Pembrokeshire - A county for Triathlon

Over the weekend, some of Pembrokeshire's roads and beaches looked rather different. Saundersfoot hosted its annual triathlon on Friday evening, before thousands of athletes, supporters and spectators descended on the county for IRONMAN Wales on Sunday.

On the surface, the two events couldn't be much more different. Saundersfoot Triathlon is a sprint-distance race, with competitors tackling a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run around the village. IRONMAN Wales is something altogether different: 3.8km in the sea, 180km on the bike and a full 42.2km marathon to finish. Around 3,000 athletes took part in this year's IRONMAN — roughly twice the number who lined up for the first race in 2011.

Yet both events have something in common. They take advantage of the same thing that makes Pembrokeshire such a good place for outdoor sport in the first place — a coastline that gives you beautiful scenery, but doesn't make things particularly easy.

Two very different triathlons

Saundersfoot Triathlon may sit at the shorter end of the scale, but that doesn't necessarily mean easy. Starting with a 750m sea swim in Saundersfoot Bay, competitors head onto a 20km bike course before finishing with a 5km run along the coast towards Wiseman's Bridge and back. It's a compact course, but one that makes good use of the landscape around the village.

Then there is IRONMAN Wales.

The numbers alone make it difficult to comprehend quite what the athletes take on. A 3.8km sea swim is followed by 180km on the bike, before they have to find enough left in their legs to run a full marathon. And the bike course isn't simply long. It climbs through the Pembrokeshire countryside, with more than 2,500 metres of elevation gain, a succession of climbs and descents, and sections where the coastal weather can become part of the challenge.

But the IRONMAN weekend isn't only about the athletes taking on 140.6 miles. On Saturday, around 2,000 children aged between three and 15 took part in the sold-out IRONKIDS Wales, running age-appropriate distances before crossing the same finish-line arch used by the main event.

And then, on Sunday, the focus shifts to the thousands of athletes taking on the full distance. But they aren't tackling those 140.6 miles in silence. From Tenby and Saundersfoot to the smaller villages and stretches of countryside along the route, spectators turn out to watch them pass. There are people ringing cowbells, holding signs, shouting encouragement and waiting for hours to see friends, family — or complete strangers — come through.

It's also one of the things we've noticed from our own little corner of the course at Swallow Tree. Heartbreak Hill was packed, loud and, at times, absolutely chaotic. But underneath all that noise was a very simple thing: thousands of people had turned up to help get the athletes up the hill.

And perhaps that's what stays with you after watching an event like this. The distances and numbers are impressive, but standing beside the course gives you a much better idea of what those athletes are actually taking on — and just how much difference it makes to know you're not getting up that hill alone.