- Swim 750 m (in the cold water of Hartlepool Marina!)
- Cycle ~20 km (from Hartlepool Marina to Seaton Carew 3 times)
- Run 5 km (around the Marina)
Although some hardy people have done full Ironman triathlons with a disabled person (e.g. Team Hoyt), I can not think of a way of doing the swim safely with Benjamin - if he was in a little boat, he would get too excited and overturn it by throwing his weight around. If we did it with him in the water, he would drink the water from the dock marina and make himself ill. Also I am rubbish at swimming and am not confident that I could complete the course while trying to help someone else - not drowning myself will be quite a challenge....Therefore, I will do the swim by myself with Benjamin supervising from the shore. There will be a few posts about the swim, because I need to learn to swim by 22 September....This will be our weakest part of the event by a long way.
For the Cycle, we will use our special tandem - a Hase Pino. On that, Benjamin sits on a recumbent seat on the front (he can not balance on a normal bike seat), with his feet on the front pedals. I sit on the back and pedal and steer. I aspire to Benjamin helping with the pedalling, but he rarely does, unless I am trying to stay still and talk to someone! We use this a lot, so the cycle is going to be the strongest part of the event for us.
For the run we will use Benjamin's cross country wheelchair - an Advance Mobility Freedom chair. I am not a bad runner, but will have to learn the best technique for pushing a wheelchair while running, because I won't be able to use my arms like I usually do when running.
The rest of the posts in this blog will be about our preparations for this event.
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