Brighton resident Rob Starr has completed 52 triathlons in 52 weeks to raise more than £100,000 for his Starr Trust charity, which helps young people to achieve their potential.
Olympic gold medal decathlete Daley Thompson CBE was among supporters cheering on the 53-year-old as he completed the last of his swimming/cycling/running endurance challenges.
Mr Starr has Crohn’s disease, which he says “makes diets and nutrition almost impossible”. He stayed fit by daily sea swims, thrice-weekly gym workouts and regular sessions with a trainer.
“So I was basically physical seven days a week for the year. As for food — I just tried to eat more than I usually do.”
The triathlons were tackled on Fridays, mostly in the Brighton area, with half-a-dozen courses used. “The others were around the UK, as well as abroad when I had to — South Africa was the furthest. When the weather was really bad, I had to swim in a pool and use an indoor bike [to cover the distance]. I tried to always run outside.”
He described the weekly test of endurance as mental as much as physical. “I learnt a lot about myself and how important resilience really is.
“I fixated on my main mantra of ‘control the controllables and accept the uncontrollables’.
“I want to thank everyone who helped and supported me.”
He was particularly grateful for the backing of his friend Sir Daley. “We met once a week to chat. Having the greatest Olympian encouraging me was a big help when things were tough.”
For his part, Thompson “was never in any doubt Rob would get the job done. It takes a certain type of person to take on a challenge like this and Rob is certainly not one to make things easy for himself!
“I look forward to hearing about all the young people this enables the charity to help over the coming year.” Legendary Winter Olympian Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards was another celebrity supporter, saying: “When I heard what Rob was doing, I thought he was mad. This is an heroic effort.”
Mr Starr is CEO of an insurance and mortgage business he established at the age of 21. He co-founded the trust in 2008 after the death from cancer of his father Edward, with the aim of giving others what his father gave to him — the belief that anything is possible.
Among those it supports is Nathan, an inspiration for Mr Starr’s triathlon challenge. Nathan has cerebral palsy and his dream is to compete in wheelchair tennis in the next Paralympics. But around £20,000 is required to make that happen.
Having already swum the Channel to raise money for the trust, the question Mr Starr “keeps being asked is ‘what’s next?’ All I can say is I have no idea. And that is always the exciting bit.”
Mr Starr met his wife Sharon when they co-hosted Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations in Hove in 1998. His father-in-law, Roger Abraham, is chair of local Jewish community centre Ralli Hall.
“Sharon and I were brought up with the idea that family is the most important thing in our lives,” he told the JC.
“Despite not being religious ourselves, we wanted to mark the amazing barmitzvah and batmitzvah journeys of our children. So we celebrated their ‘Starr-mitzvahs’, replacing the religious words with more personal and meaningful words to us, delivered and written by them. It was a way of keeping some tradition but still keeping it relevant to our way of life.”
justgiving.com/fundraising/52x52triathlonchallenge
