In 1971, Chris Brasher, Olympic Gold medallist, 4 minute mile pacer and future co-founder of the London Marathon, was heavily involved in the developing sport of orienteering. Realising that British orienteers were finding it hard to get hold of the specialist equipment. Like off-road running shoes and compasses. Chris started sourcing, importing and selling the stuff out of his car boot at events. This is the birth of The Sweat Shop.

Later in the 1970s a brick and mortar store was established in Teddington. And other forms of running were catered for. Not just orienteering. The shop I started visiting in the mid-1980s was at 10 The Causeway, Teddington. In 1987 they moved into larger premises just 200m away at 33 Broad Street. 

As a teenage runner, a trip to The Sweat Shop was always a special day out. With pocket, birthday and Christmas money saved up. And short and long lists of possible purchases carefully curated. 

Join me the day before the 2025 London Marathon to learn more about The Sweatshop. With relevant and random tangents into my history with the shop and the London Marathon. 

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/bonus-the-sweat-shop-in-teddington

This episode is Part 1 of a two-parter about Season Openers. The traditional races in the late-1980s that let us know that the tri-season had started. Both domestically and internationally.  

The idea came from recently leafing through two triathlon magazines that had significance to my life. That brought back waves of nostalgia from the time when I first got interested in triathlon.

These season opener races were important for the athletes. To validate their fitness after a winter of training. But for the magazine readers. These race reports were all we had. Before Eurosport or live streams or YouTube. 

This is how we got to understand the racing and to learn about the athletes. In articles written by familiar names like CJ Olivares Junior, Chip Rimmer, Richard Graham or Terry Mulgannon.

There’d be backstory, play by play race commentary, athlete profiles and a discussion of what the results meant. Therefore building up a season-long narrative to follow along with.

We’d find out if the Big 4 and Mike Pigg were still at the top. And who were the up and coming athletes? As nobody was vlogging or uploading their breakfast to instagram.

And via the excellent photography that accompanied the articles we also got to see the new bikes and kit.

So have a listen. And learn more about the 1988 Lanzarote Triathlon, the Gold Coast World Cup and the Swindon Triathlon in the UK.

In 1988 Valerie Silk and her Ironman company added two more franchise races to their roster. Ironman Europe in Roth. And Ironman Australia in Forster-Tuncurry. That brought the total number to six. With Hawaii, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

However, the first Silk-sanctioned race outside of Hawaii had already come and gone. It was the Ricoh Los Angeles Ironman. In 1983. In this episode we’ll dive into that race. And go over some vital Hawaii Ironman backstory. That sets up a few more episodes about the race.

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/23

This is the first in a series of episodes called The Slough Demos. Mainly about what it was like growing up in Slough in the 1980s as a teenage triathlon nerd. TSP2: The Speed And The Sweat was about the first triathlon I ever did. In May 1989 in Wokingham. And these episodes will kind of follow on from that. With some prequel stuff too.

Part 1 is a running tour of Slough that you can do to get an overview of the triathlon history that exists there. The inspiration for this episode came from a YouTube video on the Ginger Runner channel. It’s with Ben Gibbard from the band Death Cab For Cutie. And he describes a 46 mile run he did through Seattle visiting famous local music landmarks.

Enjoying learning more about Slough! 

Note: I had a few technical problems with this one. I've got a new portable recorder. And I'm not yet accustomed to setting the correct levels for different situations. I'll probably re-record it. Cheers. Ross.

In this episode Luke and I do another 1990s race watch-along. This is our 3rd one. Check out TSP14: The 1992 Nice Triathlon and TSP20: The 1991 St. Croix Triathlon. To listen to what we said about those two races.

Today we are looking at the 1993 Bordeaux Indoor Triathlon. An event that TED magazine called. A turning point for the sport. A day as historical as the first Hawaii Ironman or first Nice triathlon. Knowing what we know now I don’t quite agree with this. The format did go somewhere. But not far.

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/22

I’m back on the mic for TSP21. It’s all about wetsuits. I tell you about my first triathlon wetsuit. That I bought from total Fitness in Swindon at the end of 1989. And go over my favourite wetsuit ever.

There’s also plenty of triathlon history. Including a 1986 international wetsuit kerfuffle story. Based in Milton Keynes. And you'll find out which 1980's wetsuit I like to find on eBay one day.

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/21

We’re back with Season 2. I’m hoping to do more and better in 2024. Maybe aiming for one episode every fortnight. 

I’m also reunited with my most popular guest slash co-host. According to the Buzzsprout statistics at least. My brother Luke. 

The event we are focusing on today is the 1991 St Croix Triathlon. 

Starting in 1988 St. Croix was one of a few early season races where a lot of the best athletes showed up. And in 1991 the event was the first ever stop on the new ITU World Series.

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/20

I think all modern triathletes should be reading about our sport’s past.  Especially the 80s stuff. To understand the history of the game. And decide where we should take it. So today I’m talking about 12 triathlon books to get you started on your triathlon history journey.

Some of the books are modern look-backs. And some are books from the early days of the sport.  That will give you a cool feel for the era. Decide what you’re more into and go and get hold of some. 

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/19

Over the last 18 months I’ve been putting together a 1980s tri bike. It was a  fun project. I particularly enjoyed sourcing the bits and learning more about the groupsets of the day. I’m going to race it a few times in 2024.

This episode is about what I like about the bikes from this period. The inspiration for the project. And the component choices I made.

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/18

In TSP16 I did a bit of triathlon history from near where I grew up in the UK. And today’s podcast is about some triathlon history from my current hometown. Munich in Germany.

Our story is based at the Regattastrecke in Oberschleißheim. The facility was built for the rowing and flat water canoeing events at the 1972 Olympic Games. And it’s still in use for those sports today.

It’s a super place to visit for some Olympic history. The boat sheds and grandstands at the Regattastrecke really look like they are stuck in 1972. However the tarmac on the rectangular nearly 5km circuit around the lake was brand new in the spring of 2023. This makes the venue an ideal and popular venue for local triathlons. I’ve done quite a few events here.

But probably the best field ever assembled here was for a round of the European Golden Cup Circuit on the 23rd July 1989. In this episode we’ll learn what happened on the day nearly 34 years ago.

https://thestreakpodcast.com/podcast/17