Sir,

The town seems very quiet now the Ironman is over for another year; it almost seems the weather has changed all of a sudden to match the gloom, well until next year anyway.

I have watched many interviews with the race organisers and they have nothing but shear admiration for the people of Tenby and the surrounding towns and villages. This is because of their support given to all athletes, professional, semi-pro and the vast majority of money-raisers for charity.

I myself took part last year and the support is second to none. I managed to raise just over £1,000 for Macmillan and I know that many, many more thousands were raised for other very worthy causes. As in the words of the organisers, there are hard Ironman courses, medium and easy, then there is Ironman Wales Pembrokeshire. I was in total envy of everyone who took part this year, but due to an injury I couldn’t do it again myself and probably not next, but I will be back.

It takes 364 days to organise the Ironman and 17 hours to pull it off and they do it with military precision; the amount of work that goes into it must be immense.

I would like to congratulate Ironman Europe and the Tenby office on once again organising a fantastic event that manages to extend our season my another month. Their hard work is rewarded by the majority of positive comments that I have seen all over social media and also their home page feedback. The long and short of it is #keepittenby (keep it Tenby) The skill of the team and all the volunteers to tidy up, and re-open roads at a designated time, really is second to none.

I witnessed the A477 out of Tenby re-open at 1800 on the dot. Even before then as I stood at the bottom of my road, the organisers allowed a couple of carers in their cars to cross the marathon route to get to their patient. The park and ride scheme to be able to get in and out of Tenby from Carew and other places ran very smoothly.

Locals and tourists alike have got used to the idea after five years of this event happening to move their cars to streets that you can use to get out of Tenby and this seems to work. Although I was very disappointed to learn that the people with foresight who parked in Heywood Lane got a ticket on a Sunday.

OK, outside the school there is a waiting limit time. However, I have seen the same cars parked there all weekend and never get ticketed, cars double parked and also on double yellow lines when the schools kick out and nobody from the traffic department is ever there for that.

Yet they jump on them on a Sunday during probably what is now Tenby’s busiest day. It is only one day a year that there is disruption, so what, it’s a day that unites the town.

Let’s face it, there is the 6P rule, Propper Prior Planning Prevents P%$£” Poor Performance or is that saying just in the forces. Statistically we are probably the healthiest county in Wales, if you go off the figures that just over 2,000 people entered the hardest Ironman on the circuit. They represent over 40 countries around the world, and over 200 of those athletes come from Pembrokeshire, so 10 per cent of entries are ours and if you break that down I bet a big percentage are from Tenby.

To prove we are probably the fittest county, one of our own, Clair Stubbs, came second in her age category and has won a place in the final next year in Kona, Hawaii. That in itself is a major achievement and I would be the first to congratulate her (rather enviously I must admit).

Nathan Spiller

Resident (and blocked in, but who cares)