Two keen participants for this year’s event are Kevin Lyall & Amanda Crawford.
The Skilled Burnie 10 is Australia's premier 10 km road race and will be held on Sunday 16 October in the heart of Burnie's central business district on Tasmania's North West Coast.
Two keen participants for this year's event are the School of Human Life Sciences' Educational Technologist, Kevin Lyall and recent PhD graduate Dr Amanda Crawford. Both Kevin and Amanda were encouraged to enter the event by Dr James Fell, Bachelor of Exercise Science Co-ordinator from the School, who was aware the theme for this year's training for the event was "couples".
Mark Connelly from EFM Health Club will be overseeing training of the "couple" along with Daniel and Sally Alps from Alps & Amici Foodstore in Newstead and George and Mary Tsakirellis from Aromas café in Charles Street.
Kevin and Amanda, besides sharing a keen interest in fitness, share a special bond in that Amanda was the recipient of a kidney donated by Kevin over two years ago in 2009. Exercise Training for Amanda requires special care and Dr Cecilia Shing, also from the School of Human Life Sciences, has undertaken the role of Exercise Physiologist to guide both Amanda and Kevin through their training regime. Mark Connelly is also in charge of promotion of the event in the lead up to the big race and Kevin and Amanda can be viewed on television as they progress through their fitness training.
Kevin and Amanda try to exercise six days per week with the regime changing from running and weights to group boot camp on Monday and Thursday evenings held at EFM with Mark Connelly.
"Training is hard work but results can be seen through improved performance every week", Kevin said. "It's great to be able to spring out of bed in the morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed."
This is not the first event for Kevin and Amanda who participated in the Launceston 10 only five months after the transplant operation.
Kevin and Amanda would like to reinforce that they are not super-fit athletes but average people and that with a little effort and persistence anyone can achieve the level of fitness required to participate in an event of this nature.
"I think it's so important to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating good food and exercising regularly" Kevin said.