I take on a Triathlon to raise money for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust!

I must be mad… but in just over a month, I am going to attempt to complete a Sprint Triathlon! I know it sounds crazy… especially at my age, but that is kind of why I am doing it. This year, I will be 50 and to ‘celebrate’, I wanted to set myself some challenges! This challenge came about when a neighbour, Fleur, sent me a link to a 7 week training programme which is part of the West Midlands GoTri ‘This Girl Can’ campaign. It was aimed at women who had never done anything like this before, but wanted to give it  go. It seemed a perfect opportunity! For the last 7 weeks, I have met up with a fantastic set of women every Friday night and we have learnt about the 3 disciplines, the transitions and how to go about competing in a triathlon. It has been a great experience and what a fantastic set of women! All ages, shapes, sizes and levels of fitness, everyone has been incredibly friendly, supportive and we have had a lot of laughs along the way!

To support the campaign, a group of us agreed to a photoshoot a few weekends ago, so they could have some images of ‘real’ women having a go and taking part. It was a rather chilly Saturday morning, but we all jogged around and rode our bikes so some images could be captured to hopefully encourage others to have a go too! We didn’t volunteer to jump in the lake though… I am sticking to swimming pool swims… not up to wetsuits and a lake just yet!

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So, on the 30th April, I have signed up to take part in the Lichfield Sprint Triathlon. This consists of 16 lengths of the pool, then on the bike for 20km, then round it off with a 5m run. I can just about do all of those in isolation, over a week….. but one after the other… ?

As a practise, our group met up today for a taster triathlon. We swam 8 lengths, did 8km on a WattBike and then ran 2km. We all completed it, but I kept thinking how much further the Sprint Triathlon is going to be! I win the prize for the reddest face!!

To keep me going in training and to spur me on, I thought it would be a good idea to see if I could raise some money at the same time and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust are my chosen charity! Hopefully, when I am struggling on that last 5km run, I can think of the wildlife I am helping and it will help me stagger to the finish line!

I have set up a Just Giving page, so if you would like to help me on my way, you can, via the website. For some reason, it won’t let me edit my story, but if you have read this, you’ll know why I’m doing it!

You can access my Just Giving page by clicking on the image below:

You can also donate FREE via text! I have tried it and it does work! All you do is send a text to 70070. In the message part, you put my unique code WLKT50 followed by the amount you wish to donate. You will get a text asking if you want to GiftAid your donation, then you are done!

I would love to raise £150 for the Trust… more if I can. The more I get, the faster I will be able to complete the Triathlon obviously!!

Thank you, in advance, to anyone who is happy to donate… just think of it as me running the triathlon so you don’t have to!

Alternatively, why not visit the Facebook page set up for any ladies wishing to have a go  themselves…. gentleman, you will have to find another FB group or head over to the GoTri website where you can find out about how you can get involved… I thoroughly recommend it!