RICHMOND, Va. β We first brought you Will Turner's story back in 2019 when he started, and finished 60 triathlons to celebrate his 60th birthday
For most of us, pretty much all of us, something like that is out of reach. Five years later for his 65th birthday, Turner just had to outdo himself. And he came up with the Sierra 914.
"This was my own personal invention. Nobody else would be quite crazy enough, I think, to do it with me," Turner said.
Turner decided to attempt 6.5 iron mans, which equates to 914 total miles. He chose the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California which is where he got the name of this extreme challenge.
All that time spent swimming...riding and running....your mind can wander. And Turner's body follows where his mind takes it.
"My mind goes all over the place, right? But looking for always a challenge, something that's gonna keep me going. And this had, this definitely became my magnificent obsession, as I trained all year to accomplish something that was bigger than anything I've done before," Turner said.
His route consisted of 15.6 miles of swimming in Lake Tahoe....followed by a 728 mile bike ride down the Sierra range and 170.4 mile run around Mammoth Lake all in 8 days which, believe it or not, is the amount of time one should take to complete such an effort under Ultra Triathlon rules.
"I finished in the nick of time" Turner recalled. "With a couple of hours to spare!"
"It's eight days almost non-stop, with very little to no sleep each day. I mean, that's crazy no matter how you put it," said Ryan Duggar, an independent filmmaker from Tennessee who documented Turner's journey.
Duggar, who had worked with extreme athletes before, knew Turner's attempt was different.
"Having seen a lot of these athletes go after these types of distances, I knew this was another level. And knowing that he's at 65 years old, that's the part for me. That's like, wow!" Duggar said.
The filmmaker captured Turner's journey in a forthcoming documentary titled "Sierra 914." The film aims to show not just Turner's achievement, but the mental and physical conditions under which he worked. Alone, with no crowds for motivation and very little margin for error.
"It's one thing to be racing people and for that competition to fuel you and push you. I think that's what makes this even harder. And there are definitely many times where the film really highlights that feeling," Duggar said.
Turner had no part in the editing process, trusting his story to Duggar and his team.
"It definitely didn't go the way I think most of us thought it would. I don't want to spoil too much, but Will has such unique abilities. One of those that the film shows is that he can take pain and move it aside to the back of his mind," Duggar said.
Turner's philosophy extends beyond personal achievement. He believes age shouldn't limit ambition.
"If your dream doesn't scare you, it's not big enough" Turner added. "So looking for those things that scare you, and this certainly scared me plenty as I got ready."
But Sierra 914 isn't a horror film. It's a journal of determination....effort...and ultimately...achievement...which can relate to anyone who sees it.
"You're not old until you use age as an excuse. So it's not too late to go do something that is going to be your own magnificent obsession," Turner said.
Duggar hopes the documentary will inspire others to reconsider their own limitations.
"I hope that people really can watch this and feel like if they have limits on their life, that they start to explore moving those obstacles or maybe even pushing that goal a little bit further out than what they had planned," Duggar said.
"Sierra 914" will premiere at the Richmond International Music and Film Festival on Sunday Sept. 28 at 2pm at the Byrd Theater.
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