Triathlon

My son took part this morning in the Hertfordshire Spring Triathlon.  This was  a 1500m swim in open water, followed by a 38km bike ride and finally a 10km run.  It exhausts me just to think of it - but there were 300 entrants for this and the half length sprint event.

It was well organised and the weather (fairly dull to start, but dry and not too hot) was pretty well ideal.  I admire these fit people who are willing to put themselves through this.  My son was pleased with his result, knocking an appreciable time off his only previous full triathlon.

There are more photographs here.

During the event, two young members of the lake staff were called out to free a swan which had got tangled up in fishing line (see extra).  One end of the line was attached to a bush at the edge of the lake, and the other end was tightly wrapped around its wing.  Naturally the bird was very distressed, but the girls managed to get up close and calm it while they tried to cut the line free.  They were unable to release the line fully from its wing, so they lifted the bird into their boat and took it back to their HQ. I hope they managed to remove the remaining line and free the bird unharmed.