Damien's Tri-Umphant

It took place on the 7th August 2010, a sunny morning at the Excel Centre; where HFG's new kid on the block, Damien Bernard, prepared to take on his first ever sprint triathlon. With a 750 meter swim, a 20 kilometre cycle and a 5 kilometre run ahead of him, the Frenchman's nerves were beginning to inevitably build. With no prior experience to comfort him and feeling like he was quite literally throwing himself straight in at the deep-end, he entered the water. However a gentle and enjoyable swim it was not. No amount of training could have prepared him for the bundle of arms and legs flying in all directions, not to mention the lack of space. Yet he powered on and escaped with only a few punches and kicks to the face.

Feeling slightly bruised and battered after the swim, Damien was relieved to find his bike with such ease. Being a Frenchman of course his next big task was ensuring a left turn at the roundabout, which he completed with great aplomb. As kind as the conditions had been, quite true to British weather the wind began to pick up and with the daunting task of a 5km run still in the balance Damien relied on the cheering crowd to sweep him along.

Having spent 20km pedalling his legs were not ready for the act of pounding the pavements, and subsequently the first kilometre was somewhat wobbly. Introducing a few tactics, Damien purposefully took the first kilometre of the 5k run at a slow pace, admitting ‘the pace was so slow your grandmother would have passed me'. Finishing in a time of 1:20:00 Damien was thrilled to complete his first triathlon. He's already preparing for next year's race where he plans to compete in the Olympic distance event.