Day Fourteen

Day Fourteen: Pacific Ocean

After the huge effort by the Hunstanton team and all the other crew on Day 13, it was time to take advantage of a bit of rest for several people on Sunday. We still kept a steady pace, with the distance travelled of 1054km only looking small in comparison to how much work they’ve been putting in recently! It wasn’t the best day for distance, but that’s okay, there’s always more to the story and you never know what else is going on in the background.

This is particularly important to consider at the moment, when everyone is struggling with lockdown. As we’re travelling through the vast swathes of the Pacific, it was something we wanted to consider now, as sometimes feeling alone can be like being stuck in the middle of an ocean. People deal with struggles in different ways. Some days you don’t feel your best, you don’t perform and don’t feel okay and that’s totally fine because you’re a human. As much as we talk about physical health, mental health is just as important and at Elevate we always have this in mind, from our great community supporting each other, to the group classes designed to improve physical and mental well-being.

Mental Health

Mental health problems affect around one in four people in any given year. They range from common problems, such as depression and anxiety, to rarer problems such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. As we’ve said, everyone deals with things differently and its okay not to feel okay. If you are feeling like this try not to worry, or beat yourself up, everyone goes through these emotions and while it doesn’t make it easy, it can help to realise it is completely normal.

Mental wellbeing is something we have touched on before during our journey. Good mental health means being able to feel, think and react in the ways that you need and want to live your life. That can be really tricky at the minute, Coronavirus is affecting everyone’s lives. Things like not being able to see loved ones, staying indoors and worrying, it all adds up. If you’re struggling with your mental health it can be hard to rationalise these thoughts and you may have trouble thinking, feeling or reacting in a way that you want. If you can, reach out to someone your close to, talk it through and try to work through the problems you are facing.

Exercise and Mental Fitness

Exercising can be a great improvement on mental fitness, even light physically activity of 10 minutes, such as a brisk walk increases mental alertness, energy and mood positivity. Physical activity has been shown to have a positive impact on our mood in many ways. Improving mental fitness doesn’t just mean feeling happy – negative emotions such as grief, loss and failure are all part of normal life and should help you learn and grow from them. Mental fitness is how you can adapt and respond to these emotions. Participation in regular sport can increase self-esteem and reduce stress and anxiety. Its not a silver bullet and we will all go through struggles, but by using physical fitness to help your mental health you can learn to better manage difficult situations. Exercising can improve the minds of people already experiencing mental health issues and can prevent the development of anything further.

Mental health is a difficult and challenging subject and its not always easy to find the answers. If you are struggling and you don’t have anyone to talk to, you can use some of the resources at mind or contact the Samaritans for free, 24/7, 365 days a year, on 116 123.

Key statistics

Distance Travelled:  24,760‬km

Journey Finished:  60.28%

Money Raised: £5,640

Countries Visited: 18 Countries

Day 14 Leader Board

1. Kimberley Langley – 111.1km
2. Pete Kolakowski – 100.62km
3. George Swallow – 93.66km

Find out more

Do you think we can do it? Please support us and donate to the Just Giving page here.

Keep updated along the way with Instagram here and track our daily progress on our map below too.

[travelmap url=”https://elevate.travelmap.net” width=”100%” height=”600″]