Jim Graham here. Thank you so much for reading this.

It seems I know rather too many friends and family whose lives are impacted by blood cancer. So here goes...

I was all ready to race the Ironman South African Championships in March - but Covid-19 got in the way. I then got myself primed to race the rearranged event in November, but - go figure - Covid-19 has got in the way again... (ok, so I know that's a first world problem, and I know I am priviledged to be able to have trained through the lock-down and the hot summer).

So I figured I'd just race anyway on 14th November, in my #paincave at home.

Now I've not raised money through my own physical effort since I did the 3-Peaks in 2003, so figured it was about time I got my sh*t together and did something useful.

Clearly I’m not quite as inspiring as Captain Sir Tom walking around his garden - let’s be honest, I’m just some obsessive middle-aged bloke mucking about self-indulgently with an expensive hobby … but to be fair it is for a very good cause.

So I'd be very grateful if you could support me by donating something, however small, to support Blood Cancer UK. I'll match any donations you are willing to make up to a maximum of £3,000.

Here's a twist. If you donate, please leave me a message on this page with a guess (or informed estimate) of what you think my total finish time will be (some facts below to help you on this). I'll donate an additional 10 times (up to a maximum of £1,000) of the amount of the donation from the supporter with the nearest guess.

Simples.

Thank you for your time.

Jim

#paincaveIronman facts

Ironman / Iron Distance / Long Distance

3.8 km metres endless pool swim
Transition 1
180 km static bike (on a turbotrainer)
Transition 2
42.2 km treadmill run

Using the same equipment, this year, here are my times -

Sprint (750m/20km/5km) 1 hr 5 mins 37 secs
Splits (10:23/2:22/31:59/1:01/19:52)

Standard (1.5km/40km/10km) 2 hrs 14 mins 30 secs
Splits (22:18/1:20/1:06:28/1:29/42:55)

Half Ironman (1.9km/90km/21.1km) 4 hrs 35 mins 36 secs
Splits (28:54/3:50/2:26:56/2:41/1:33:19)

It's not my first rodeo...I've raced long distance more than 10 times before, but crucially never on my own, and never indoors. Brutal.