MAKE LIKE MARTYN

I know it’s not conventional but I always read my 220 from the back page first. This is because I can’t wait to read what Martyn Brunt has been up to since the last publication. In the November edition he writes hilariously as always, this time about photos taken during triathlons. On reading it I couldn’t help but recall my very first triathlon – The London Triathlon relay at the ExCeL Centre in London, in August 2009.

It was my first mass swim and in my naivety I made my way to the front of the swimmers lined up for the start. I was treading water in the second row when a triathlete in the front row looked round at me, saw I was probably twice his age and advised me to maybe start a little further back in the pack, as, he said, that when the start gun goes everyone kicks out and I was likely to get booted in the face. I felt that this was wise advice so I turned around and moved back as suggested. All went well in the race and from then on I was hooked on triathlons.

The next morning I received a call from a friend of mine asking me what was I doing in a swim race in London. I was bemused as he had no idea that I was going to be there. He told me to go buy a Sunday Times and have a look at page six, which I did. There I am, in the middle of the swim group, grinning! My friends have always thought I had a bit of an ego but couldn’t believe I was posing for a camera seconds before the start of a major race! In all honesty I had no idea there was a photographer in a nearby boat, least of all from the Sunday Times, but it was certainly me! Everyone else was concentrating on the start.

To this day nobody believes that I was an innocent victim of a national newspaper. All I can say is that my smile was simply due to the joy of taking part in my new sport, which has brought me great pleasure over the past few years. CLIVE BRADBURN, EMAIL