It was a busy weekend for Smart Fitness members. Jim McNeilly took part in the Great Manchester 10km run on Sunday and put in a great effort to finish in 57 minutes and 49 seconds - he would have gone quicker but he slowed down as he went past Old Trafford to pay tribute to the mighty Manchester United who had retained the league title on Saturday - I can't beleive we let a Man Utd fan train at Smart Fitness!

Four other Smart Fitness members were in action at the Alnwick Triathlon, not to mention Nick Grantham (Director of Strength and Conditioning). The weather was fantastic and there were some very good results. Phil Smith (Smart Fitness Coach) put in a top effort to finish 4th in a time of 1:03:17 (not bad considering he is a new dad and is still getting to grips with sleep deprivation!), Phil Gray finished close behind in 13th in a time of 1:05:34.

Special mention goes to Tracey Sample who won the womens event. Tracey has been working with Smart Fitness since September and has shown some huge improvements. One of the goals she set at the start of the year was to win Alnwick Triathlon and beat her closest rival - something that up until this weekend had never happened. Tracey ran out the victor in 1:14:45 - well done Tracey - all that hard work in the gym is starting to pay off.

Speaking of hard work - Nick Grantham made his life a lot more difficult but not training in the build up to the event, despite Smart Fitness member, Ken Gray (64 years old) talking trash to Nick for months about beating him. The real race between Nick and Ken will go down as a classic battle. Nick came out of the water in the lead, only for Ken to hunt him down on the bike. Exiting transition Nick had Ken in his sights and took him at the start of the climb but Ken was not out of the running, ovetaking Nick with just 2km to go. Nick edged past Ken to finish just in front...but had he done enough to beat him? Would you believe it they finished on exactly the same time, 1:25:14 and there is already talk of a rematch!

Well done to everyone at the event, it was great to see so many familiar faces and good to hear that the training tips provided at the Smart Fitness/TRI monthly seminars had paid off - someone just needs to tell Nick he should listen to his own advice!