Erin Fawcett
RED DEER EXPRESS
A Sylvan Lake athlete is turning to the community for support as he hopes to document his journey to the Ultraman World Championships later this year in Hawaii.
Scott McDermott is filming a documentary entitled Living the Warrior Code, which will follow his training to one of the most prestigious races in the world.
The Ultraman Championships are an invitation-only race that is set to take place in Kona, Hawaii Nov. 27 to 29. Only 40 athletes from across the globe are invited to compete. The race covers 515 kms and consists of a 10 km swim, 421 km cross-country bike ride and 84 km ultra-marathon run.
“The spark for the idea happened when my wife and I were watching the Banff Mountain Film Festival. The films are about average people doing ridiculously awesome things,” he said. “Everyone goes away from the films inspired and wanting to do something with their lives.
“I thought Ultraman is kind of fun that way. I think that would make a neat documentary.”
Drew Kenworthy, a friend of McDermott’s and filmmaker will produce the film. The estimated cost for the film production and athlete costs is pegged at $115,000 – the amount that McDermott is hoping to fundraise. It is hoped to have the majority of the funds raised in a short time – McDermott has begun a fundraising webpage with an expiration date of funds being raised by April 17.
“I thought it would be really cool to show this from the beginning with all of the training, because the race is the easy part. People don’t see every day getting up at ‘dark o’clock’ and getting up out of a nice warm bed to go freeze to death and run for three hours or sitting on a spin bike in the basement for four or five hours in the winter.
“It’s those pieces and there are parts of it that are funny and maybe as you get closer to the race there is a bit of a more serious element, but it’s also a whole lot of fun.”
Another purpose of the documentary is for McDermott to be able to show his family what he does.
“My mom is in her 80s and has never ever seen me race in her life and she never will – it’s just too hard – she is not capable of making the flight. It’s also a way for me to show my mom what I do.”
McDermott has already begun filming his journey. He has a GoPro and has documented bits and pieces of his training to date since January. He also went to Arizona for a week recently to a training camp and Kenworthy joined him and filmed a number of aspects of the camp.
Kenworthy will also head to Idaho with McDermott at the end of June for a confirmation race for Ultraman later this year.
“Drew will be filming the final stages of prep and filming me in the race and trying to capture as much as we can about what that looks like.”
The hope is the film will be completed and submitted to the Banff Mountain Film Festival in October 2016.
For more information on McDermott’s quest, visit ‘Living the Warrior Code’ on Facebook. To donate to his fundraising campaign, visit www.indiegogo.com and search ‘Living the Warrior Code – A Documentary’.