Triathlon might not be the first thing to pop into the head of the average person looking for a fitness challenge.
But next week locals Joshua Bray and James Andrews will give it their best try, attempting a sprint triathlon to push themselves physically, and also use the opportunity to fundraise for two causes dear to their heads and their hearts.
The challenge will check a lot of boxes for Bray and Andrews, friends since they attended Bishop’s College School and Bishop’s University together. Not only will they get to push each other to get into top shape and have some friendly competition during the race, they are using the event as a platform to raise awareness for Mental Health Canada and the Cancer Research Society of Montreal. Bray and Andrews’ friendly competition also extends to the fundraising for the two organizations.
“The real challenge for us was not who was going to finish first, but who could raise the most money in the process,” Andrews said.
A sprint triathlon includes a 750-metre swim, which will be done in Lake Massawippi. The two racers will then bike 20 kilometres to the BCS campus in Lennoxville and drop off their bikes, and then finish with a five-kilometre run.
It was Andrews who came up with the idea for a triathlon. He was a client of Bray, who is a personal trainer, and proposed the idea around the end of June. Bray, having done some running events in the past including a half-marathon, jumped on the idea.
“As one of my clients, he had just come on for about a month, and we had been amping things up quite a bit,” Bray said, explaining a triathlon would be a great fitness challenge for the two friends.
They gave themselves a month to prepare for the triathlon, training around 12-15 hours per week.
The race will take place next Monday, Aug. 10.
Anyone interested in helping Bray and Andrews in their fundraising efforts can use the following links to donate:
Josh https://raceroster.com/events/2020/24011/tamarack-ottawa-virtual-race-weekend-2020/pledge/participant/9641546
James https://www.gofundme.com/f/james039s-campaign-for-cancer-research
If you ‘tri’, you will always win
By Matthew McCully
