On Saturday 3rd August 2019, Nick Kelly (Loveday 2013), Freddie Wright and Will Slynn (Cubitt, 2013) took part in the Tallinn Ironman.
After six months of intense training they set off for Estonia to take part in this event which involved a 2.4 mile open water swim, a 112 mile bike ride, followed by a marathon. Due to dangerously low temperatures of 11 degrees centeigrate in Sea Plane Harbour the swim was moved at the last minute to a nearby lake.
The team were blessed with good weather, although strong winds made the bike course tougher than anticipated. The run was four laps of a course which brought the athletes through the medieval town centre. Beautiful though this sounds, it did involve quite a substantial portion of running on cobbles. The team, cheered on by friends and family, all made it round in good time and in good spirits, with Will finishing in 12hrs33 and Nick 13hrs15 (well inside the cut off of 17hrs).
Nick, a front row forward for Cranleigh 1st XV in his time, and Will, a rather untalented swimmer, have been working towards completing an Ironman for the last two and a half years following Nick’s diagnosis of testicular cancer in November 2017.
The Muskiteerz (an adventure club formed by the Slynn brothers) have to date raised just shy of £10,000 + Gift Aid for We Hear You, a small charity providing counselling services to people suffering from cancer or other life threatening illnesses in the South West of England.
Here is the link to their Just Giving page should anyone like to find out more about the charity.