Toolchain fix for older python version

[wilfonba]

This fixes the problem that I had building on wingtip for python 3.8.10 thanks to @henryleberre

[wilfonba]

No idea why this change messed with the benchmark time

[sbryngelson]

@henryleberre can merge this whenever it is done

[henryleberre]

Thanks @wilfonba. The increase in benchmark time is due to:

• Only running a few time steps
• Storing benchmark numbers as integers (seconds).

I believe @sbryngelson will add more cases.

[sbryngelson]

@wilfonba @henryleberre yeah it's in my queue