Isaac Kenyon - the ‘purposeful adventurer’ lifting the weight of mental health issues
He’s rowed the Atlantic and finished an Ironman wearing a 15kg vest, but anxiety was Isaac's greatest challenge
As he plunged into the lake, Isaac Kenyon started to panic.
Cold water rushed into his lungs as he took deep gulps, desperately trying to breathe.
Isaac is an experienced adventurer, but this wasn’t part of the plan.
He battled as the heavy weighted vest strapped to his chest constricted his breathing at a time when he needed to take deeper mouthfuls of air.
While training for the full Ironman - a 2.4 mile (3.86km) swim, 112 mile (180.25km) bike ride, and a 26.2 mile (42.2km) run - Isaac had gently lowered himself into the water whenever he went swimming.
But now, egged on by a film crew capturing his every movement through the wilds of Exmoor National Park, he had taken an unwise leap of faith.
Treading water, he slowly regained his composure taking shorter, more meaningful breaths until he felt ready to take fully to the water and begin his challenge.
Despite that stressful start, Isaac completed the Ironman in 29 hours, becoming the first person ever to do so while wearing a 15kg weighted vest.
It was the latest in a series of incredible goals Isaac has achieved, including rowing 3,000 nautical miles across the Atlantic in 40 days and completing a fastest known time trail run for the Welsh Three Peaks.
The 29-year-old calls the events he takes part in “purposeful endurance challenges” as they contain a message beyond simply overcoming physical adversity.
In the case of the Ironman, Isaac’s message was one of mental health awareness. The weighted vest represented the hidden weight of mental health issues which so many people carry with them every day.
The triathlon took place on Sunday, September 10 - World Suicide Prevention Day.
Mental health issues are something Isaac has had to confront himself in the form of “gripping anxiety”.
A soon-to-be released film, called ‘Weighed Down,’ will tell the story of both the triathlon and Isaac’s own journey.
“I can say that really bad mental health is worse than the weighted vest,” he told Running Tales.
“But I did try to metaphorically make it a really difficult day, and I certainly succeeded.”
Whereas throughout the triathlon, Isaac had both a support crew and the option to take off the vest if things became too much, those suffering with mental health issues often lack such help.
“They can be continually weighed down,” Isaac said. “The message I’m trying to get across is what really helped me with my mental health was speaking, out, letting people know about the weight I was carrying.
“That was the first step. And then the weight started getting easier.
“At the end of the film, I complete the challenge. and metaphorically that equated to opening up and taking the weight off.”
Isaac said deciding to talk about his anxiety was one of the hardest things he has ever done.
His issues date back to 2015 when he was diagnosed with a panic disorder. Isaac’s anxiety came with physical pain, including heart palpitations that even led to him attending A&E.
Initially, he took the “macho” approach to how he was feeling, pushing through long hours at work.
Eventually, his doctors told him the physical symptoms he was feeling were the result of anxiety.
“I've rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and that pales in comparison to the feeling I had when I went to tell someone I had a mental health issue for the first time,” he said.
“If people take anything away from this, it’s that if you can support someone to open up that will help their journey in more ways than anything else could.”
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Since then, Isaac has built a lifestyle which revolves around the outdoors, fitness and extreme adventure.
He said: “I find I get this thing I call flow, this optimal state of consciousness.
“There are moments of total absorption when you're not there any more, yourself vanishes, and time kind of disappears and you're just in the moment.
“And I get that from trail running or outdoor sports. Some people get it from drawing, creating art, meditation or making music.
“And so, when I'm doing these challenges, they almost like prescriptions from nature.”
Freedom and opportunity from being outdoors - watch Isaac Kenyon’s Ted Talk:
Isaac said the best way to help other people who may be experiencing mental health issues is by being honest and vulnerable yourself.
“It creates that space to be able to feel comfortable, to share deep rooted things happening inside that you feel that you wanted to keep locked away,” he said.
“But with this person you feel like you can trust them, because they've opened up to you.”
As Isaac knows all too well, in life and adventure, it’s never good to be weighed down but great things can be achieved if you take that initial plunge.
The adventures of Isaac Kenyon:
Isaac Kenyon’s incredible challenges also include summiting Mount Kilimanjaro and an English Channel Relay Swim - we spoke to him about four more adventures he has conquered:
A Jogle with a watery end
Isaac’s John O'Groats to Lands’ End (Jogle) cycle ride actually took him from Orkney to the Isles of Scilly.
As part of a team called the Eco Adventurers, he started his journey by cycling across the Pentland Firth, a stretch of water between Orkney and Scotland which has one of the fastest tidal streams in the world.
He told Running Tales: “You could be in that water and be moved at a speed of 25mph. It's that fast.
“Trust me when I say we chose the perfect day to be able to do this cycle.”
After reaching Scotland, the group travelled all the way to the south of England, where they cycled for eight hours across more water to the Isles of Scilly.
The aim of the whole expedition was to raise awareness of environmental challenges and nature based climate solutions, such as the scaling up of carbon storage through natural means and increasing biodiversity in migratory corridors.
The two locations - Orkney and Scilly - were chosen as they both very innovative, sustainable, and self-sufficient.
Talking himself to a rowing record
Isaac also holds an endurance record for the longest continual row on an indoor rowing machine.
He rode for three days and 11 hours non-stop.
“The mental health tip that I got from that was that there was nothing that could keep me awake more than a human conversation,” he said.
“I could not have done it without talking to someone. I just had to talk about anything. That was the thing that kept me going.”
The Big One - Rowing the Atlantic
Isaac’s epic Atlantic Row Crossing - a trip he calls the “big one” - took place over 40 days on a 29 foot boat, with two cabins either side and seated rowing positions in the middle.
“We rowed across 20 foot rolling seas, from the Canary Islands to Antigua in a team of four,” he said.
Embracing mindful running
Last year, Isaac completed an FKT (fastest known time) for the Welsh Three Peaks Challenge.
In all, he ran 135 miles (218kms) starting at Mount Snowdon, before heading to Cadir Idris and across the middle of Wales to Pen-y-Fan in the Brecon Beacons National Park.
He said: “If you want to find somewhere really cool to run and get lost in, then the middle of Wales is so amazing.
“It was an incredible run. That was my first solo outdoor adventure, and it was all about the art of mindful running.
“I wanted to experiment. When you run, you draw a picture in your mind of the environment around you. It’s about how you can use that picture to distract yourself so that you can keep going for further and further.
“On the endurance run I found the incredible power of nature when I was running by myself out there.
“It was awe inspiring to know that if I was struggling and I was really tired, I could just sit down, listen to the birds in the trees, watch a river or something like that, and it just inspired me to keep going.
“It was such a beautiful place. And it just gave me enough energy to keep going.”
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