no more mr fat guy
The first public proof that change was possible, one run and one post at a time.
Perth to Brisbane / 16 May to 17 September 2015
I crossed Australia to prove that ordinary people can attempt extraordinary things.
For twenty years, I thought goals were pointless. Hearts Across Australia grew out of the personal journey that changed my mindset, my health, and what I believed was possible.
Starting point 142.6kg
Back in the days of "no more mr fat guy", change began before Hearts Across Australia had a name.
First proof 6h 47mPerth Marathon, 16 June 2013: slow, stubborn, finished.
The crossing 5400 kmA west-to-east crossing built from daily distance, support, doubt, and grit.
Day by day 125 daysBegin with the last few days before departure, Day One, and the first two weeks toward Kalgoorlie.
The origin
The mindset change that made the crossing possible.
For more than twenty years, I believed there was no point setting goals because life would kick them out from under me. Worse than that, life kept giving me evidence that the belief was true.
Back in the days of "no more mr fat guy", that started to change. Running, writing, Sunday long runs, early mornings, and eventually my first marathon gave me a different kind of evidence.
Hearts Across Australia grew out of that personal journey. It was my way of making belief visible after my own life had been changed by allowing myself to believe something impossible might be possible.
The marathon proof
One finish line changed what I believed was possible.
The impossible idea
Perth to Brisbane became a way to make belief visible.
Before the start line
Four ultras, walk-to-work sessions, back-to-back days, and one final rehearsal from Bunbury back to Perth.
The crossing
Perth to Brisbane became the lived test: logistics, pain, strangers, weather, and kilometres.
Before the start line
The journey started long before I left Canning River parkrun.
Day One can look like the clean beginning. It was not. The beginning was messier and more useful than that: the moment I said the Perth to Brisbane idea out loud, then had to become the person who could actually attempt it.
Through late 2013, 2014, and the final months before departure, training stopped being about normal race goals and became a rehearsal for the life I was about to live for the next four months.
Oct 2013
The idea went public
The Perth to Brisbane thought was first aired as something half mad and completely alive. Naming it changed the shape of everything that followed.
Four ultrasProof by repetition
The lead-up became a string of ultra-distance tests, including 6 Inch, Australia Day Ultra, Lark Hill, and Bunbury 3 Waters.
Training blocksLearning to move tired
Walks to work, back-to-back long walks, and the overnight 53km effort built the plain, stubborn skill I was going to need every day.
Apr 2015The dress rehearsal
Bunbury 3 Waters was followed by three days on foot back to Perth. It tested distance, logistics, gear, feet, and the mental work of starting again each morning.
By the time Hearts Across Australia officially began, the story was no longer just "I had an idea and left." It was "I had an idea, trained inside it for months, and arrived at the start already changed by the attempt."
The walk
Belief became action one day at a time.
The crossing became real in the ordinary details: mornings, sore feet, wrong turns, support crew calls, small meals, big signs, amazing memories, and the slow proof that the distance was actually shrinking.
"Today is that day."
The story begins before sunrise, with belief becoming public and the first 52 kilometres making the impossible measurable.
Learning to walk again.
My feet hurt, we took more rest days than planned, and Markus helped line up Julie's painful, brilliant Southern Cross massage.
My Rivendell, then the wilderness.
Kalgoorlie arrived with Allison's support, Rydges rooms, and a hotel finish line. After Norseman, the Nullarbor was mine.
The journey got busier.
After Adelaide, capital cities were closer, the journey became more about everyone, and Brisbane became "155 parkruns to go".
Where to begin
The story starts in the days before I left Perth.
Before the start line
The long build and the last few days before Canning River parkrun: the training, the rehearsals, the jokes, the campervan, the birthday, and the feeling that the idea was about to become physical.
Today Is The Day
The public start began at Canning River parkrun. The private start began earlier, in bed, with fear, doubt, and the simple truth that I really wanted to do the thing.
The Long Push To Merredin
The early days stopped being symbolic and started being practical: sore feet, food, night movement, support-crew decisions, and returning to the previous finish point so the crossing had no gaps.
Southern Cross Was A Rest Day, Sort Of
The first rest days were not neat little pauses. They were body maintenance, help from good people, and the kind of painful massage that let me keep moving.
A Finish Line At Rivendell
Kalgoorlie was not the finish, but it felt like the first proper arrival: local runners, media, donated rooms, and a finish line waiting at Rydges.
"Today is that day."
16 May 2015 / Day One"Day one done. 52k."
16 May 2015 / first day report"Nullarbor, here we come!"
Early June 2015 / edge of the next test"This is just the beginning."
17 September 2015 / BrisbaneWhat comes next
The walk is finished. The work of making it useful is not.
Keep telling the whole story properly.
I want to give the crossing the space it deserves: the change before it, the fear at the start, the hard days, the funny bits, the people who carried it, and what I can only understand now.
Share what the crossing taught me.
For anyone staring at their own too-big thing, this can become practical, honest material about training, planning, asking for help, raising money, handling doubt, and getting up again the next morning.
Make room for the people around it.
Hearts Across Australia began as my walk, but it was never only mine. Supporters, donors, hosts, runners, walkers, towns, family, sponsors, strangers, and future adventurers all belong in what it becomes.
Heart health
The cause that found its place in the story.
Hearts Across Australia started as a personal demonstration of belief. It soon became connected to the Heart Foundation, and that made sense because heart health was already part of my own story.
If the story nudges you to support their work, you can donate directly through the Heart Foundation.
The broader roll call of people and places who made HAA possible now lives on the Sponsors & Supporters page.
The north star