Going home to race triathlon

This weekend is the Llanelli sprint triathlon. I’ve done it for the last few years and assuming my list of ailments doesn’t get any worse (groin strain now added to the list!) I look forward to racing it again. Llanelli is where I was brought up and my dad still lives on the hill overlooking Stradey Park. Having gone to school on the cycle course, spent summers playing on the run course and learning to swim in North Dock – the swim venue - I can now already picture every metre of what’s waiting for me on Sunday. Far better than I can remember the Box End aquathlon course I did only two weeks ago!  Llanelli was a lot different in those growing up days. The docks, although already decayed, were still working docks. But the biggest change is where the run course is, through Sandy Water Park. If you didn’t know you would never believe that for over 70 years up to 1981 this was the site of Llanelli Steel Works. I can only now compare it to something like Isengard in Lord of the Rings; with steam and gas belching out 24hrs a day, the roar of the steel being poured and the constant clanking of rail trucks being shunted.

 

These are the sights and sounds I became accustomed to for the first 18 years of my life and took as normal. In fact I remember when we went on holiday I couldn’t sleep at first for the quiet! I qualified as a Metallurgical Engineer and after University emigrated to South Africa to get a job at the time of the demise of British industry under the hand of Margaret Thatcher. Even today on reflection it still irritates me the commercial and social damage done by these political motivated closures. Whilst countries in Europe – Germany, France etc., going through the same economic difficulties as the UK, supported their industries (including car manufacturing) and the associated communities for the long term benefits we can see in those countries today. By coincidence the (newly refurbished at the time) steel furnaces in Llanelli were dismantled and sold to a South African company. They are still in operation today on the outskirts of Johannesburg and it is a strange feeling driving past them knowing where they came from. On a historical note some of Margaret Thatcher’s letters have recently been released including this one about the closure of the Llanelli steel works in 1981.

 

Llanelli was an amazing place to “play” as a kid. In those days we were allowed out all day and wandered far and wide. As a parent now I shudder at what we got up to; sneaking right into the works, riding the shunted rail cars, catching eels in the chemical filled waterways and even walking & swimming across the tidal mud flats of the Loughor estuary to the Gower. I have to say what a fantastic job has been done with the water park and coastal path to try and return things to something like it was pre industry.

A view from our road over the Scarlets old Stradey Park ground, the Steel Works and the Gower taken in the 1970's

Sandy water park today. The site of the old steel works. Dad's house is on the hill on the right

 

Talking about the Loughor estuary I believe I’m still the proud holder of the record for the fastest swim between Burry Port harbour and Llanelli Beach. I did it back on the 25^th June 1977 as part of a race to raise funds for the Queen’s silver jubilee. Previous to that it was last raced in 1935. I don’t know about recently but I found out the race was held a few times in the 80’s but no one managed to beat my time of 70mins for the approximately 5km (as the crow flies) swim. I know it’s 5km thanks to the help of google maps and this recent photo which I’ve anointed.

 

 

Loughor estuary has one of the biggest tidal ranges in the UK and although the tide was almost in I was definitely “tide assisted”. I’ve always been pretty good at sighting and swimming straight during open water swims and I think I must have been even then for my first real long distance swim. I remember at the start I sighted on a chimney from the old Machynys works and fixed on that the whole race so swam straight across the bay. Whilst I think my competitors from Llanelli swimming club probably more followed the coast around. I say that because at the time I specialised at Breastroke and I know there were at least three guys who were faster than me at frontcrawl. Or maybe I was just better at the longer distance. Anyway I kept a few local newspaper clippings of the event and the trophy is still on the shelf. I personally think the Llanelli triathlon should be a sea swim rather than a lap around the old North Dock!