When lockdown began, Morley Triathlon Club, like many other multisport clubs across the world, had to adapt. Even now, as the club begins to return to activity, club secretary, Jeannette Boote understands that the hard work isn’t over.
Reflecting on the previous six months, Boote said: “Lockdown was challenging. Obviously, we were not able to meet up in big groups, we joined up with Morley running club and some of our members have gone out and done little runs with six in a group.”
Morley Triathlon Club was born out of Morley Triathlon Club’s GO TRI funding and many of the triathlon club’s members are also a part of the running club.
“The running club have also done a bingo through the lockdown as well where you run to different sites in the area and put it down on Strava, cross it off and it’s just something to keep us going,” said Boote. “The triathlon club did something similar. We asked people to go to the place where we swim, so if you know where that is, you go there and take a picture and move on to the next place.”
The club has stayed in contact with its members throughout lockdown through social media, with the coaches ensuring everyone has stayed connected.
“Paul and Gary, our main coaches have been encouraging people and they’ve been sending out messages on the Facebook group that we have,” said Boote. “We’ve tried to keep people interested and following each other on Strava and encourage when they’re running and giving them a shout out. It’s been nice to keep in touch.”
Boote spoke about the club’s return to activity and how they have been overcoming certain challenges that the current situation has posed, saying: “Our pool in Bradford is still closed to the public, so we’ve put out the swim smooth programme that we’ve been following and if the athletes want to do it, they can just ping into that and follow the programme.”
Many of the club’s members have been keen to make a return to activity, with Boote adding: “We’ve had a good group that has come back. We’ve done two mini-duathlons where we do a mile circuit run, then a 5-mile bike and another mile circuit run, and it’s been really well taken up and people have really enjoyed it.”
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