The last three years have been a great experience following the development of an individual I admire.
Peter Wilson is more than just an endurance champion in Australia. He’s also a rare bird who transforms endurance racing, which can seem lonely and unremarkable into a path of hope for many people, especially children with very serious illnesses.
Peter was just about to hand over $100,000 when I last visited him a year back. It was amazing to see how much he had accomplished by running endurance events in various deserts across the world, such as the Gobi, China, and most recently, the Atacama, Chile.
Here’s a little bit about Peter’s history:After he gained weight and realized that he would be unable to exercise, his first attempt at endurance racing was made. To lose weight, he started to train for the triathlon and fell in love with endurance racing.
Peter’s fundraising work began when his Dad was an active volunteer at Sydney Children’s Hospital. He used to pick his dad up at the hospital. There he met some children and saw them lose their battles for survival.
Peter was able to race better and realized that he could do more with his time and effort than simply winning a race. Thus, the special relationship between Peter, Sydney Children’s Hospital and him began.
Peter, besides running extremely long races is also an Operations Manager. Pete will often run for several hours along Sydney’s Coogee Beach, often dragging his weighted sled.
I was once sent an outline by him of one his training programs.
Mondays are a rest day
Tuesday: Continued repetitions of Coogee Stairs (291) stairs, running up to fifteen times. Tuesday night will be core strength training and boxing.
A 45-minute run on Wednesday morning. Wednesday night is an 18km Fartlek session where hills are run as hard as possible.
Thursday: A medicine ball workout is followed by a one-hour run in the afternoon and then a night of boxing.
Thursday is soft sand running for just over one hour in the Kurnell dunes.
Saturday runs can last up to five hours.
Sunday’s run is one hour and a quarter. This run takes place on soft sand for the last 45 minutes.
He also offers boxing classes on the Wednesday and Thursday!!
After speaking to many endurance athletes, one thing I discovered is that they all need an external motivator in order to continue their training when it gets too hard. “give up.”Peter’s success is based on the fact that Peter is only motivated by the race.
This is an excellent diary entry into how endurance racers feel under pressure.
“Day three was the worst day I’ve ever experienced in a desert. It was brutal. The heat poured onto us for hours and never relented. We dragged our weakened bodies through the salt/mud flats and then were welcomed by a 12 kilometre stage of sand dunes – sand dunes so steep that zigzagging your way to the top of them was the only option. We reached Day 3 Camp and collapsed with the thought that tomorrow was actually going to be one of the hardest days of our lives, harder than the one we’d just had.”
Peter is now part of Team Trifecta, along with Michael Hull (and Frank Fumich), who are good friends. Their incredible team has won 2 of the 3 Desert races in the Racing the Planet series.
Peter will next run the Sahara Desert, Egypt. It has 6 stages, covering 20-80 km per day over seven days. Peter again will run with Team Trifecta and will raise money for Sydney Children’s Hospital.
Kate, the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation’s lovely secretary, shared with me the immense love Peter had for everyone. Every member of staff knew Peter and the many things he did to aid sick children.
These efforts have helped to raise money for internships and equipment. They also saved lives. He is a great example of self-motivation on an athletic and humanistic level.
I once heard him say to me: “at the end of the day my pain is very little compared to what our kids go through”He really meant that.