Find an Event

Looking for your next challenge?

Find an event that’s right for you on our event search

Michael Kershaw' GO TRI Journey

Published:

We always love to hear all about your GO TRI experiences, to shout about and share your successes and triumphs, to inspire and encourage others to give TRI a go!

Here Michael shares his GO TRI story, we think you’ll agree he’s got the TRI bug, having taken part in lots of events in Leeds in the lead up to the Columbia Threadneedle World Traithlon Leeds last year to go on to organising and hosting an event to encourage others to give TRI a go!

‘Where does my TRI story start… Watching the Brownlee brothers in the 2012 Olympic Games, Alistair storming to victory getting gold and Johnny taking bronze – incredible, so inspirational! Two local lads from Leeds, exceptional sporting talent, they are the ones to blame!

‘I occasionally ran and cycled to work most days, but I didn’t swim. I did nothing about it for a few years as I was into karate at the time, a second dan. I got bored with karate and decided to join a local running club, Cross Gates Harriers. I found running hard at first, 6-7 miles was tough, but I enjoyed it and the members were very friendly. I also started taking part in Park Runs on a Saturday, another great event at Temple Newsam, and I continued to cycle to work.  

‘I decided to give swimming a go… breaststroke at first as front crawl too tiring!

‘I saw an advertisement for a GO TRI triathlon event at Fearnville and signed up. It was only short distances – 100m swim, 3km cycle and 1km run, although the swim was upped on the day to 200m. I loved it and did quite well!

‘I’d caught the bug… I joined a swim fit class on a Friday morning and worked on my front crawl, they had to top the pool up after my first swim as I swallowed so much water!

‘I entered a couple more GO TRI events, then took on the Brownlee sprint at Harewood House, where I met the two local legends from Leeds!

‘This year was a big step up for me, I completed the Ripon Olympic distance triathlon, and am loving every minute of my triathlon journey.

GO TRI events started my triathlon journey and helped with my transition, so well organised and great fun. I enjoyed them so much that I decided I’d organise and host one myself, next month, at Temple Newsam. Hopefully it’ll be as much fun and well organised as the events I’ve been involved with as a competitor.

‘My advice to anyone thinking of giving TRI a go would be to check out the GO TRI website, there’s loads of events and free training sessions across the UK, for all abilities and experience levels – so what are you waiting for?’

Inspired by Michael’s story and wanting to give TRI a go? Visit gotri.org to find GO TRI training sessions and events near you. You can also take part in his upcoming event at Temple Newsam on 12 November, find out more and enter here.    

Could you be our next case study?

We’re always on the lookout for stories to share. If you’ve got a great GO TRI story, drop us an email michellescott@britishtriathlon.org and we’ll be in touch to find out more.

Thanks to our Partners

Join Us

And enjoy insurance benefits, race licensing and more...