02 May Joe’s Garage Gym and the Shitbox Rally
Why Tim Herbert is doing the Shitbox Rally?
I lost my mum to Acute Myeloid Lymphoma on the 25th July 2008. She had been in the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney for 1 month since she had been diagnosed with Cancer. She was 64 years old.
My brother Simon, sister Katie, dad Graham and I were all devastated by the loss, as any family would be. We received many messages of support from friends and extended family from all corners of the globe which reflected the popularity of the lady.
Jackie had always been a very social woman and great friend to huge network of friends from all walks of life and from different periods in her life, so when she passed away there was great sense of loss that reached further than just her immediate family.
One of the feelings I remember from that time is the sense that everything keeps moving, time doesn’t wait. When you want the world to stop and mourn with you the world keeps turning and people go about their lives like every other day. You feel a bit hopeless as you grieve because you want everything to wait whilst you reflect on what has happened and you want time to get yourself back in the game, but it doesn’t work that way.
A few months after things had settled down; my sister had returned to Hong Kong and my dad moved across to Perth for a change of scene and to go back to work, Simon and I were talking about the whole experience as we often do and wanted to find an event we could participate in that challenged us and gave us an opportunity to raise money for a Cancer charity. During mum’s time in hospital the staff and support had been fantastic and without the work of charities the treatment patients receive would not be as nearly as successful as it could be.
Any how I had found an event on the web whilst surfing the internet one day. It was the inaugural year of an event called the Shitbox Rally. The event was over a full week and required participants to drive “shitbox” cars across outback Australia in a rally type event. The car had to be worth less that a $1000 and each team needed to raise in excess of $4000 in order to participate. The most notable part of the event for me however was the scenery and locations that the event visited.
The organiser of the event had lost both his parents to cancer in the space of 1 year and he had decided to start the rally as a way to raise funds for the Cancer Council. I remember at the time thinking what a great idea; you get the opportunity to raise money for a great cause, travel to and through some of the great Australian landscape and get challenged by trying to keep your “shitbox” car on the road.
I don’t exactly remember when Simon and I both registered for the event but year after year we were disappointed to miss out on getting a place in the event, even though each year the event grew due to its popularity. The first year there were 25 cars, the second year there was 75, the year after 125 and now the event has 200 cars participating. However in late February this year 4 or 5 months after missing out on participating in the 2013 event we received an email saying if we wanted we could join this year’s event at late notice. Neither of us hesitated, we paid our registration fees and we were in fund raising mode straight away.
We have a had a whirl wind couple of months fund raising, finding a suitable shitbox, organising equipment, preparing the car as best we can, sorting out accommodation, flights and sponsors, the list goes on. However here we are with only 48 hours to go before we leave Sydney to travel to Adelaide for the start of this year’s Shitbox Rally which begins on the 4th May. The event this year travels up to Uluru via Coober Pedy before then driving into Western Australia and across the desert all the way to Kalgoorlie before finally arriving in Freemantle on the 10th May. The journey for us is close to 5,500km which includes our pre rally drive from Sydney to the start of the rally.
Simon and I are looking forward to seeing some spectacular scenery and getting the opportunity to meet and socialise with the other participants of the rally. We will both get the time to reflect on mum’s life and I’m sure there will tears from both of us on several occasions, although I know these will be outweighed by the bouts of laughter and smiles as we trek our way across Australia.
We’ve managed to raise more than $6000 so far thanks to the generosity of friends and sponsors alike. 
Joe has been great at supporting our efforts with some generous sponsorship money and in return the Joes Garage Gym logo will be proudly displayed on the back window of our shitbox as we traverse the entire width of this country in less than 10 days.
If you would like to donate then you can do so at the following site;
https://fundraise.shitboxrally.com.au/pullitt
Tim Herbert
Tim is a father of 3 boys, a committed Rugby tragic, a coach to Harbord Harlequins, a member of Joe’s Garage Gym since august 2012. Tim has appeared before in our client focus. I find Tim a really motivating character, at 45 he loves to give stuff a go and likes to get stuck in and get his hands dirty. He trains hard and is reaping the benefits. He is living life to the full wether it be an adventure such as Shitbox rally or crawling through the mud at Toughmudder. Tim really is a pleasure to have around. – Joe
You will be able to track Tim’s progress at the following sites
https://stherbert.blogspot.com.au/ This is Tim’s brother’s blog which they will update as much as internet connections allows during the rally
There is also a GPS tracking system that updates every 10 minutes during their travels (as long as they have their GPS device turned on). You can track that here
Tim will also post updates and picture to Facebook when he gets the opportunity.
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