Cambridge Joyathlon

Inspired by the Australian Sri Chinmoy Centre, who organise a large triathlon each year, we decided to organise one ourselves - in our own unique way of course. We thought we would combine it with a Joy Weekend and came up with: the Joyathlon. This made it much more fun and encouraged many more people to take part. In fact, pretty much everybody had a go at one of the events on offer. Now there aren’t too many triathlons in Great Britain, probably because of the weather. Luckily, we picked one of the hottest days of the year. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the swimming pool being really cold at 7am. And really long too. At 100 yards it is the longest swimming pool in England. It was great fun watching everyone plash around, swim into each other and not get anywhere… until you did yourself and realised it wasn’t that easy. Somehow the cold water took your breath away, which made swimming really difficult - well that was my excuse anyway.

After the 200 yards swim we had some breakfast and a bit of a chat – then a nice drive into the countryside for our next event – the cycling! Here we found a nice quiet road in the village of Oakington… only to discover that it wasn't so quiet after all. It was in this discipline that we noticed a big difference in the competitors. On the one hand we had Richard, who competes in cycling races at a national level, and had all the gear to prove it… to Udasina and Stef who looked like they were going on a Sunday afternoon ride in the country. I am sure it baffled passers by to see all these people completing in the same race. I also ought to mention Agnes here, who has competed in many Triathlons and brought her own bike from Scotland in a suitcase.

The next event was a 2-mile race. As we had taken our time with each event it was now mid-day and hot. The park was completely packed full of people which we all had to dodge during the race. Unfortunately as we were all so tired there were no pictures of the race, so here is a picture of a moose instead. After the race we found some shade, collapsed and had a really nice picnic. At the start and end of the Joy Day we had meditations, singing and videos of recent centre activities. It is amazing what you can fit into 24 hours and at the end of it we all felt inspired, uplifted and completely wacked out. What a good weekend! Suswara Links: Joyathlon pictures Amusing article by Shane on the Inspiration Group. Sri Chinmoy Races