hurray - I have now officially done an Olympic Triathlon

Surprisingly was great fun and Nick and I live to tell the tale!

All done in 2 hours and 42 minutes, not bad I'm told for a first attempt, but people are wondering why my transition time was a whopping 8 minutes.  Now I'm wondering that too, but maybe my race had further to travel between transition....

A very big thanks you to my family for their amazing support and getting up at 4.00Am!  Thank you to you all for parting with your cash to raise funds for the YMCA

3 Days to Go !

Lake swim last night was hilarious as Carlo yelled his words of wisdom of undoing the wet suit, running, taking goggles off and thinking about which direction to run in. Nick and I decided they were a very serious bunch of  Tri athletes and did we need to take things bit more seriously on the transition phases..... Maybe not having that ice cream between cycle and run after all.

Found out there is a ladder that you have to climb up after the swim... flip - is this before I lift up my goggles, undo the suit ?  You need a manual to take part in these events!

I'm going to take Amber for a run tomorrow for my last bit of exercise before the race  and enjoy the simplicity of just running !

So next time you hear from me I will have done the tri - hopefully in 3 hours and will put some pictures up.

Again, thank you lovely people for supporting those who are  less fortunate than ourselves and giving me such wonderful support. 

 Also a very special thank you to James who has the been the one emailing everyone asking to support me and keeping the momentum of funds coming in.

Gosh, 24 people raised £1000 - AMAZING !

Thank you so very much for all the well wishes and encouragement   along the way to the big day.

Feel like sports day is fast approaching !

Off to swim in the lake tonight  and go through transitions yet again.

My friend Carlo says I take too long getting out of the wet suit - so have to shave seconds off and be better at staggering out of the water!

Love to all and be all that you can be !

 This is an ongoing update!

They say (the professionals), all the hard training is done now and this week should be about gentle exercise and transitions ......hurray! Can't say I can get out of my wet suit any faster than before and thank goodness the race does not start with putting it on by the clock.

Wonderful friends, thank you for the continued support.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

So why am I doing this......

Nick, my colleague wanted supported to do an event to get fitter.  I said, sure I will accompany you on an event not realising he had chosen the big one... we've not even done a sprint triathlon before and ignorance is bliss or is it?

Yep, 1.5 k swim, 40 bike and 10 k run is what the Olympic Triathlon stands for!

Next question you may be asking is why the YMCA?

Ask yourself do you know what the charity  YMCA does.....? Probably not much apart from you may have seen a gym...

Well I discovered they do a lot and because Dario joined us last year I became more aware of the youth of today and the trouble they often encounter.  Please take the time to look up what an amazing job they do  for todays youth. 

After the event Dario and I are to give a presentation on why I felt passionate about raising funds for the charity and to help awareness that young purple today in society need more help then ever before.

Ok a bit about the training.

 Nick and I have been swimming in a lake in Shepperton, biking around Richmond park for hours at a time and running.

I have got to the stage where my dislike for road running has turned into hate.  Running back from work in temp above 25 is horrible.  Also people are so grumpy in comparison to the dog walkers in Esher and Wimbledon.

Nick had his first taste of sunburn yesterday after cycling for 2 hours followed by a run. We are do all three disciplines as often as we can and how putting them one after the other but on a much smaller scale.  They say never do a full marathon before the event.  Now I know why.  Psychologically it's terrifying and then you know what's coming when you do the actual event.  Yes, back to my ignorance is bliss!

So now its count down  - 15 days until the event.

My Sunday morning will begin with a 20 k bike ride to the lake.  Then wriggling into my wetsuit - I think thats the most exhausting part, swimming, then running round the lake before I hop back on my bike and tell the family that I will not be walking the dog!

I shall let you know how many ducks I wave to, advise you on what pub to eat in at Shepperton see how many laps I can do around the lake before collapsing !

In the meantime friends, I wish you all a lazy weekend.

Donating k JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Quick update - Sunday was awesome.  Biked to the lake, swam and then ran - Hurray.  Have finally done the whole thing but did cheat on only doing once round lake instead of 2.  

Got the race pack info - race is at 7.20 Am.  blessing ...?

Now  going to keep the next two weeks steady and fun and may try a red bull to check it doesn't give me heart palpitations !

Thank you for all your wonderful generosity  dear friends. x