Rob Scott, a local teacher from Llanharan secured a place in the Ironman Wales Competition and set himself the additional challenge of raising £1000 for Scope. Scope is a charity that provides support, information and advice to more than a quarter of a million disabled people and their families every year. Rob was inspired to raise money for Scope after watching a video on YouTube about a father and his disabled son who compete in athletic events together – see the video here.
Apart from the fundraising challenge, Rob had the physical challenge of the Ironman Competition which consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a 26.2-mile (42.2 km) marathon run, raced in that order and without a break. The race is widely considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world and any participant who manages to complete the triathlon within 17 hours becomes an “Ironman”.
Ironman Wales 2014 took place in Pembrokeshire with the swim starting from North Beach in Tenby. Although Rob was reasonably fit, he undertook a 12 week intensive training program to properly prepare for the event.
Rob told us how the event went:
“I finished the event in 11 hours 38 minutes and 37 seconds with the support of my wife, children and family to keep me focused and get me to the finish line. The swim was the hardest open water swim I’ve ever done, the sea was very choppy and around 60 athletes had to be rescued due to the conditions. In the process I raised £1,842.27 for Scope, of which £100 was from Talk training.”
Rob finished 152nd out of 2085 participants so was a significant personal achievement as well as a fundraising success for Scope.
Talk training was delighted to support Rob in this challenge – Well done Rob!
