In July of 2009, the valiant TriHards stepped up to the lofty heights of a “real” adventure racing team, through obtaining naming rights and sponsorship from an organisation. Now we have cred. We’re a real team. We’re the PANDSI TriHards! (We were going to go with TriHard PANDSIs but that just sounds wrong).

The Post and Ante-Natal Depression Support and Information Incorporated are an organisation dedicated to “empowering people affected by maternal depression through advocacy, support and education.”

You may well ask, “What has post and antenatal depression got to do with adventure racing, and in particular an adventure racing team mainly consisting of blokes? And what value could they possibly provide to PANDSI?” Good questions and we’re glad you asked!

This is a non-financial sponsorship deal. The TriHards have not accepted any money from PANDSI, which is a not-for-profit organisation. (Fortunately for us, this also means they’re not actually paying us to win races!) This deal is primarily about raising awareness of PANDSI, and about raising awareness of post and antenatal depression in general. The TriHards will attempt to do this through rebranding ourselves with the PANDSI logo, and providing PANDSI information at races (on request) as well as the occasional article on the TriHards web site.

It also means that the people of PANDSI can boast about their really cool (but not very competitive) adventure racing team.

Post and antenatal depression is a serious illness which affects a surprisingly large number of women at what many would consider should be some of the happiest times of their lives. Yet it receives very little attention. Hopefully, this partnership will help raise awareness and ensure that more women, their partners and friends, will have a greater knowledge of maternal depression and, more importantly, a familiarity with where to go for support should they need it.

So, please, have a look at their website to learn all about PANDSI and the fantastic work that they do.