Apleona athletes and support crew from the UK, Germany and the Nordics joined forces at Dorney Lake, Windsor to take part in the JLL Property Triathlon – a location renowned for triathlon events and home to the London Olympics 2012 rowing and canoeing events.
The team captains, Gordon Atkinson, from Apleona Germany, and Betty Bohane from Apleona UK, met with other team members the night before for a motivational team talk, and all-important carb-loading with Indian dishes and team bonding drinks.
It was an early start for Betty, who was on site for 5.30am to set up our corporate tent. Betty commented:
“It was beautiful to be on site whilst all was calm and the sun was coming up. I had put months of work liaising with the UK Procurement team to source items specifically for this event – from Apleona-branded volleyballs, deckchairs and giant Jenga, to two huge artificial plants kindly gifted to us by our preferred supplier, Nurture Landscapes”
This is the 15th year the JLL triathlon has taken part, with over 2500 competitors battling it out on the day! So far, over £193,000 has been raised for the charity Crisis UK from this event.
The teams got fully donned up in Apleona-branded sports kit and tattoos. Our fancy dress team, ‘Apleona Superheroes’, wore capes, superhero cuffs, masks, and our own Apleona superhero emblem, designed especially for this occasion!
Then, it was time to go. Our only all-male team kicked off the triathlon, with Gordon putting in an exceptional 13-minute swim before passing the baton to Andy Taylor for four laps of the bike course. He hardly broke a sweat before Nick Smith finished the race in style with a 5k run – only once on track did Nick realise this was a double out-and- back course which was mentally challenging!
They set a high standard and the rest of our teams continued in this fashion. Our swimmers Helen Krimmling, Ben Woods (twice), Gordon again, Ollie Ryan and Gerald Waterfall didn’t once complain of the temperature of the water. We did, however, hear all about the headwind from our cyclists – Andy, Ben and Gordon (again!), Mark Robison, Glen Freeman, Jose Jaramillo, and our only female cyclist of the day, Linda Müller – who put in an impressive time of just 43 mins for her 21k cycle.
It was an incredible effort from our runners, Nick, Emma Hjärne, Kelly McGoldrick, Betty (twice), Ollie and Jimmy Graham. The run route was a hot spot for supporters, with CEO James Thoden van Velzen, an ex-runner, and Managing Director, Jacqui Paice, paying particular attention, and so there was no choice but to continue to the finish!
Jacqui said:
“This event was such a wonderful opportunity to be ‘One Apleona’ – having our German, British and Nordic colleagues working together and supporting each other. I was particularly impressed to see Gordon running alongside Betty to push her for the last stretch of her final run. I have big plans for next year’s event.”
Finally, a special mention to Adrian Francis, who thought he was turning up for a work jolly until the company camera was thrust into his hands! He did a fantastic job of photographing the day – helped also by Martin Taylor, who has already promised to be part of the athlete squad next year!
The afternoon was spent in the sun, enjoying some well-deserved lunch, and playing games.
Gordon added:
“I love this event and I already look forward to next year! I especially like seeing how this event really motivates our colleagues to keep fit outside of work – which is so important for our health and wellbeing.”
A huge thank you to all involved, especially the athletes, and the all-important support team. The countdown to next year’s event begins!
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