Thanks for visiting my fundraising page.

UPDATE

Well, it's well past the date now, and I'm pleased to announce that i finished the event way ahead of my target time of 3:30hrs with a finish time of 2hrs 54minutes and 55seconds! Hurray!

It was a fantastic race, and I came 37th out of 81 people, which is not to bad, although I've got alot of improving to do!

In fact, the race was so much fun, that not only are we planning on doing it again next year (a Triathlon, not the same event) I am trying to recruit other people to join in! Seriously, I found the event much easier than i feared (not in a "oh, cos I'm sooo fit you know" because i'm seriously not) and I reckon that many many people out there would be able to complete the event with just a few months of training!

As such, we are looking to do an olympic triathlon next september and if you are interested, then just send me an email @ onlycookies@hotmail.co.uk and I'll try and add you to the team. The olympic length is not the only distance, and if you find it a bit intimidating, there are shorter distances to do like the sprint and super sprint.

Anyway, thanks to everyones support thus far, and don't forget that its not to late to add sponsorship as a congratualtions!

Thanks!

Matt Cook

How It Started

About 4/5 months ago a friend rang me and quite casually asked,

"so, me and a friend are thinking of doing a triathlon this summer, you want in?"

"sure why not, I can't imagine i'll be doing anything else at that time" I replied, without actually thinking to hard about what it might involve.

That was it. No mention of the conversation occured for a month or two, until Martin phones me again,

"so, there's a BUPA London 10k run coming up a little while before our Triathlon, I thought it'd be a good thing for us to do as part of the training. You fancy it? Oh, how's the training by the way?"

It kinda took me a couple of seconds, but I replied something along the lines of,

"Yeh, that sounds great! And training is going well. How about you?"

Those of you that know me even a little bit will know how bad my memory is. So needless to say, that what i said was a complete lie. I hadn't trained, let alone remembered what i had got myself in for!

It turns out Martin had decided, in a drunken moment of bravado, that "if your gonna do a Triathlon, it may as well be the Olympic length"(!?) This means that I have to do a 1.5km swim, followed by a soothing 40km cycle, finished off with a pleasent 10km run. Individually, not so bad. But back to back? Well, we'll see...

Anyway, cut a long story short, I got myself geared up, buying proper running shoes, (Oh my god! the difference some proper trainers can make!) a Garmin Forerunner50 and a knee support, (yes, i know. I blame the parents for a my knobbly knees.) and started a hardcore training regime. (yeh right!)

I got through the 10k quite comfortably, (considering the 2hrs kip i got the night before, thanks Martin!) And now it's about time I get myself sponsoring a charity!

So, after looking about a while for a good charity, I decided to sponsor the local hospice here in Enfield.

Hospice's are very important for local communities and because of their localized involvement they tend to be less well funded than the main charities. (Not that these other's are any less important)

Because of this need for funding, I opted against  going for a more well known charity, and I hope that this will not affect (negatively) your flawless and generous urges(!)

So, enough about me, what is my charity about?

Well, the Nightgale Hospice was setup to help people and their familes whose lives have been affected by cancer or had, for whatever reason, slipped through the system. They help people find the care they need, and support them through what can be a very traumatic experience.

To find out more info, please go to their website here.


Thanks for reading all this and getting this far! Below is just some info from justgiving.com. If you need more info about the triathlon, their website is here.

(thanks again guys & girls)

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Nightingale Community Hospice Trust Limited gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

So please sponsor me now!