Conditions for the 2024 Samson Challenge were described by most teams as 'brutal', especially those that had the later start times.

The mercury was due to peak at 34 degrees so organisers decided to bring the start times forward with the first of 102 teams getting underway at 7am in much cooler but still warm and muggy conditions.

The winning team was the Boaty Boys from Lennox Head in a time of 1:11:33 from Curtis Fitness Training Woman #10 in 1:13:48 and Jetts Elites #70 finished third in 1:14:57.

There was an individual competition on Friday evening with the Samson Solo Male Champion Jack Toddhunter and the Female Champion Serena Smith.

The Boaty Boys will be familiar with some Lismore App readers as they completed a 100km paddle down the Wilsons/Richmond River from Lismore to Ballina in April last year to raise money for four charities including Our Kids.

The Boaty Boys started in the afternoon when conditions were hot and powered through the course but not without incident. Mick dislocated his finger on the sled pull but pushed through with his teammates to win the overall fastest time.

Mick is an avid supporter of Our Kids having used its services over the past two years. His son was diagnosed with leukaemia at age 1 and is having his last treatment in the next month and hopefully his last. Mick said the treatment has been successful.

Team Ambrose was made up of NSW ambulance officers and a doctor (Adam, Alex, James and Angelo) was one of the final teams to finish yesterday at around 2:30pm.

"Challenging but worthwhile," were the comments from Angelo, "We probably should have got an earlier time slot, but oh well."

(Team Ambrose enjoying the moment crossing the finish line)

The toughest part of the course for Angel was the dead balls. This is where you have to lift up the sandbag ball to your chest, walk about 10 metres then flip it over your shoulder four or five times. Each person does that three times then take the gear back to the start line.

If you ever watch the end of a Samson Challenge, the burpees at the end is when most people are at the physical end of their limits. It is the culmination of lifting, carrying, running, swimming, running and climbing before this final event before grabbing the rope and crossing the finishing line.

"It's the culmination of everything, you know, everything builds up. That's the finale."

Our Kids Fundraising coordinator Rebekka Battista said it was one of the toughest days for quite some time.

"I think about five years ago, we had weather like this. We just started the teams earlier and pushed them through knowing that at two o'clock we're gonna hit 35 degrees. So I just wanted to take care of people"

"I should actually auction the early time slots. That might be a fundraising idea that we do next year," Rebekka joked.

The St John First Aid team had to look after a few people as you would expect on such a hot day.

"We had a couple but it is a challenge. Considering we had 450 people competing and when you're dealing with that amount of people there is going to be an incident sometimes."

There was plenty of water throughout the event with the swim leg at GSAC, the fire brigade was hosing people down on the run and the skip bins were full of water that competitors had to climb through. Plus there were water stations with drinking water.

While the full total won't be known for some time, between $20,000 and $25,000 is what Rebekka is forecasting.

"Once we've worked out our costs, we'll just look at the medical equipment wish list and go okay what can we put this towards, the kids or the special care nursery and we might also look at the wish list in Tweed and Grafton and see what they need and see if we can smash a few of those guys because even though Our Kids is a Lismore charity we actually buy for all our hospitals in the region and all the satellite hospitals."

Like Mick from the Boaty Boys who has used the Our Kids facilities, Rebekka mentioned that a lot of young people who needed to use the Our Kids services are now healthy once again and competing in the Samson Challenge which has been running since 2001.

"I had a guy who just met just met Dr. Chris (Ingall). He just did it and he was one of Chris's patients, he's now 21 and he's only got one lung. There are lots of stories. People are doing it because they've been affected or they believe in what we're doing or they just see the impact. It's It's amazing."

Rebekka's comments were supported by the founder of Our Kids Dr Chris Ingall.

"There's been a lot of circle of life stuff happening today. I saw a young man who I transferred out from the nursery, I'd say Lachlan looked about 18 now, his parents came up to me and said I want you to meet this guy. And I said, well, I think we have met, but it's good to meet you the second time."

"I asked how he went and he said we beat our time. He is in better shape than you or I, he looked a perfect specimen. It gives me great satisfaction."

"It's the people. The people in this valley and Grafton and Tweed also, who keep this going, It's fantastic."