Most of us would be hoping to be kicking back and enjoying a nice chilled out retirement by the age of 80, but not Daphne Belt. A triathlete for 30 years Daphne continues to race and as you will see she is certainly not just taking part, and raising a fantastic amount of money for worthy causes in the process.
We’re inspired by Daphne and we’re sure you will be too.
Daphne Says…
I have been a triathlete for almost thirty years and I have set myself a challenge this year because I will be 80 years old in August. I will try to raise money for two charities close to my home. The first of Charity is The Chestnut Tree Children’s home near Arundel, West Sussex for children with life shortening conditions. They do the most marvellous work there.
The other charity is Age UK West Sussex. They have ‘Drop in’ centres and arrange classes and meetings almost every day at different places locally.
2019 is a very big year for me for several reasons., I will 80 years old in August and be challenging myself again by competing in international triathlon events. One of them Ironman 70.3 Haugesund. The distance means that I will swim 1900 metres in a Norwegian Lake, then ride my bike for 90 km, and finally a 20 km run. Then in August the World Triathlon Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. These events will be:
In Haugesund, Norway June 30th
Lausanne, Switzerland. August 31st
In the earlier part of the season I will attempt swim the National Swimathon 5000 metre swim on three days running in Littlehampton at the new ‘Wave’ swimming and sport centre on the last days of March a total of 15,000 metres roughly ten miles in total.
My husband Steve will join me on all of these events. I have been competing in triathlon 29 years, in fact 2019 will be my 29th fun year of racing in my favourite sport.
A triathlon with an open or rough water swim is a daunting enough task for a young healthy person in their teens or twenties and would require a good deal of training and commitment to it for anybody.
I took up triathlon at the age of fifty after many years of being a couch potato. Many times I have taken my place on the GB squad in races in far away places like Japan, Australia the USA and Canada and quite a lot of the European countries for National, European and World Championships.
Needless to say, as the years roll by, it gets harder and harder to keep pushing myself on. When the going gets hard I tell myself that there are thousands of people who are not able to take part in sports like mine for a variety of reasons and that helps me push through the discomfort zone.
In May 2018 whilst on holiday in Italy, I crashed of my bike and broke bones in my hand and wrist I thank heavens that at my ripe old age that I have been able to claw my way back from injury to a fair level of fitness. If anybody reading this page finds the things I am struggling to do at 80 the slightest bit inspiring, then please sponsor me in my quest to raise funds for the children of the Chestnut Tree House.
Of the events I am doing to raise funds for both super worthy charities for this year are;
The Frosty, swim- run at Freedom Leisure, Littlehampton on March 3rd
Then at the end of March: Swimathon 5000 metre pool swim.
I will swim on all three days of this competition making almost 10 miles in total.
In May: Eton Sprints weekend at Dorney Lake where I will do the same sprint distance triathlon event on two consecutive days.
June: Windsor Triathlon 1500 metre swim in the River Thames/ 40km bike/10km run.
June 30th: Ironman 70.3 Haugesund Norway- 1900 metre swim/ 90km bike/ 20km run.
August: As one of team GBR I will compete in the ITU World Triathlon Championship Lausanne, Switzerland.
All of this above has been compressed into a small piece of paper that I can carry with me at all times and hand out to anybody I know who I hope will make a donation to either of these great causes. Ant amount large or small will be gratefully given to the charity automatically if you use the Just Giving Daphne Belt link.
If you wish to read more from Daphne then please visit her Blog here and to make a donation to the very worthy causes that she is racing for then visit her Just Giving page here.
If you have any questions please email me: dafbelt@outlook.com
Daphne will be racing using our Fox Interchangeable sunglasses and the full range can be seen here.
And for her Drybag see the full range here.
Good Luck Daphne. BLOC.