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UPDATE:

Well I made it! It was a lot tougher than I expected it to be, mainly due to the sleep deprivation, but I crossed the line, and inside the cut-off time.

We set off at 7am Friday. The swim took longer than I thought it would. I'm still not sure why. I'd done a couple of good long training swims, but came out over an hour slower than i predicted, in 5 hrs 32 mins. Maybe the water is thicker over there!

Onto the bike at about 1pm Friday, and felt pretty good during the day. When the sun went down though it got VERY dark. This caused the tiredness to catch up with me, and after I started falling asleep on the bike, I had to take the occasional rest. I also found I couldn't eat while riding in the dark, so had to stop for a few mins every lap or so to get some food. When the sun came up again I felt better. I eventually got off the bike after 30 hrs 41 mins, at about 8:45 pm on Sat.

The run started gingerly and remained like that all the way. It was quite undulating, so had to mix in a bit of walking with the jogging. Again the night turned out to be tough with the tiredness, but then when the sun came up the temp got up to about 30C, so the daytime presented it's own challenges. I didn't need to rest as much as the bike as it's harder to fall asleep when running! I grabbed the occasional sit-down every few laps, and completed the run in 21 hrs 20 mins, early on Sunday evening.

I finished the entire race in 59 hrs 10 mins and 20 secs. Inside the cut-off, and very very tired and sore.

If any of you out there were waiting to see if I finished before sponsoring me, then now's your chance!  ;o)

sam.

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Hi there,

First off, thanks for paying a visit and reading this.

Back in August 2003 I lost my gran to cancer.
She'd had it a few years earlier and beaten it, but it came back, and quickly. Within the space of 2 weeks she went from being fine, to being very ill in hospital.

The people who really stood out at the time were the Macmillan nurses.

They were there in the hospital, and when the doctors were under-staffed and busy they councilled her (and us). They listened to us about what she needed, and because they're skilled, like Advanced Nurse Practitioners, and have prescribing rights, they were able to alter her medication to make her more comfortable.

Like many other people, I didn't really know much about the work of Macmillan until it hit close to home, and we only saw a very small amount of what they really do. When I talk about them I'm amazed by how many other people have also been helped by them when someone they know has been struck by cancer.

I was quite close to my gran, and after she died I decided I wanted to do something to raise money for Macmillan to say thankyou. By that time I was close to doing my first Ironman, and wasn't able or ready to sort anything out in time. Since then I've wanted to do an event that was epic enough to raise a respectable amount of sponsorship, but until now I haven't done anything further than the Ironman.

Until now.

This October I'm going to compete in the USA National Triple Ironman in Virginia, and I'm using this to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

In case you're wondering...

It starts with a 7.2 mile (11.4 km) swim. 36 laps of a loop course in a lake.
Then into a 336 mile (540 km) bike, featuring 67 laps of a near 5 mile course.
Then onto a 78.6 mile (126.4 km) run, consisting of 39 laps of a 2 mile out-and-back loop.

The total race distance is 421.8 miles, or 678.8 km.

We'll start at 7am on the morning of Friday 5th Oct, and have until 7pm on the Sunday night to cross the finish line, some 60 hrs later.

If you think this a worthy cause, and a worthy effort, then please sponsor me. I promise you it's all going to a very good cause.

thanks,
sam.

"lu·di·crous  (ld-krs)
adj.
Laughable or hilarious because of obvious absurdity or incongruity."