Their spirit lives on

Anzac Day 2020

They served, they fought, they sacrificed.

Over the last few years, on Anzac Day, I’ve been organising and participating in a 21km hike at midnight leading into the local Dawn Service.

I started doing this as way to reflect deeper on the meaning of Anzac Day by way of making myself uncomfortable and challenged.

The two hikes that we ran were amazing experiences and provided the exact responses we were looking for; dark, cold, tired, sore, but surrounded by mates with a common goal and no thoughts of stopping. It definitely presented a deeper reflection at the commencement of the dawn service.

This year I wasn’t hiking so I challenged myself to do 1000 box step ups with 20kgs of added weight at 4:30am leading in to the driveway Dawn Service.

These challenges are the best way I know how to pay my respects and it was another great experience. Being able to voluntarily make myself uncomfortable in a relatively safe world is the result of their sacrifice and one that I will never take for granted.

I had multiple re calibrations during this challenge and although it was shorter then my hike, it was a lot more painful. Good. That’s what I was looking for and it’s something that I happily smiled about during it.

There was one stage, somewhere in the 300’s, that I had a few weak thoughts, ones of maybe quitting or stopping at 500 and how sore I already was. The mind loves to try and change the goalposts as soon as something gets hard. I was listening to some Anzac stories and right at the moment of weakness, I heard some machine gun effects and I just laughed and said to myself “Don’t be a sook, you are completely comfortable in a nice warm shed with some sore quads. Keep bloody stepping.”

It didn’t necessarily get easier after that but I fell into a good rhythm and kept chipping away. Somewhere in the 600’s I was pretty zoned in to the podcast and there was a minute or two that was just the sounds of the day. The planes, the bombs, the guns and bullets, the voices, the panting, the ocean, all of it. I closed my eyes for that minute and was just there. My legs were burning, not from the step ups but from running up the sand with packs and guns, I was scared but felt a huge sense of duty, and a deep sense of comradeship from being with my brothers in that moment.

I asked myself “Did they know that day, how great their role and sacrifice would be to history?”

I hope so.

I hope they knew that they would live in us and that we would continue to carry their spirit as a nation.

I finished my 1000 step ups with a smile on my face and grateful for the ability to achieve it.

Thank you to all past, present and future members of the armed forces.

Lest we forget.

“Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valor in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship, and endurance that will never own defeat.” Charles Bean

Pursue your potential

Dice