Sunday 5 October 2025 - The Wilmslow Autumn Sprint Triathlon

Before the swim

Sue had entered the full Sprint Triathlon - swim/bike/run, and Richard and Jenny had entered the Aquabike Sprint. They don't like running. I was 'Support', which mainly involved sitting with coffee in the café, guarding valuables whilst the others exhausted themselves. I also took a few photos.

The ten o'clock start suited us, it was an early start time - the staggered start lasted until after noon, by which time it was raining hard.

Jenny was taking part in an effort to raise money for Aquabox, a worthy charity for which she raised around £1,000. Further donations will be welcome.

It was hard to get a good viewing spot at the pool, especially as when I did manage that, two lifeguards managed to completely block my view. So I missed Sue and Richard in the pool, but I did spot Jenny as she set off on the 16 length (400 metres) swim.

Outside, the racks of bikes indicated that our trio were amongst the earlier starters on the event in which around 400 took part.

The roads weren't closed, but traffic was quiet, as Sue flew around the 24km bike course. Apparently it was very well marshalled.

At the start/finish of the bike ride a very officious volunteer was demanding accuracy as to the mounting and dismounting of the cyclists.

Sue, above, was first in our group, and would have set off on her run by the time Richard flew in with his bike, to conclude his Aquabike event.

Jenny was next. Here she is on the course, and then finishing.

Meanwhile, Sue was running around the two lap, 6.3km, running course.

She finished inside 34 minutes - a good time.

Jenny undertook a Photoshoot for Aquabox.

Then once Sue had recovered the trio posed for the camera again.

We adjourned to Styal Mill for lunch, and eventually the results were made public and for our trio they are shown below. An excellent event, enjoyed by all.

Saturday 4 October 2025 - Wythenshawe parkrun number 634

Can you guess? ...this was Sue's 250th parkrun at Wythenshawe. That's about five years' worth of Saturday mornings. No wonder then that we know lots of the regular participants and marshalls. Here they are, gathering at the start for the usual briefing.

With rain forecast, I donned full waterproofs and went slowly around the 5km course in over 37 minutes. Sue and the others were much quicker (apart from Jeanette who was at the tail, doing her first outing for some time thanks to her nagging injury).

Full results are here.

Afterwards we congregated in the café and sorted the 250 barcode tokens. Fewer than usual, but they do stick together when wet, so it's a tedious job. There were plenty of us to help.

L-R: Andy, Jeanette, Martin, Rufus (hiding), Rob, Paul, Sophie and Laura

Trying to dry the tokens

Meanwhile there was a deluge outside, and Chief Run Director, Andy, came in after everone had finished and the signage etc had been cleared up, looking very much like a drowned rat!

As usual , a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Just as well, the number of times we've done this.