Mower in tow for epic marathon

Richard Holt is hoping to raise more than eyebrows when he uses a harness to tow a ride-on mower for the marathon distance of 42.2km next month.

The founder of The Holt Bolt and its charity arm, Bolting Ahead, will set off from Moreton Bay Food + Wine Festival at 8.30pm on August 23 for the epic challenge which he expects could take 12-16 hours.

He will tow the mower, weighing more than 200kg, from Woody Point to Shorncliffe via the Ted Smout Memorial Bridge’s pedestrian path, then up to Scarborough and back to the festival site at Apex Park.

The ambitious Marathon Mow Tow aims to raise funds and awareness of the Backyard Bolters program, which creates employment and training opportunities for young people with a disability through its lawn mowing social enterprise.

At present six young people have developed mowing and gardening skills and are paid for their work as permanent part-time employees.

The work has given them income, purpose and direction for the future, as well as invaluable social connection.

Richard and his team want to create a Backyard Bolters Academy, giving two more crews of six people the chance to get involved as well as those keen to develop administrative skills in the office.

He hopes towing a ride-on mower more than 40km will raise awareness, support and money to achieve that goal.

“We wanted to do something that was tied in with our charity (and the lawn mowing component). We knew that it would be pretty out-there and get people’s attention,” Richard says.

While he hasn’t attempted anything quite like this before, he did walk and run 264km from Aspley to Maryborough in seven days in 2023 to raise money for Bolting Ahead.

“That was quite a feat considering I had never really done long-distance running before,” he recalls.

This challenge will test his physical strength and endurance as well as his mental fortitude.

“It’s a little bit more than what I’m used to and obviously I can take this more at my own pace … but it is the distance and the weight that’s going to grind you down over time with this kind of challenge,” Richard says.

“Sled training is the way that I have been training for it at the moment. That’s getting a weights sled, attaching a harness and putting as much weight as I can on it for as long as I can.

“The first day I put the sled on, it almost killed me. Since then, I’ve become a lot more confident with that and pulling mowers feels a lot more comfortable than it did at the start.

“I’ve still got another couple of months of training and I’m pretty confident that I will be able to do it.”

Richard says he will complete a trial run without a mower, to start with, to familiarise himself with the course and work out the pace at which he needs to run.

“From there, I’ll start doing it with weight packs and from there I guess I’ll put a mower on and do some of the distance to make sure it feels comfortable and see how long I can do it with minimal rest breaks,” he says.

Locals might spot him sled training at Woody Point, and he will also practice at Sandgate and Chermside, and with the mower on a friend’s property.

“I was very nervous when I first started training, but I’m feeling a lot more excited now about the prospect,” Richard says.

“I feel like I have the physical capacity to do it … it’s the mental capacity. You get to a point where you go, ‘I can’t, I can’t’. But then I feel like I stop, and I think ‘I’m good, I can go again’.

“It’s just getting over those hurdles. It ties in really well … our whole thing is about overcoming obstacles with what we do.

“The young people that we work with … they have to overcome so many different obstacles every single day with the different disabilities they may have, and they don’t see them as disabilities.

“For me, I think if they can overcome those obstacles, I can do my best to overcome this one.”

Call for support

Businesses wanting to support Marathon Mow Tow can make a donation to ride on the mower and steer it during a leg of the journey.

There will also be gold sponsorship packages of $2500, which include four tickets to a Moreton Bay Food + Wine festival bungalow (thanks to the festival) and enable a sponsor to jump on board for a ride during one segment of the course. Their logo will be displayed on the support crew van, which will follow Richard, and their logo will be included on flags to be flown on the mower.

To find out more, email [email protected]

Official charity partner

Bolting Ahead is the official charity partner for this year’s Moreton Bay Food + Wine Festival, which aims to raise $50,000. The festival will donate $200 from every Sunday private bungalow booking. Visit moretonbayfoodandwine.com.au