The word triathlon strikes fear into the hearts of us sedentary Londoners. Competitive sporting activity over 3 exhausting sports when the weather's limped from not very bright to downright miserable? You gotta be joking. And yet, Brockwell Park Lido's Aquathlon this weekend is almost beckoning seductively, teasing us with a 'number' of lengths followed by a 'gently undulating run' which finishes next to the cafe. It's like sport got inside a velvet glove and caressed us on our favourite bits, playing on our fears that we've got a little flabby round the edges and man, shouldn't we make the most of our local facilities?
Awaking from our reverie, however, we clock that it really is vaguely serious. Organised in three sections, the youth category (aged 13-16) will have a 100m swim, that's 2 lengths of the 50m pool, followed by a 1000m run. Novice adult competitors will have to swim 200m and run 2000m, and the more experienced will have a 400m swim and 7000m run. It's only £3.50 to enter as an adult so if you can get there and are able it would be churlish not to. The aim of the day is "to gauge the level of interest for multi sport in the local community, with the goal of establishing a local triathlon club based out of Brockwell Lido".
Whatever, it's a good excuse to get down there - remember this? It was summery then... but it is possible the weather might be fine this weekend, hush now, don't exclaim... - and let's not miss another excuse to ride the wave of post-Olympic, pre-Olympic athletic spirit.
Turn up and cheer or download an application form here. Entry forms are required in advance and there will a few limited entries on the day. All competitors need to be at the Lido by 10:00am on the 14th September to register.
Image courtesy of ruscoff via the Londonist Flickrpool.
