We are now putting together our Saa! Saa! Saa! Team for the 2008 Mazda London Triathlon, and would love you to be part of it.

Triathlon is the fastest growing sport in the UK, with more and more people coming back each year to compete in this fantastic event. Most of our triathletes are first timers, and Survival will help you every step of the way. Coaching, training and advice are all part of the service. We just ask that you be confident of raising £650 to take part in the race of a lifetime for tribal peoples.

If you’re curious, but still unsure if Triathlon is for you, read on, as Tom, one of our returning triathletes, describes how he got hooked on the event:

“A brilliant experience… As well as getting fit and raising money for a very important charity I knew that the group of other people who raced triathlon now included me.”

Tom, Saa! Saa! Saa! Triathlon Team 2006 and 2007

Triathlon was always something I thought amazingly fit other people do. And yet last August I found myself in a wetsuit nervously bobbing around in a dock with a group of equally worried looking people. What were we thinking of? Had I trained enough, would I even finish the swim? What about the other two legs of the “race”…All the worries and “what ifs” lasted until the horn signalled go and the water turned white like a scene from a Jaws movie. We were off - and there was no turning back.

The build up to the race was pretty hard work. Training was boring but necessary and there were a lot of questions that I wanted answered. Thankfully the Survival team were there with the answers and it was reassuring to know that there was a group of other people in the same boat, taking on the challenge for the first time, and all with similar worries. Organised training rides and drinks after work kept us fired up and the opportunity to don the skin-tight orange and black Survival tri-suit (nice…) ensured that no one was going to drop out.

The race actually went very well. The swim was a bit crazy but the adrenaline got me through much quicker than I had expected. The bike was next and was a really enjoyable ride. Famously busy London roads were closed to traffic, spectators clapped us on and fellow riders were a really friendly bunch. There were people racing at all levels and I soon found my place in the stream of bikes. The run was, as expected, the worst part for me. I knew by that stage that I was going to finish and my legs decided that they didn’t have to work anymore. Shouts of “nearly there mate” from fellow racers helped keep my walking to minimal stretches, even when being passed by the inhumanly fast international elite, and I even managed to run across the finish line, just to keep up appearances.

All in all the race was a brilliant experience and when the email to book for 2007 arrived in my inbox I knew (fairly) immediately that I would do it again. As well as getting fit and raising money for a very important charity I knew that the group of other people who raced triathlon now included me.

To find out more, or to join the team, go to www.survival-international.org/actnow/sponsoredevents