Would it make a difference what the 750 metres were? If I said 750 metres of feathers, would you want them all? 750 metres to the closest restaurant, would you go there or find somewhere nearer? 750 metres of an unknown movie, would you watch it?

What if I said you had to swim in open water, like the sea or a lake, for 750 metres and wear a wetsuit whilst you were swimming? Now would that seem a lot?

And would it seem like more than 750 metres when you then knew you had to get out of the water, take off your wetsuit, put on some cycling clothes and then cycle for 20,000 metres?

And then you discovered you still hadn't finished because you had to get off your bike and run for 5000 metres. What do you think about that 750 metres now?

Sometimes it best not to start things. I, however, ignore that advice and so I now find myself 5 weeks away from participating in my first Triathlon - the London Triathlon .

A triathlon is a race which combines three different sports in this order - swimming, cycling and running. There are also strange events called dualathlons which feature only two sports in this order - running, cycling, running. Why run twice is beyond me.

When I first decided to do a triathlon, I was about 5 years younger than I am now (notice how I managed to keep my age a secret there :-) ) - that is not an untypical period of time for me to decide there is something I should do and then actually get round to doing it - ask Carrie about my holiday booking exploits.

I chose the triathlon because I thought it was the easy option for those of us who don't like the idea of running marathons. Who really wants to run for 26 miles? However, I've now discovered that triathlons (some triathlons) are much more hard-core than a marathon. Take the ironman event....

Swim: 3,860m
Cycle: 180,250m
Run: 42,195m

Clearly, there is madness in the world.

In the triathlon world there seems to be four main event types (sprint, supersprint, Olympic and marathon). The supersprint is the event that I have chosen and it involves (can you guess) 750 metre swim in open water, 20,000 metre cycle and 5,000 metre run.

I'm disappointed that they have called this a supersprint. I think it should be called the casual jog event which I feel will more truly reflect my abilities on the day.

How am I preparing for this moment? Well that's another blog. For now, here are some pictures of me with various bits of gear that I will be using for the event. There is no photo of me in wetsuit, although if I get more comments on this blog than anyone has ever got on any other blog I may provide a picture when I update you all with my training regime.

Until then, enjoy the pictures (Carrie took them) and know that my date with destiny is 7th August 2010. Put it in your diaries now and on that day, if you all think of me and mentally urge me on, perhaps, just perhaps, I may make it to the end of the course.

to be up to something: to be capable of doing something e.g. "I want to run 26 miles, but I'm not sure I'm up to it."
beyond me: if something is beyond you, you don't understand it
hard-core: here - much more intense
casual: relaxed, without too much attention to detail
date with destiny: a date in the future, when something very important will happen