Still resolving to get fit for 2012? Nottingham Post sports writer Matt Halfpenny explains how his new year’s resolution from 2009 kept going...and going...

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I DON'T think many people wake up one morning and decide they are going to do a triathlon. For most, it's a pursuit that gradually creeps up on them.

Certainly that was the case for me. All I wanted to do when I first set out on a journey that was to last two-and-a-half years was to get a bit fitter and trimmer.

I wouldn't say I was fat, but I was starting to get one or two comments from people who I hadn't seen for a while saying I was looking a little portly – and I wasn't standing for that!

That was in January 2009.

I still had a basic level of fitness and I had always been a reasonable swimmer, so I opted to go three times a week. At the same time, I also chose to eat more of "the right things", which, combined with exercising, meant I lost two stone in as many months.

When I realised I was spending more money paying to go swimming three times a week than to join as a member and pay monthly, I duly enrolled. It meant I could now use the gym for free and so, for variation, I threw in the odd gym session, using the bike, rowing machine and completing a short run.

I struggled to run a mile at first without being out of puff, but I soon built it up so that I was running two, then two-and-a-half then three miles comfortably.

At the same time I was also getting better in the water. In what seemed like no time, I had been going a year.

In January 2010, I first contemplated the idea of a doing a shortened, "sprint tri", having seen a colleague do one at work.

Entering an event – at Duston, Northamptonshire in mid-April – with a friend, really gave me a focus and helped me to step up the training for what would be a 400m pool swim, 20km bike ride and 5km run.

Having never really cycled much before, I attended spinning classes twice a week to up my stamina and prepare me for time out on the road.

After a month or so I borrowed a bike and began training outside, come rain or shine. There was no better feeling than getting up early and going out for a ride, getting back and knowing you had the rest of the day to yourself, having already put in the hard graft.

I was nervous leading up to the it, but once underway, it was great fun, if unseasonably hot. Almost as soon as crossing the line there was an urge to do another sprint tri event – so I entered to race at Southwell, which started off well until it came to the latter stages of the bike where I wiped out, smashing my left elbow onto the road and breaking it in two places.

I finished the race, but after a hospital check-up, in addition to two weeks off work, I was forced to abandon my hopes of completing a full triathlon. Nevertheless, I vowed I would do one once I got back to full fitness.

As soon as I could run again, I was back on a treadmill (within about three weeks) and, unable to swim or bike, that was my sole focus until the plates I had in my arm were removed in December.

I put in for the Robin Hood Half Marathon in September to keep me motivated and, with run-specific training, I was able to reach my target of under 1 hour 45 minutes.

I started to up my distances ready for my first full triathlon at Tatton Park, Cheshire. The biggest obstacle left was to tackle open-water swimming.

Around six weeks before the event I went for my first open-water session – and absolutely loved it. I wondered why I had not been doing it all summer.

About a month before the race, I organised sponsorship forms for my chosen charity: Action on Bladder Cancer, because my mum has suffered from it and she, along with my dad, have always been a massive inspiration to me.

I was determined to do well, even challenging people to give me an extra pound if I did the course in under three hours.

With race day approaching I was increasingly nervous; what if I burn out, forget a vital piece of kit or get a puncture?

Crazy thoughts go through your head. Of course, on the day, it usually goes to plan – and in my case, it helps if you manage to stay on your bike!

Friends came along on the day to help me set up my kit. Having people to support makes a huge difference.

With a draughty wind, the swim was difficult with a swell on the water, but the four 10k bike laps were a lot flatter than what I had been used to in training, allowing me to claw back some time. The run is always a killer, when your legs feel like jelly after more than an hour on the bike. But I dug in and, as I got nearer the finish line, I seemed to get a second wind.

Crossing the line in 2hrs 36mins 13secs, I was delighted with my time – and that I had fulfilled a challenge I wouldn't have dreamed of completing a couple of years before. I also raised around £1,300 for Action on Bladder Cancer.

There's no doubt it takes a great deal of determination to get round a full triathlon. It doesn't come overnight.

I still get the comments about my weight, but now it is invariably people saying how trim I look, rather than chubby. And that, trust me, is much better to hear.