On a cold and gloomy Saturday morning, I headed into Colchester City Centre to meet with Harry Jeffery and his family to cover a day of inspiring activity. Harry – aged 13, is one of our #MoveWithUs Ambassadors and after months of preparation, he had just started his ‘Colchester Fit-Athon’, in aid of and raising money for the Active Essex Foundation.
The money Harry has raised during this challenge will be donated to Active Essex Foundation, who are a charity set up to use sport and physical activity to engage the most marginalised groups across the county. Their work includes using sport as a youth crime prevention tool by channelling certain behaviours through boxing, or in outreach groups. They also focus on using sport and physical as a model to support young people’s mental health.
As one of Active Essex’s #MoveWithUs Ambassador’s, Harry commits to helping get other young people active, as well as contributing to strategic campaigns through the power of youth voice. Some of the work he’s completed as part of the Ambassador programme include taking part in government surveys, designing the National Fitness Day challenge for schools across Essex and helping feedback on relevant issues faced by young people to our board members.
The Fit-Athon was a challenge created by Harry and his family, where in 14 hours, he would take part in 26 different types of physical activity for 15 minutes at a time. With thanks to local venues and organisations including Leisure World, GB Bootcamp and The Combat Institute, Harry took part in activities including swimming, tennis, MMA and yoga.
Harry is no stranger to pushing himself when it comes to physical activity, as he has won multiple world championships and other titles in countries across the world in Obstacle Course Racing (OCR). Obstacle course racing is a sport in which a competitor, traveling on foot, must overcome various physical challenges in the form of obstacles. Races vary in length from courses with obstacles close together, to events of several kilometres which incorporate elements of track, road and/or cross country/trail running. With the OCR season coming to a close, Harry was still hungry for a challenge, which is where the idea for this fundraiser came from.
Whilst I had not long woken up, Harry had already been awake for hours and completed four of his activities for the day, taking on his garden obstacle course, before cycling to take part in a coached running session, all before I’d managed to brush my teeth. Along with a team of fellow early risers, Harry took on a bootcamp session on Abbey Fields led by GB Bootcamp, which included sprints, burpees and sandbag carrying – fitting given our location on army owned land. Due to a venue pulling out last minute, Harry was down to only 25 activities on his checklist, but luckily thanks to some hockey sticks and a ball in the back of my car, we managed to take part in some short passing skills to bump him back up to 26. Taking part in those 2 activities meant that Harry had completed six of his activities before 8:30am and he was looking in good stead for the rest of the day.
After a police escort across town for Harry, his mum Emma and his sister Sophie, Harry had arrived at Lower Castle Park and was ready to take part in some yoga. Led by ‘The Balanced Stride’, Harry took part in a series of running based stretches, fittingly so as parkrun was next…
As he packed up his yoga mat and said goodbye to the yoga instructor, a familiar face cycled round the corner. Active Essex Athlete Ambassador and Olympic medallist – Lewis Richarson had come to surprise Harry for the next leg of his challenge, one lap of the Colchester Castle parkrun course. Harry shared stories about the challenge so far, and Lewis shared stories of the Olympic Games and some of his professional bouts to date. Harry was shocked to find out that a boxer prioritised running so much after hearing his half marathon time. The horn sounded, and I think Harry’s quick start took Lewis by surprise as they quickly finished their loop! Lewis wished him luck for the rest of the day’s challenge, before cycling home to get ready for a tennis lesson later that morning, which by coincidence Harry would also be attending!
The running didn’t stop for Harry though as he ran round the corner and into the Leisure World leisure centre where he swapped his running shoes for swimming trunks and completed as many lengths as he could in 15 minutes, before jumping out of the pool and back into his trainers and taking on 15 minutes of rowing in Leisure World’s gym facilities. After a quick photo with the team, Harry thanked the staff and was on his way to the next activity. If you’ve lost count by this point, and quite frankly I’m not surprised, Harry had completed ten of his activities so far!
After another short trip across the city and some fuelling snacks later, we’d arrived at CrossFit Colchester, where Harry would be taking on a CrossFit inspired workout led by a member of their team. He completed this in a flash and then we headed to the Leisure World Tennis Centre in Shrub End where Harry picked up a racket and a ball and took part in some tennis rallies. Lewis Richardson, who Harry had met earlier was taking part in a beginner’s session, then challenged Harry and his sister Sophie to a doubles match with his brother Deacon. As you can imagine, what was advertised as a hit around, soon turned into the Wimbledon Doubles Final on Centre Court.
Colchester Sports Park was the next venue to host Harry, where he’d be back on two wheels on a BMX and also trying badminton. Like the other venues we’d visited so far, they were greatly supportive of Harry’s challenge, giving him a safety brief and helmet before letting him loose on their BMX pump track. The next activity of Harry’s challenge, and the last that I was covering of the day, was badminton. Taking place in the Colchester Sports Park sports hall, this was my opportunity to get involved and take on Harry. What I thought would be a leisurely and friendly rally between the pair of us soon turned into a one-sided competitive fixture as drop shot upon drop shot fell centimetres short on my side, way out of reach and what felt like a game of fetch. As we parted ways, with Harry having passed the halfway mark of his challenge, we said our goodbyes and I wished him luck for the rest of the day.
“We are so pleased to have Harry on board as a #MoveWithUs Ambassador and this challenge proves what a fantastic inspiration he is to other children and young people across Greater Essex to get involved in physical activity. Not only has Harry raised a brilliant amount of money for the Active Essex Foundation, he has also raised awareness of the many fitness opportunities that can be found in his local area. Well done Harry!” – Jessica Prentice, Active Essex Project Officer
The rest of the day saw Harry take on MMA, Football, Climbing, Gymnastics, Squash, Table Tennis, Footgolf, Crazy Golf, a Hyrox challenge, Golf and an outdoor workout on an outdoor gym to finish! Thank you to all of the organisations across Colchester that supported Harry in his challenge, providing their time, spaces and facilities for free.
Harry’s challenge shows that no matter your age, you can take part in 15 minutes of activity a day and anymore is a bonus. He hopes that his challenge will inspire other young people across Essex to get moving, take on a sporting challenge and push themselves to see what they are capable of, and most importantly – have fun!
