"Ironman that's nuts, it's not good for you, I'd never do that" so I used to say until a good friend Hatch (aka IronHatch), from my village, persuaded me to join him on his journey raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. James, very sadly, required the services of GOSH when his 15 year old daughter Emma became seriously ill. James and his family lived in the hospital for 102 days while surgeons, doctors and nurses battled to save Emma, she received a heart transplant when her own heart failed, but sadly passed away after a long fight in May 2014. Since then James has become a dedicated fundraiser for GOSH.

I joined him on this journey in 2016 when we did the Staffordshire 1/2 Ironman. We have now undertaken to go further in 2018 and this is the big one!

We have assembled a team to try to complete a full distance Ironman - for my non triathlete friends that's 226.2KM of swimming (3.86km), cycling (180.25km) and a marathon (42.16km) to finish all within a cut off time of 15 hours. My aim is to finish! and be part of Hatch's team to raise £100,000 for much needed projects at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Challenge Roth www.challenge-roth.com in Germany - on 1st July 2018 - is our chosen race. Our team is made up of 8 new to full distance triathletes, one former Ironman UK Champion and one plucky relay team. We are kindly being sponsored by some amazing brands, Trek Bikes, Athlete Lab, Huub, Challenge Tri Camps, Kat Berry Coaching, thatcameraman and Squeeze Nutrition.

I have never swum 3.8km, I have done a couple of sportives on the bike of about 180km and 20 years ago I ran a marathon. So the prospect of doing these distances back to back and racing for somewhere between 13 1/2 and 15 hours scares me a lot. I have no idea how I am going to complete the task but I've got a year to prepare.

Anything you can do to support me, the team and importantly Great Ormond Street Hospital would be amazing. Thank you in advance for all your support and generosity.

Follow our journey on Instagram @Team_IronHatch and Facebook Team IronHatch

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