Where Did It All Start?

Where Did It All Start?

  I finished playing amateur rugby league in 2010 when I injured my left hand by snapping some of the tendons in middle finger. My wife declared your stopping now before you do anything serious to yourself and your to old! I was only 36!
  For a couple of years I didn't do much exercise but stayed involved with rugby coaching some junior teams. As I did less I became more unfit and the my weight started to go up and by autumn 2012 I was up to 19 stone. I wouldn't say I looked that fat as I am 6 foot 6 tall and carried the weight well but I wasn't feeling healthy and knew I needed to do something about it. It was about that time a work colleague who was in worse shape than me said I'm going to do a triathlon next year do you fancy doing it with me?
  It was easy to say yes sat on my office chair without thinking through what it would mean and what I would need to do before even getting to the start line. He passed on a link to the website of the Blenheim Palace Triathlon and said we'll only enter the super sprint it's the shortest possible distance we will manage that easily it's next June we've got ages to train for it. Within a couple of minutes I had entered my card details, paid the entry fee and I was going to do a triathlon! A 400m swim (I could only do breast stroke and had no wetsuit), a 13km bike ride (I had a 10 year old mountain bike that only just worked) and a 2.5km run (as a big guy I hated running).
  Needless to say I completed the 2013 Blenheim Super Sprint Triathlon and  I was hooked. The next race was entered 2 days later and research on what was the best bike I could afford started straight after. This year I have moved up a distance to sprint triathlons and my even do an Olympic distance next year. Also I have lost 2 stone (so far), am so much fitter, feel great and love training.
  Through this blog I am going to share my experiences of going from an amateur rugby league prop forward to a triathlete. Not a good triathlete but I have done 3 and have more planned to I will use the term. Hopefully it will entertain, inspire and show anyone can become a triathlete!