Well… the bad news is that Wynnum local Andrew Niven didn’t beat the Guinness World Record for the longest row on an indoor rowing machine within a 24 hour period (see our previous article here). But the good news is that he still raised over $20K for Deadly Choices in the process! Here’s what Andrew had to say recently about his record attempt…
That was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life but at the same time the most rewarding. I didn’t quite break the record over the weekend but I gave it absolutely everything that I had and the final result was just shy of 5 marathons in a row in a single day which is not too bad!
More importantly, we have raised over $22,000 for Deadly Choices which is far beyond what I could have imagined. Thank you so much to everyone that has donated personally and a special shoutout to the SJ Hill Foundation ($10,000), Holding Redlich ($3,000), Baidam Solutions Pty Ltd ($1,000) and The McKell Institute ($300) for their corporate/philanthropic donations.
Some of my favourite moments of the day: rowing with Willie Tonga for 40min, seeing over 200 people show up throughout the day, having my wife and kids there to watch and support me, having two major opportunities to quit and walk away but I chose to overcome the bad thoughts and continue on both occasions.
For the record, I was on track for the first 8-9 hours but then the heat of the day got to me. I also laid in an ice bath for too long in one of my breaks which sent my body into shock, that cost me too long to recover and I knew it would be difficult to come back from there.
WynnumCentral congratulates Andrew for his extraordinary effort and for his amazing fundraising for a very worthy cause. Maybe next time…
