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Thank you so much Justine x

Thank you so much Justine x

We'd like to thank our dear friend Justine Bennett who recently entered and competed in the 'Mad March' short and fast triathlon on 27 April.

Consisting of a 250m Swim, 10 Mile Bike Ride, 3 Mile Run, Justine (pictured above with both Harrison, Reece and her award for competeting in the event) completed it in a brilliant 1 hour 21 minutes...but she has also raised over £700 towards our £5,000 target doing so (which is being raised towards a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle).

Justine has kindly written up an account of why she wanted to do the triathlon and how it went below so we hope you enjoy reading this.

We would now like to take this opportunity to thank her for so much for what she's done. The achievement of doing the triathlon is enough, but raising the money she has doing so is incredible and we're so grateful.

Furthermore and as justine does, we would also like to thank everyone reading this who has also donated sponsoring her.

Thank you everyone.....but especially Justine xxxx

 

Justine's account.........

Our children love looking at what they call my ‘medals’… I have a lot of 5k and a few 10k but I was never going to run any further. I wanted a challenge but long distance running is not for me.

 Cycling I love, running I can do, swimming I am perfectly good at but it doesn’t float my boat… so two out of three isn’t bad, so this was my next challenge, a triathlon! 

Simon (my husband) and I have known Jon since school years and then the beautiful Jo came along something like 15 years ago, marriage and children followed!

Jo and I were pregnant with our first children together, two boys; Reece for The Dillings and Samuel for us – these were special times long awaited for Jo and I.  We were both actually pregnant together again the second time round, me a little sooner with our little girl Bridgette and Jo with Harrison, there ended up being six months between them.

Our stories took a turn in different directions after Harrison was born and diagnosed with cerebral palsy…as friends we felt helpless, helping with Reece whilst Jon and Jo spent time with Harrison in hospital was all we could offer.  There was so much to take in and understand.

Five and a half years on we look in and see how amazingly strong Jon and Jo have been, it hasn’t been at all easy and will continue with different challenges for them as a family but Harrison is a beautiful, bright young boy and his loving, older brother Reece is a credit to his parents.

This triathlon seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to do something for Harrison’s Trust Fund and I have been amazed at people’s response, over £700 has been donated to date!

My training consisted of a lot of spinning classes, mainly due to the bad weather leading up to it, running, circuits and as little swimming as I could get away with!

By the time the triathlon came around I was fit and ready – but unfortunately I always have a battle in my head leading up to anything significant, because I am no athlete or a consistently fit person I worry that I will make a fool of myself!

At these times and at more difficult times during the triathlon I thought of Harrisons beautiful smile, my friends and family that have supported me and donated – just get on with it Justine!

250m swim – 10 mile bike – 3 mile run… the clock starts when you get in the pool and stops when you cross the line after the run!

Once the dreaded swim at 7.40am was out of the way for most part I enjoyed it… conditions were brilliant, a cool bright morning breaking into lovely sunshine.  Following advice from Anna Langbridge (Wellbody Health & Fitness), I stayed calm and steady for the swim, legged it throughout the very hilly bike route round Wimborne, reverting back to a steady pace to begin the run and finally giving it my all to finish!

What was special was to see my family there as I came into transition from bike to run and then at the end with Jon, Jo, Reece and Harrison too… I cried, it was my own personal marathon – done in 1 hour 21 minutes!

Thank you to everyone that has endured me warbling on, posting progress on Facebook, giving me messages of support and most of all to all of you that have so kindly donated to Harrison’s Trust Fund.

Justine xxx