SPORT

By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

NOTHING stops this man.

Traralgon’s Blake Bourne, who became the youngest person to ever run across the Simpson Desert last year, will undertake an even greater challenge this June all on his own.

The mental health advocate will be staring down a monster 1200-kilometre solo journey from Geelong to Sydney, entirely unassisted.

Continuing to raise vital money for mental health charity Speak and Share, the epic run also serves as a lead-in to Bourne’s own venture, the month-long, community-driven initiative, The Uncomfortable Challenge.

After putting himself into the history books last August by completing 382km of rough, sandy terrain in under four days, Bourne almost immediately began to conjure his next mission.

“I was taking a class at work, a group fitness class, and it just hit me in the middle of class and it got me a little excited,” he told the Express.

“I thought of it and straight away felt this little buzz.”

Initially, the run to Sydney was going to begin in Bourne’s hometown of Traralgon, but a change in his life will now see him take on the journey a little further west.

The demanding run, which begins at the Geelong Waterfront on June 1 and finishes in front of the Sydney Opera House, is aiming to take 10 days, as projected by Bourne.

This is under the stipulations of averaging 120kms per day and requiring him to remain awake and on the move for 20 hours with only four hours of sleep each night.

The run also requires a different type of preparation than what was seen prior to the Simpson Desert run.

Not only training for the concrete and bitumen surface, Bourne competed in the most recent Melbourne Marathon, meaning his build-up into Geelong-Sydney is in a smaller window than before the Simpson Desert.

Bourne has always kept his fitness levels up, but said it will just be a matter of how well his body can hold on during the journey.

“When I ran across the desert, I did my ankle about 120km in, and it was 380km, so I ran on a cooked ankle for 260km,” he explained.

“So, I’ve got to strengthen that up. I’ll be fine to get it done, it’s just how the body holds up.”

Most substantially, Bourne will have no support team on this run, unlike the Simpson Desert, requiring him to carry all of his essentials on him, adding upwards of 20 kilograms of weight.

No chance to loosen up with some necessary massages, no first aid on-hand, no one handing refills and food, it’s entirely on himself.

“My traps (trapezius) gave me a lot of grief in the desert as well, and towards the end, I had someone massaging my traps every hour, whereas I’m not going to have that (now),” Bourne said.

“The body’s going to be in a lot of hurt and I’ll just have to push through.”

Through rain, hail or shine, Bourne will be left with nothing but his own thoughts during a majority of the run, meaning his mental toughness will be what’s tested most of all.

However, plans are in place during some of Bourne’s stops to connect with the communities he’s passing through on his scheduled breaks.

“Having a lack of support, like the moment things get hard, I’ve got no one to rely on, no one to push me through those hard times … it’s purely me and my own mental strength,” he said.

The idea was always to run 1000km to get 1000 people on board for The Uncomfortable Challenge during the month of July.

Last year’s Uncomfortable Challenge raised more than $40,000 for Speak and Share, and saw more than 100, mostly locals, take part by completing tasks to overcome personal fears or vulnerabilities.

The mission is now to push The Uncomfortable Challenge out beyond Gippsland and across the country.

Bourne expressed that the run, which will test him both physically and mentally, is to encourage those out there to get out of their comfort zone and get themselves back on track.

“The vision I have is to create a movement that inspires people to get outside and take control of their own mental health,” he said.

“If people can look at me and see that I’ve just done this … I’ve ran 1000kms solo unassisted without anyone there to support me, they can look at that and be like ‘alright, if he can do that, I can do this’, and then go out there and do it.”

Bourne was acknowledged at Latrobe City’s 2026 Australia Day Awards as Citizen of the Year for his significant mental health advocacy.

For more information on The Uncomfortable Challenge, to either register or donate, head to www.uncomfortablechallenge.com

Speak and Share is a mental health charity co-founded by Moe footballer Nathan Scagliarini.