AN endurance athlete who slept through his alarm clock on the morning of a big race has re-created his own Iron Man challenge on the Somerset Levels.
Jody George lost two stone training for Challenge Weymouth, an Iron Man endurance competition which involves a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a gruelling 26.2-mile run.
But at 3am on the morning of his race, Jody’s alarm clock went off and he pressed the ‘snooze’ setting – the next thing he knew it was almost 6am and couldn’t make the start line.
The 34-year-old said: “I went into shock – I normally set my alarm with three snoozes but in all the stress of the build-up to the race I’d forgotten to set it.
“The race started in 30 minutes and I lived two hours away in Othery. I was so upset with myself, I was really looking forward to it, it was what I’d trained for and I had done something so stupid to ruin it.
“I remember setting off towards Weymouth and after three miles having to stop because I was in floods of tears. It took me a couple of days to stop being an emotional wreck.”
Jody had £700 of pledged sponsorship money but his fiancé PJ suggested he made his own challenge around his home to replicate the Challenge Weymouth course.
His new challenge, christened the Zoy Villages Cider Man Triathlon, involved the same distance for each element.
Jody cycles during one of 12 laps of villages in the Somerset Levels.
On Saturday, he swam in the River Sowy, near Othery, cycled 12 times around Westonzoyland, Middlezoy and Burrowbridge and then ran five laps around villages close to his home.
The challenge took a gruelling 15 hours, 57 minutes and four seconds and Jody admitted he enjoyed a pint of ale at the finish line.
He said: “The money people had sponsored did put more pressure on me to do it.
“Everyone was so supportive - friends and family joined me for parts of the challenge and we used the London Inn near Burrowbridge as a marker for where each lap started and ended.”
Jody has so far raised around £1,500 for Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, half way towards his target of £3,000, which is the cost of running an air ambulance for 16 hours and the time it takes to complete an Iron Man challenge.
You can still sponsor Jody through his fundraising page by clicking here.
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