Ironman triathlete raises more than £1,500 for two Scarborough charities
A Scarborough swimming coach has competed in the Ironman triathlon for Samaritans and Scarborough Sea Pool, raising a total of 1,544.78.
Lindsey Prior-McKie, 45, took part in the sporting event at the National Water Sports Centre at Holme Pierrepont, near Nottingham, alongside thousands of others.
An Ironman, a long-distance endurance triathlon, is widely considered one of the hardest one-day sporting events, with an estimated less than 0.01% of the world’s total population having completed the full distance.
Ms Prior-McKie said she wanted to complete the event to prove to herself that she can do hard things: “I’d been thinking about doing it for ten years.”
An Ironman consists of 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile (marathon) run.
To train for the event, she worked with York-based coach, Lucy Hurn, who implemented an intense six-days-a-week regimen, involving swimming in the sea and at Wykeham lake.
Hundreds were unable to finish the UK event, hampered by 30mph winds and a modified race, with the swim section cancelled due to harmful algae.
Lindsay, an open-water swim coach at Scarborough’s Super Swim Academy, said she was "really disappointed” by the cancelled swim, which was replaced with a four-mile run.
“Elite athletes do it in nine hours, whereas I took 15 hours and 36 minutes,” added Ms Prior-McKie.
“Finishing places an athlete among roughly eight out of a million people globally.”
Through sponsorship, she raised £772.39 for Scarborough Samaritans in memory of a friend, while also donating the same amount to Scarborough Sea Pool, a campaign to bring a tidal sea pool back to the South Bay.