I was sat minding my own business one day at work, probably staring out of the window, when the phone rang...

“Hi, Wayne speaking” “Wayne off the Lakeland 50?” “Yep, who’s this?” “Marc Laithwaite, I was wondering if I could borrow your car park for the Ulverston Triathlon” “Yep, no problem” “Awesome. While you’re on, you don’t know anyone who’d want to set up a Triathlon club in Ulverston do you?” “Err...Yeah...probably...I’ll have a word with a few people and get back to you”... 

...a few months later, I was sat in a meeting room in Ulverston, with Marc, Caroline Smith, Paul McKenny and Lucy Cowgill from Triathlon England and that was the start of it. I think the ‘official’ date we signed the affiliation documents with Triathlon England was the 24th June 2013, but all of us agree that we properly launched at the Epic Events Triathlon in September 2013. Over that summer, we had loads of fresh faces join us at training, some we scared away—there was an eventful evening I got lost in the woods at the priory with two young ladies for example but many, many stayed and have supported us heavily in everything ever since, and for that I am deeply, deeply appreciative. It’s been a truly incredible experience, and just goes to show what can happen when you get a bunch of people together who are committed and single minded in a goal of helping a club succeed. We achieved a lot of things in 2014: 

• We ran our second club ‘Try a Tri’ triathlon in September 2014 
• We got dedicated pool time, with up to 24 people training at coached sessions in the pool at Ulverston on a Saturday morning 
• We got 5 Level 2 tri coaches, 6 level 1 tri coaches and a number of ASA swim coaches supporting athlete development (athletes – that’s you, reading this) 
• We got around 90 members up from 44 at the end of 2013 
• We ran our first two duathlons of the winter series, with another four planned for 2015 

The foundation of the club was always to help introduce novices to the sport, and we must always remember that. Since forming the club we’ve supported a huge number of newbies, and I really hope this continues. We’ve got a great mix of hardened Ironman triathletes supporting us, as well as those who are just giving it a go, and I hope this never changes. Our Try a Tri and duathlon programmes are incredibly successful for the size and age of the club and are testament to the hard work and effort put in by my fellow committee members — and the rest of Team Macca! All of the above was recognised and rewarded in my mind by us winning Active Cumbria Community Group/Club of the Year in 2014, which was an incredible achievement when you consider the competition, and the fact that we were still a baby compared to many clubs around the county. There’s still loads for us to do, and we’ve got some great plans for the future, so as the battle cry goes… GAME ON!!!!!