to take cover in a corner where there was still shade. From about 1:30pm to 3:30pm I hid out there, recovering and feeling kind of low. There were one or two visits in that time but for the most part I was on my own, and I focused on just doing the pushups without distractions.
Eventually I had recovered enough to get back into a more public space where I finished the last two and a half hours. By 4:00pm I was getting an increasing feeling that I was going to finish. Again, passers by were very supportive, sometimes joining me for a set or two and sometimes bringing food along.
Into the last hour my mood was elevated again as the end was in sight. A friend joined me for the last fifteen sets, and I cruised home. I had done 7,200 pushups in 12 hours. I felt great for about five minutes, and then I just felt tired. Some locals whom I met while waiting for a taxi afterwards remarked on how tired I looked, then remarked on how fresh I looked under the circumstances after I told them what I had done.
The best part was that there was no mental/emotional crash to following day like there has been on other occasions when I tried Black Dog Pushups.
The reception I got in Melbourne was inspiring. Parts of the challenge were trying, parts were frustrating, but overall the experience was great. For a while, instead of feeling stalked by the black dog, I felt bulletproof.
www.everydayhero.com.au/blackdogpushups
Twitter: @blackdogpushups
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Dog-Pushups/220574198010624
The first hour was very quiet, but my friends Sam and Justin came by on their way to work and joined me for a while. They were both with me when I hit the 1,000 pushup mark at 7:40am. It was great to have the moral support.
The rest of the morning was pretty straight forward. I was in the shade, I had a lot of interested (or confused) parties coming by, including some media, some friends and colleagues whom I hadn't seen for a while, some school kids who wanted photos with me, Santa Clause, and some locals who wound up helping me out by making me lunch so I could relax. At all times, every minute I got down and did my prescribed ten pushups.
Jake "Pushup" King from Richmond Australian Football Club came by a little past noon. He once did 303 pushups in a row in training, but by the time he came by I had already done nearly 4,000 so I told him he had some catching up to do. We got a good photo of him cheering me on that appeared in the highest circulating newspaper in the state the following day.
After everyone left the photoshoot, I found the shady spot I was in was now off limits to me, and for about an hour I was stuck doing pushups in the sun. Despite a visit from a supporter bearing drinks and snacks who has his own depression blog, my time in the sun took a lot out of me, and eventually I had to take cover in a corner where there was still shade. From about 1:30pm to 3:30pm I hid out there, recovering and feeling kind of low. There were one or two visits in that time but for the most part I was on my own, and I focused on just doing the pushups without distractions.
Eventually I had recovered enough to get back into a more public space where I finished the last two and a half hours. By 4:00pm I was getting an increasing feeling that I was going to finish. Again, passers by were very supportive, sometimes joining me for a set or two and sometimes bringing food along.
Into the last hour my mood was elevated again as the end was in sight. A friend joined me for the last fifteen sets, and I cruised home. I had done 7,200 pushups in 12 hours. I felt great for about five minutes, and then I just felt tired. Some locals whom I met while waiting for a taxi afterwards remarked on how tired I looked, then remarked on how fresh I looked under the circumstances after I told them what I had done.
The best part was that there was no mental/emotional crash to following day like there has been on other occasions when I tried Black Dog Pushups.
The reception I got in Melbourne was inspiring. Parts of the challenge were trying, parts were frustrating, but overall the experience was great. For a while, instead of feeling stalked by the black dog, I felt bulletproof.
www.everydayhero.com.au/blackdogpushups
Twitter: @blackdogpushups
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Dog-Pushups/220574198010624
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-12-22 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-22 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-22 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-22 10:01 pm (UTC)As you were, bub.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 08:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 01:35 pm (UTC)