Our Heroes > Ironman

“Harvey Kaye. You. Are. An. Ironman”, I had been told would be the words exclaimed by the official announcer, marking the moment that I crossed the finish line at my first Ironman triathlon in September 2017. After 11 hours and 27 minutes of graft, it’s the least he could do right? In terms of effort levels, if I had to estimate a ratio of what was required of me that day (2.4 mile sea swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run) to what was required of him (6 whole words said in a semi-enthusiastic voice in the comfort of a DJ booth with a bottle of Peroni in hand), I would be tempted to go for something like 1,000,000:1. I came to the conclusion that my arrival at the finish line must have fallen at an inconvenient time for the dry-throated announcer, for whom a sip of Peroni to quench his thirst was simply more tempting than sticking to the job at hand. I don’t blame him really – it had been a warm day on the east coast of Italy and hydration is important. More importantly, it didn’t make the slight bit of difference to what was undoubtedly the proudest moment of my entire life.

When I decided that I wanted to do an Ironman, in February 2017, I was looking at charities to raise money for. The Robert Sinclair Davidson Foundation was an obvious choice. I never knew Robbie D myself, but my teammates at Oakwood FC, many of whom used to play with Robbie on a Sunday morning, describe him using terms such as “tenacious”, “100% committed” and ” a fighter”. I’d like to think that I demonstrated a few of those qualities both during the training process leading up to, and on the day of the Ironman itself.

At lot of people have asked me why I wanted to do an Ironman and I’ve never really been satisfied with my response. I guess it has something to do with the idea of bettering myself. There is no better feeling than waking up every day knowing that you are stronger and fitter (both mentally and physically) than you were the day before. I’d recommend any sort of physical challenge to anyone and everyone, regardless of what it is, as long as it pushes YOU. It also gives you the opportunity to raise money for a wonderful cause such as this Foundation.

Thank you to the Foundation for supporting me on my journey.

Harvey