Bassetlaw novice Darren Raines takes on triathlon

Starting earlier this year Darren has trained with the club based at the BPL My Space leisure centre. His first actual triathlon event was the clubs own Sprint event in the first week in September.

Part of his motivation has been to raise money for cancer charities as his mother is currently undergoing treatment and he wanted to give something back.

With that under his belt he opted for a longer distance event including an open water sea swim.

With limited experience he opted to do the Sandman Sprint triathlon in Anglesey. The race starts and ends in one of Anglesey’s most treasured spots, Newborough Forest adjacent to the world famous Llanddwyn Beach.

The route is a simple out and back but only the ocean will decide whether your pitted against calm waters or white tipped waves.

Starting from transition in Newborough Forest, the bike climbed up to Newborough before heading round the sweeping bends and fast straights whilst also negotiating the tight village streets before passing onto the Menai Bridge.

Passing through a number of villages and continuing on towards the seaside town of Aberffraw with stunning views of the coast and to transition ready to get his running shoes on.

Darren completed a lap of the Standard run loop. With Newborough Forest once again hosting the Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Running Championships its safe to say the trails on this section are world class.

Darren said: “I felt pretty good getting to the 5km run but as the last 1.5km is on the beach I really found that tough, but I managed to dig deep and finish.”

He finished in a time of 1 hour and 33 minutes. Also competing at the Sandman weekend was fellow club member Gav Toulson.

He took on the Sandman Legend event, which consisted of 2km sea swim, then 93km ride finishing with the tough 20km trail run and finished in a time of 7 hours 24 minutes.