A Nanaimo man is already planning for next year, after finishing a 36 hour long double anvil triathlon, while raising money for charity.
Tim Wilkinson finished his race July 4th, and raised money for the Nanaimo Ladysmith Schools Foundation— a charity which focuses on ensuring children affected by poverty have access to books, scholarships, and other important supplies.
Wilkinson said that he felt personally connected to the foundation due to his childhood as a kid in poverty.
“It helps school age kids. Kindergarten to high school kids that require help with books, clothes, food, graduation gowns. Things like that which I guess some people don’t even- it doesn’t occur to them that it’s a necessity.”
Wilkinson had originally planned to do his triathlon in Oregon in early June, however, the official race was cancelled due to the pandemic.
“I had trained for the race and I had the fitness, so I wasn’t gonna let my hard work over the past 10 months go to waste. So I just decided to do this- do this race on my own and while I’m at it raise money for charity. I’m quite happy to do it.”
For the triathlon, Wilkinson had to swim 7.6km, bike 360km, then run 84.4kms under the designated time limit of 36 hours. He was joined by a friend and his family for the duration of it, and he says they were a strong source of support, both during the race and out of it.
“My wife, she did a lot— and I’m saying this in capital letters— a LOT of behind the scenes stuff that the ‘common’ person wouldn’t normally see or understand as what’s necessary going into a race like this. Such as picking up my slack around the house. You know, you carry on, your life still goes, on but [with the] added training [I had to do] she’s had to take on a lot of responsibilities.”
Wilkinson says that his training was endurance-based, and that his longest stats were 3km for swimming, 206km for biking, and 35km for running.
“Being focused, being determined and having the mindset that that’s what your goal is, whether that be a time limit just to finish by, as long as that set in stone in your mind, you know, anything’s possible.”
Wilkinson began his double anvil in Westwood Lake to complete his swim, biked to Campbell River and back, then finished his run at the Woodgrove Mall with a time of 35 hours and 49 minutes.
He and his family had a small celebration, then posted the result up onto Facebook.
“I’m okay with [having a small celebration]. If somebody made signs or big banner or a finish line, that would have been fine, but it wasn’t there and that’s not why I did it. I didn’t do it for all the praise on me, I did it to bring awareness to the charity that I was originally doing it for and to raise money for the kids that need their help.”
A donation link to the foundation is available here.
