Mel how long have you been doing the sport?

About three and half to four years now.

Who introduced you to X Training ?

It was Steve  and Sue (Regain Watts). I used to be the manager of Dragons here and they appeared as members and said have you ever heard of X Training? So we started a class on a Sunday night (Sue and Steve) and that is how I got introduced to it. I had never heard of it before.

From the perspective of a gym manager. What benefits would you say it gives to the members?

There is at the moment a very small number of people who take part in it. But for me personally – and it has to be the same for any members, there were times when I was walking up to the gym thinking what was I going to do today in the gym? And now I train for these events and it gives me something to train for. Even if you don’t take part in an event, some still do the X Training class and they just enjoy the that. They love the way it gives them something to focus on. They are always motivated by having something to train for.

What about when you actually complete an event. Do you think there is a great sense of achievement, like all those hours at the gym mean you have actually accomplished something ?

Absolutely. I mean my background I used to play a lot of competitive sports and being in the gym isn’t necessarily competitive – but for those that like that sort of thing , this introduces a competitive element, so for me personally – yeah absolutely, even if you are competing against yourself (like for me today for example) I wanted to beat my time from last year, so that was the element of competition for me today.

Mel going back a few years now ( I begin to laugh as I ask this question) . Are you still in remorse of feel any guilt to that time when you *tagged me at Hampshire?

(Laughing with me) Absolutely not!

 *Tagging is when the person who races after you, catches you up in the 7 minute interval between races. It is mentioned before you race, that if this happens you will be asked to leave the event. It is great incentive to speed up at the work station you are at when you see the guy behind you catching you up, but disappointing when you are tagged. Sometimes the nature of the venue will not allow the third lane , (extra gym equipment to come into play which can be used when tagged)  So this is a method of just coping with fairness for the faster competitor.

Mel is a great guy. Likeable and hugely respected. He is one of the managers that actually is passionate about fitness and getting his members fit. As much as it pains me to say - if I am gonna get tagged in any event - then getting tagged by Mel, a guy who puts the hours in , managing and training, is ok by me.