Whilst health officials have stressed the importance of staying active during the coronavirus lockdown, it is difficult to imagine they envisaged people taking part in triathlons in their back garden.

Yet that is exactly what one Southville resident did on Thursday night, as he completed a half-Iron Man triathlon within the confines of his back garden.

Matt Baird spent one hour swimming in a paddling pool before a three-and-a-half hour static bike ride and a two-hour run around his lawn in order to help raise funds for the NHS.

All in all, he totalled a 1.9km swim, a 90km bike ride and a half marathon in the impressive time of six hours and 10 minutes.

Cheered on by his family and neighbours, Baird revealed that the swim in particular took a bit of guesswork.

He said: "It was quite a long afternoon and I was a bit sore at times but it was great fun by the end.

"It was really nice finishing, having the neighbours cheering and having my kids and partner here to give me a high five.

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"It was worth it in the end but it was a bit of a tough time at the end of the bike and the end of the swim."

He added: "In terms of the swim it's quite hard to measure in the paddling pool but I'd done a half-Iron Man before, so I swam for exactly the same time it took me to do that.

"That was at Weymouth in the sea, so I did a 50-minute swim, then on the bike you can sign up to an indoor programme, so I did 90km on that, then the half-marathon was done by a GPS watch.

"It was all timed, I did 10 minutes slower than I'd hoped, so I missed the 8pm applause for the NHS but did that in my garden.

"It was all roughly the same times I was expecting."

Baird is features editor at 220 Triathlon Magazine so tries to compete in around three events a year - yet this was just the third half-Iron Man he has completed.

"The season has obviously been wiped out so far, but it's the first half-Iron Man I'd done for a couple of years.," he revealed.

"I'd done two before, I did a full Iron Man once.

"I try and do three triathlons a year, it's obviously part of my job and something I enjoy doing.

"I'm never especially good at it, I'm always in the bottom 10 or 20 per cent, crawling around - I've slowly declined from my first one 11 years ago, so I blame the kids for an inability to train consistently!"

Alongside raising money for the NHS, Baird feels it is also vital to demonstrate how important exercise is at the moment - even for those who would not be able to complete a half-Iron Man.

He said: "We write about triathlons and we saw the race calendar had been depleted as races were getting cancelled all the time.

"So we tried to make our own triathlon and tried to organise one with a bunch of friends, but then obviously the lockdown came in and we couldn't be outside together.

"So we wanted to do something here to promote healthy living in the garden.

"I know it's tough for people at the moment, particularly if they haven't got a garden or are living in the middle of the city like us, it's quite hard to exercise.

"You can go out running but I wouldn't encourage swimming or biking at the moment, so it was to promote healthy activity and obviously raise money for the NHS.

"I just thought it would be something fun to do with the family as well."

He added: "I wanted to promote being active in the garden when you can - obviously not everyone's going to be able to do a half-Iron Man in the garden but whether it's hoola-hooping or running on the spot, it keeps you mentally active as well.

"There's massive benefits to doing sport at the moment."

So far, Baird's exploits have raised almost £2,700 for the NHS, and you can donate here.

Having only started the fund raiser on Wednesday evening, Baird said it was a massive motivator to completing the triathlon.

He said: "That did really well - I had no idea how well it was going to do but I think we're on £2,700 at the moment.

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"I only started fund raising on Wednesday so it went up loads and that really spurred me on.

"I was asking my partner, Carrie, what was the total, and it was going up all the time, so that really helped me get to the toilet roll finish line."