Triathlete champions are challenging themselves for Chestnut Tree House

Daphne competing in the Sherbourne Triathlon

Daphne Belt's Challenge - read her story below

'For my part of the Chestnut Tree Challenge, I will be doing five Olympic distance triathlons during the summer, one per month through to September. An Olympic (or standard or classic) distance triathlon race involves a 1500 metre open water swim which is roughly one mile, followed immediately be a bike ride of 40k/ 25 miles and finally a 10k run, that's a little over six miles.

I took up triathlons at the age of fifty after years of being a coach potato, and that was twenty years ago. I have competed through all of those twenty years, many times taking 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. For the first three races I will be 70 years old and will pass my 71st birthday just before the fourth triathlon event.

The races I have entered are as follows:

• May 28th - the Little Beaver Triathlon at Belvoir Castle near Grantham. This race is a qualifying event for the World Triathlon Championships in Budapest and also for the European Championships in Pontevedra, northern Spain in June 2011.
  
• June 13th - the Royal Windsor Triathlon starts with a swim in the river Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle.
  
• July 4th - the ETU European Championships in Athlone, Eire where the swim will be held in the river Shannon.
  
• August 8th - Pier to Pier sea swim at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, will be our club open water swimming championships when we will swim roughly a two mile swim across the bay from Sandown to Shanklin.
  
• August 15th - the British Triathlon Federation National Championships at Milton Keynes
  
• September 12th - the final of my challenges for the summer this time the ITU World Triathlon Championships in Budapest.
  

I thank heavens that at my ripe old age that I have been able to claw my way back from illness to a fair level of fitness and if anybody reading this page finds the things I am struggling to do at seventy the slightest bit inspiring, then please sponsor me in my quest to raise finds for the children of the Chestnut Tree House.'

To sponsor Daphne please visit her JustGiving page at www.justgiving.com/Daphne-Belt

Click here to see how her husband, Steve Belt, is challenging himself for Chestnut Tree House.

Charity Channel swim attempt for Chestnut Tree House

Having been a competitive swimmer since his teenage years but having a gap in training after his teens, Stephen Belt took up the sport of triathlon at the age of 39.  Read*more*-->