Hello everyone, my name is Gary Forster (aka The BFG) and I have been asked to do a blog for the club website to tell you all a little about my story leading up to my iron man.

In May 2001 I was diagnosed with Crohns Disease. This is a chronic illness that affects the intestines. At the time I didn't have a clue what it was or what I was about to go through. What I do know now is that it was a massive relief to my family because they thought I had cancer. The years to come were very hard, the doctors tried me on various different medications that did not really work. I also tried many different diets, chopping and changing what I was eating to try and find something that could make my life a bit more bearable. You can be forgiven at times like this for thinking that this may be the way life is going to be for you. At the beginning of 2003 I decided that an operation was the way forward, to remove the infected intestine and hopefully help my health. Unfortunately within months I was flaring up again and I was absolutely devastated. Once again I was back to square one. My dietitian decided to try me on a medical diet called "elemental 028" which comes in cartons that are prescribed. I was drinking these for 4 weeks with no other food, it was hell on earth! During those 4 weeks I must have watched the UK food channel so many times to see what my first meal could be. I felt like I was best friends with Keith Floyd! Trying to pick yourself up after all of the knockdowns during those years was so hard because when you are so weak, it is hard to be positive all the time. So many people don't understand that. Then the light at the end of the tunnel, my doctors told me about a fairly new drug that is administered by infusion every 2 months. It is called Infliximab. This is the medication that was going to transform everything for me, and allow me to live a much more normal existence. Life was about to get much better.

My reasons for iron man are so simple. When you are ill for as long as I was, and the illness makes you weak, this can start affecting how you see the world. You start to notice how important it is for a man to be strong, so I started to go back to the gym, as I've always enjoyed running and I used to go to Blaydon Harriers. This is when I saw Ryton-tri when I was driving past and I enquired about how to join straight away. But if I'm honest as soon as I thought about iron man I could not get it out of my head.

Because of this, for me, all training has been a build up to this, and there has been the odd misunderstanding along the way. At Hetton Lyons Lake for my introduction to open water swim I was loaned a wetsuit by Colin Gardener. I started to put it on and noticed a lovely lady looking at me in the car park. Since being diagnosed with Crohns Disease I had not had much attention from a girl for some years. I felt great, I was strutting like a peacock! Each time I looked over at her she was gazing back at me. Triathlons are for me I thought!! At this point I was just about to zip my wetsuit up when Colin walked over and whispered in my ear "Gary, you've got your wetsuit on inside out and back to front"!!! I almost fell over myself trying to rectify the mistake, by the time I had I turned around and she had gone!!! Probably to the local bar to tell her friends "you never guess what I've just seen....".

There are some things that have helped me so much along the way. The biggest being meeting my fiance Emma and her lovely daughter Caitlan. We are getting married on the 4th of August this year and I never expected it being so difficult juggling all of the commitments that come with iron man and a wedding, but it has been. This is the biggest year of my life and hopefully everything will go well. The one thing I do know is that it could not have been possible if it was not for the support shown by Emma and Caitlan.

Also my coach Andy has been brilliant at times when I have been down, or ill, or I have felt things were not going well. A phone call has always made me feel better and more positive about things. He has taught me about pacing yourself, eating habits before and during training and not to beat yourself up when things are really tough. I am under no illusion of how hard this is going to be. When I've been out on my bike for 5 1/2 hours and then start running for over an hour, you know how tough it is going to be. All I would like is to finish the race, have the achievement for life and to know that whatever life throws at me I have the character to handle it. After that there is my wedding and hopefully a much happier and healthier future.