By BRIDGET COOK
ON day one of the biggest challenge of Troy Hawkins’s life, he had to decide whether to go with his head or his heart.
Just 16km into a 550km handcycle ride around Fiji to raise money for charity, the Cranbourne man tore a tendon in his hand and was faced with the decision whether to continue or not.
Mr Hawkins, who was born with spina bifida, took part in CyclePower in June to raise money for Disabled Sport and Recreation Victoria (DSR).
Mr Hawkins, 23, did the challenge on a handcycle which is a type of arm-powered recumbent bike with three wheels.
After months of training and preparation, Mr Hawkins was faced with a bigger challenge from day one than what he expected.
“From day one of the ride, I was presented with a major challenge for myself, as I tore a tendon in my hand,” he said.
“This had a major effect on my performance as I had a battle between my head and my heart.
“My head was telling me to stop and don’t do anything to make the injury worse.
“However, because of my competitive background, my heart was telling me to keep pushing as much as I could.”
And that’s exactly what he did.
While Mr Hawkins was unable to complete the whole 550km, he managed to complete 22km on day three, 27km on day four, the full 41km on day six and the final kilometre on the last day with all the other participants.
“So for myself, this was a big mental battle and a battle of mind over matter,” he said.
“I had to try and get the injury out of my mind and concentrate on the task at hand and as the days went on, I was getting mentally stronger and increasing my output each day after a disappointing first day.”
Mr Hawkins has raised $5400 for DSR and the CyclePower team also donate adaptive sporting equipment to villages of people with a disability along their journey through Fiji.
Mr Hawkins said overall the experiences in Fiji were amazing.
“The people and the way of life in Fiji were so different to here in Australia,” he said.
“Life seemed much more simplistic and people were genuinely excited to see us riding around the island.
“Especially the children in Fiji, because this was the first-ever commercial ride in Fiji.
“The people there had never seen hand cycles before and people would run from up to a kilometre away just to give you a high five and encouragement and children would run out of classrooms to say hi and this is something I had never seen before.”
Donations can still be made by visiting http://everydayhero.com.au/troy_hawkins.
