Sir,

Just a short note to say a huge thank you to all the people who took the time to write in and say what a fantastic event Ironman Wales was. There were a few dissenters on page 48 of last week's paper and, though I sympathise with some complaints, the man who said that Ironman Wales caused 'huge disruption to the Christian community' because he couldn't get to a certain place of worship at a certain time on one Sunday in the year obviously has a poor grip on what Christianity means. People have faced persecution and death for their religion, and before the motor car was ever invented people managed to get to their place of worship each Sunday for the best part of 2,000 years. There are ways around this issue, go in early, pray at home, etc etc.

Also we had the 'Unhappy Narberth resident' who described spectators who had turned out on the streets to cheer on the athletes as 'thoughtless' as they were 'ringing stupid bells and banging awful inflatables' and she faced the added frustration at not being able to jump into her car! Hmm, I think unhappy Narberth resident is a fair self description of this person.

The lady from Birmingham (Mrs. Fry) I can sympathise with, and perhaps her decision to in future just avoid this weekend is for the best, though as we saw over the weekend there are plenty of others from all over the world who will happily take her place in South Pembs on this weekend.

Ian Campbell Rutger makes a point about how much money was spent setting up for this event. I think we should be furnished with the facts on this in due course. However, you have to speculate to accumulate and there was very little empty accommodation over the weekend in and around Tenby. I met folks from Spain, South Africa, Australia, France and all over the UK and that was just in a 10-minute walk around whilst registering my son for the Iron Kids challenge.

On Saturday, I also saw hundreds of proud parents on the beach (many local) watching their children take part in Iron Kids, which they clearly all enjoyed and got a great sense of achievement from doing.

So overall it undoubtedly will not be everyone's cup of tea, but hey come on Pembrokeshire folk... .it's one weekend of the year, in a shoulder month, where for six to eight hours on a Sunday you have to give up using your motor car. Up until the last century we all survived 365 days a year without a car and no one wrote to the paper about the massive inconvenience to their lives.

Ironman was a fantastic, amazing event, I look forward to seeing it come back next year. If you offered me a million pounds to complete it, I'd give it a go, but I probably wouldn't make it, and it is for that very reason that I think it is such a fascinating event.

Ian Harding-Jones,

East Williamston.