Peter is taking on an Ironman challenge to raise money for Winston’s Wish, swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and then finishing with a marathon, running 26.2 miles! Peter’s dad died in a car accident when he was 18 and so he chose to support Winston’s Wish to make sure other bereaved young people can get the support they need.
Tell us about your Ironman challenge
I’ve been into CrossFit for many years and reached competition level. When COVID-19 shut down the country and all the gyms closed, my two pals and I wanted to give ourselves a new challenge to keep us fit and look after our mental wellbeing. We had spoken previously about an Ironman challenge and so we re-visited the idea. Then Dan text me and said he had booked and paid for our places so there’s no going back now!
Why did you decide to support Winston’s Wish?
We all chose charities that were close to our heart for personal reasons. My Dad was tragically killed in a car accident when I was 18 and looking back at that time, I really could have done with some help and guidance and so I wanted to raise money to help make sure that other children and young people can get the help that I didn’t.
How have you had to adapt because of the coronavirus pandemic?
Thankfully we haven’t had to change too much, we are all keeping to our training plans individually and looking forward to being able to train together when the restrictions are eased. We haven’t been able to do any open water swimming yet due to the restrictions in place so I’m looking forward to some swim sessions as soon as I can. Our event isn’t until August so we are just really hoping the Ironman can go ahead as planned.
How is your training going?
Despite already being very fit and regularly cycling 30+ miles and lots of running, we are all taking the challenge seriously and have paid for professional training and nutritional plans to ensure that we are ready for event day and don’t pick up any injuries along the way. I’m really competitive and so I’m looking forward to pushing myself on the day and beating Dan and Mike! My biggest challenge is getting to grips with the logistics on the day like knowing where the transition stops are and what wetsuit etc I need so I still have lots of research to do!
You can follow Peter’s Ironman training and challenge via his Instagram and you can support him by donating on his Virgin Money Giving fundraising page – the money is split evenly between Winston’s Wish, Mind and Tommy’s.
If you fancy taking on a fundraising challenge, see what events and challenges are coming up here or email our team on community@winstonswish.org