Each year, Vanilla encourages its staff to pull together and undertake a fundraising activity. With the arrival of COVID-19 the team’s original plan (to cover the distance between our two UK offices – from our head office in Brigg, Lincolnshire to Newcastle) was postponed. That is a total distance of 143 miles (the same distance as an Ironman). Instead we will cover the same distance in a socially isolated way.

In order to achieve this goal, our employees have been asked to complete one or more elements of an Ironman Triathlon – one of the most enduring and brutal long-distance triathlons you can undertake.

Our employees can choose to complete at least one of the following activities (or 1/3 of each):

Cycle – 112 miles (180.25km)

Run or Walk – 26.2 miles (42.20km)

Swim – 2.4 miles (3.86 km).

The rules are that these activities need to be completed between 5pm on September 25th and 8am on September 28th.

Since I've taken part in other charity events involving lots of walking and cycling I've decided that its time to learn to swim. Yes thats not a mistake -  I cant swim. So I'll be heading down to my local pool, getting into better shape and trying to do less splashing and more actual swimming!