What’s in our name – Mdot?
The saying goes…..how do you know if someone’s a triathlete – don’t worry they’ll tell you! So here I go…
With the launch of our new marketing website for Mdot Marketing and our family’s forthcoming trip down to the Tenby Iron Man this weekend, it felt right to introduce ourselves and explain where the name of our marketing agency came from.
Nine years ago, whilst at a colleague’s wedding from 3M Health Care in Loughborough, some local people from Nottingham were discussing a new Super Sprint Triathlon taking place just 10 minutes from my home in West Bridgford, Nottingham. Liking the sound of the event and not one to ponder decisions for long, I decided the race distances were quite achievable which comprised of a pool swim (400m), bike (23k) and run (5k). Bring on the training I thought!
Back then triathlon certainly wasn’t as popular or fashionable as it is now, so I really had no clue as to what I was doing. I put slick tyres on my husband’s mountain bike (in other words thinner tyres than mountain bike tyres I think) and did a few 45-minute rides. In the meantime, I found out that my local David Lloyd where I was a member of in Nottingham had a Tri Club session each Thursday evening. There I met a very small amount of people who would turn up each week to do a fun swim, bike, run session. My first race was fun but much harder than I thought.
As with most triathletes, once you get the bug you can’t help but progress to longer triathlons, some progressing quicker than others. Since then I have done three fantastic half iron distance events which are a 1.2-mile lake or sea swim, 56-mile bike and a half marathon run to finish. At its peak last year our David Lloyd club had a regular group of around 24 showing just how much triathlon has taken off.
Which leads me as to what’s in our marketing business’ name Mdot Marketing. I have completed one Iron Man branded event in Majorca, a wonderful half distance event swimming in the bay of Alcudia, taking you up into the mountains on the bike and finishing with a sea front run. However, I cannot yet say that I am an Iron Man as I have not completed the full distance of 2.4 miles, 124 miles and 26.2 miles. The logo for Iron Man is called the M Dot because it is an M and i combined, and since an ambition of mine is to one day to complete a full Iron Man I thought I would call our business it. For me it conjures up all the values I love in pushing yourself to achieve things; hard work, planning, doing stuff that scares you, working with others to become better, being part of a team, getting the whole family involved and ultimately having fun.
Iron Man Wales is regarded as one of the toughest Iron Man events on the circuit. This weekend my two daughter’s and me will follow my husband Geth – a proud Welshman down to watch him take part in his first Iron Man full distance. We’ll also be seeing some good friends also taking part, so it will, I imagine be emotional watching athletes shore side at 7am hearing the Welsh National Anthem being played. Geth’s adventure into triathlon started sometime after me, but he’ll possibly have earned the right to get the M Dot tattoo before me. Let’s see how the weekend goes.
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