Team PRA Triathlon Blog Entry One: Two weeks to go...

It seemed like such a good idea on the cold, dark, winter evening back in February. The London Triathlon? This Summer? The whole PRA team? What a great idea! Why not?!

My head was filled with typical post-Christmas thoughts - it will get me fit for the summer, I will make me stop smoking, we'll raise money for the Benevolent Fund, and I will become an all round better person. I conjured up images of happily swimming under London Bridge, cycling round Big Ben and victoriously sprinting past the London Eye at the finish line. Why hadn't we thought of this before? What could possibly go wrong? I'm in!

The next day I had sobered up. That's when the panic set in.

I remembered I don't cycle. The last time I was on a bike I risked my life by cycling down 'the world's most dangerous road' in Bolivia. Needless to say I survived, but the scars on my knees and elbows are a daily reminder of my vow never to get on a bike again. A quick bit of googling then quashed my belief that the organisers had a special ability to 'clean that bit of the Thames' especially for the event, so the swim was out for me, I swallow far too much water in the pool. This meant I had to run and joined with Zoe and Caroline to form the all-female relay team. I hadn't regularly run for a few years but my eternal optimism (stupidity) left me excited at the challenge ahead.

I would describe my training since then as fair to non-existent and I don't think the occasional run round my local park in Brixton has amounted to much. I have however become very familiar with my fellow runners, various dogs and the other eclectic array of locals that frequent the park on a summers evening. The rest of the team have been doing significantly better with Caroline taking regular dips in the local serpentine before work and Zoe managing to recover from minor surgery in order to cycle for our team.

So, with two weeks to go, it's time for me to step up my training, one way or another I'll make it across the finish line but with a lot less ability and far less grace than I imagined six months ago. But it's all for an excellent cause and whatever happens, in true Team PRA style, there is a guarantee of some fantastic stories the next day.

Please sponsor the whole team at www.justgiving.com/pratriathlon