RSHP

AJ Bell 100 Triathlon

07 August 2017

Thirty brave members of RSHP staff battled wind, rain, and lightning to complete the AJ Bell 100 Triathlon at the London Excel centre on Saturday 22nd July.

The event, which many in advance had expected to be warm and enjoyable, took place amid apocalyptic scenes with parts of the cycling course sitting under inches of water, and both runners and cyclists getting almost as wet as the swimmers. Nevertheless, the intrepid teams all completed each stage of the race, with swimmers and cyclists joining the runners for the last 25 metres of the course.

In total, ten teams took part: three in the sprint event (750m swim, 20k cycle, and 5k run), and seven in the Olympic event (1.5k swim, 40k cycle, and 10k run). In total, around 12,000 people entered the race, which made the achievements of the staff even greater. Each team was named after a different planet from the solar system, with team Mars coming 4th out of 197 teams in the Olympic category, setting up an intense rivalry for next year.

After all the races were won and medals awarded, team RSHP took to a local pub to warm up and dry off, and enjoy some well-earned food and drink.

Architect Taylor Huggins was the mastermind behind the staff’s participation in the event. Reflecting on it afterwards, he said: “There are two types of fun. Fun-fun, like eating chocolate or drinking wine. And unfun-fun, like cycling through London on the greyest, wettest day of the summer. Where unfun-fun wins every time, however, is that it is not “free” fun – it has to be earned, and as such it is so much more rewarding when you achieve it. And all the better if you can share that with friends.”

RSHP will return to the triathlon next year – whatever the weather.