65 km of swimming, 1468 km of cycling and 195 km of running: we’ve seen athletes complete extreme triathlons before, but the one that Britain’s Frankie Tinsley started today definitely belongs to that category. The triathlon will take him approximately fourteen days. He won’t tackle the three disciplines all in one go, instead, he will change from cycling, to swimming, to running and do that three times before he takes off for one final bike ride.
Without a doubt Tinsley knows what it’s like to suffer physically because he used to work at the Royal Air Force as a coach, and he was a para-commando at the Royal Marines. Over the last two years two of his colleagues took their own lives. That encouraged Tinsley to raise funds for charity through this extreme triathlon. The charity that Tinsley aims to bring to people’s attention is CALM (Campaign Against Miserable Lives), which strives for a better mental and physical health in order to prevent male suicide in Great Britain.
Tinsley kicks off his extreme triathlon today by cycling 551 km. On Aug. 10 he plans to switch to swimming six km, after which he will run 63 km. After that, he will jump back on the bike for another 260 km of cycling, then 18 km of swimming, then another run of 29 km, followed by a bike ride of 335 km, a long swim of 41 km, then a run of 103 km, and finally 302 km of cycling. That all adds up to a total distance of 1708 km.
