Next Sunday, that’s the 11th of June there will be no morning service here at MBC owing to road closures and us being slap-bang in the middle of the ITU World Triathlon Series course.
For the elite athletes, and following a 1,500 meter swim in Roundhay Park’s Waterloo Lake there’s a quick change from wetsuit to lycra for their 40 km bike ride into and around town. After that it’s just a small matter of a 10k run: then the rest of the day’s their own!
As an amateur Gareth Davies, however, will be undertaking a slightly less arduous schedule. For him and his fellow athletes taking part in what’s called the Sprint Triathlon involves a mere 750 meter swim, a 20km bike ride and a 7.5km run. “I’m pretty fit” says Gareth “as I do a fair amount of running but swimming that sort of distance in a lake that I’m told years ago was once used as an armaments dump is a bit scary.”
So in readiness for the challenge, Gareth has been honing his aquatic skills by training in a flooded gravel pit alongside students at a diving school near Castleford. Another of his clever tactics is to borrow a bike from Graham and Margaret’s son Aodhan (in 2016 Aodhan rode this particular bike when he took part in the insanely tough Iron Man challenge).
So next Sunday, if you decide to sneak an extra hour in bed, or maybe opt for a drive out in the Dales spare a thought for Gareth. In fact, more than that – go online and visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Gareth-Davies96 and sponsor him, because every stroke, every revolution and every step he takes will be counting towards his goal of raising £1,000 for The Bone Cancer Research Trust.