Bizspace team completes Triathlon and raises funds for charity

Our team of nine competitors completed the JLL Property Triathlon North, which took place in Manchester last week.

Some were experienced triathletes and some were trying it for the very first time, but everyone enjoyed the successful and well-organised event at Salford Quays.

Altogether the team raised almost £2,000 for Macmillan Cancer Care and nearly £800 for Dementia UK.  We’d like to thank everyone who was kind enough to sponsor us and help raise money for these fantastic causes.

Team spirit

Our Managing Director Gareth Evans, Marketing Director Emma Long and North East Cluster Manager Lisa Taylor all took on the full 23.75 km course, while two teams of three tackled the course as a relay.

Swimming in the quay were North East Asset Manager, Victoria Rea along with Mark Ashton.  Cycling the 18 km route were Building Surveyor Andrew Ainsworth and Bolton Business Centre Manager Paul Ogle.  And running the final 5 km element of the course were North West asset manager, Richard Stivaros, and PR manager, Natasha Wright of Wyldfire PR.  All were joined by plenty of supporters from Bizspace.

This is the second year we’ve taken part in the event and we were proud to use the opportunity to display our new branding on our kits.

It was the first triathlon for Lisa – as well as the first time she’d ridden a bike since she was eight years old – so she was proud to achieve a total time of 2 hours 17 minutes.

“The event was so well organised, I couldn’t fault it. The conditions weren’t great, especially as I’d never cycled in the rain before so was a bit nervous, but running in the rain wasn’t so bad,” she says.

“Gareth and Emma were fantastic, they gave me so much support and encouragement – I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Charity champion

For Andrew, the cycling stint was the second of a hat trick of fundraising rides completed during July.  Earlier in the month he took part in a 170-mile coast to coast ride from Morecambe to Bridlington, and two days after the triathlon he took on the Prudential RideLondon – another gruelling 100 miles.

Emma says: “This is the second time I’ve done the triathlon and it’s always a fantastic event.  It was great to have a larger team this year and to have such wonderful support to cheer everyone on through the damp conditions.  Everyone enjoyed it, so next year we’re hoping even more staff will take part.”

The JLL Property Triathlon North is the sister event of the highly successful JLL Property Triathlon, which is celebrating its 10th year and is firmly established as the second largest one day event in the UK. The event has raised nearly £1.5million to date for charity.

The event is a ‘sprint’ triathlon, which combines a 750m swim in a dock at Salford Quays, an 18km bike ride around the city and a 5km run with laps around the docks.  Hundreds of participants from the UK property sector took part, from novices to seasoned triathletes.