A Campbell River swimmer completed an Iron Man Distance triathlon over the weekend to raise money for charity.
Ricky Millns is a student at the University of Victoria where he swims for the UVIC Vikes and last month he decided he wanted to help raise money for the Campbell River Head Injury Support Group.
His plan to fundraise? Do an Iron Man triathlon without any prior training.
The route had Millns swimming 3.9km, cycling 180km from Bowser to Qualicum Beach and back, then running 42 km around Campbell River.
In an Instagram post Millns says that it took him 19 hours and 20 minutes to complete the triathlon.
He says that the race was dedicated to Terry Fox, “my greatest Canadian of all time, who has always inspired me to do something exceptional like this.”
Millns said on social media that he hurt his knee 21km into the run at around 9pm.
“It became obvious that my run was over, and I’d be walking the whole way.” His mom walked with him from that point on, a total of 6 hours.
Millns warned anyone who was inspired by this to “make sure you’re prepared, make sure you train hard.”
“This was incredible, but it was also incredibly stupid to do without training.”
As of writing Millns has managed to raise $4,666 on his GoFundMe page.