We are Patrea O’Donoghue and Michael Ford and our goal is to inspire by being examples of healthy mind, body and spirit at any age.

We’ve been doing Spartan Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) since 2020, which was part of a professional development course (thank-you, Heroic). Patrea broke her wrist really badly in 2017 and part of her recovery was the Heroic course. To graduate from this course, Patrea had to do the Spartan OCR. This was a massive challenge just considering her age – let alone not even being able to do one chin-up given her injury! Michael agreed to do the race reluctantly, as he had a nasty and persistent back injury.

After that first race, we swore we’d never do it again. Three days later, we decided to do it again, but with more specialized OCR training and conditioning. We’ve been putting in the training hard yards for Spartan races each year since then, which is no easy task given both of us are in our late 50s and early 60s (age is no barrier)!

As podium finishers at this year’s Spartan race, we both qualified to represent Australia in the OCR World Championships in Belgium this September! For those who don’t know what Obstacle Course Racing is about – it is a cross between Ninja Warrior and Cross Country running. We are both competing in the 3km / 30 obstacle and the 15km / 50 obstacle races.

As a couple and especially at our age, the fact that we both qualified, makes it doubly special to be going to a World Championship! Given where we came from, with our respective injuries and age, we would love to be radiant exemplars of what is possible!

We’re raising funds to finance this momentous trip as it is not a cheap undertaking and the last few years have been tough financially. The funds will be used to cover airfares, event fees, event accommodation, transport, uniforms, training fees and equipment, and most importantly, body rehabilitation!

If you could possibly donate any amount to help us with our quest, we would be greatly appreciative. Whether or not you are able to donate at this time, please share this with friends, family and work colleagues.

We hope to inspire change in others to be better versions of themselves, doing more than what they think is possible.

Thank-you!!!

PS Here's a brief update on how we went in Genk. Representing Australia was something that neither of us had ever contemplated we'd get to do, let alone at our age! What we can say is that age is truly no barrier. As the oldest female on the Aussie team, Patrea came home with two of Australia's three medals!! I hope we did you proud! Thank-you for all your support!