Yet more lawyers pushing themselves to the limit. This time solicitors Paul Arthur, 43, Anna Burns, 25, Julian Evitts, 33, and trainee Helen Rice, 26 – all from Chester firm Oliver & Co – have completed their first triathlon, raising £650 for Macmillan Cancer Support and the British Lung Foundation.

The quartet chose the charities because of their existing links with Oliver & Co’s industrial disease department – Arthur is a civil litigator and the other three all work in personal injury. The triathlon – that’s a 500m swim followed by a 20km cycle topped off nicely with a 5km run – was held on Sunday 1 June in Cheshire.

Burns tells Obiter: ‘We all trained for about four months leading up to the big day – some more than others – but we all managed to complete it. Everyone was daunted by the swim.

‘We had to swim 16 laps in a 30m pool and there were about 30 people in the pool at the same time [participants were staggered]... so it got quite choppy.’

Once the swim was over, it was straight onto the bikes before tackling the run. According to Burns, it was getting off the bikes to run that was ‘the worst thing’.

‘By that time, you have been exercising for over an hour and you really feel it in your legs,’ she says. ‘Your legs are just so heavy you are willing to move them on. Everyone found that the hardest but so many people were cheering us on it spurred you to the finish line.’

You’d have thought they would have crawled into the office the following Monday, full of aches and pains and vowing ‘never again’. Instead, they are signing up for the next Nantwich triathlon on 21 September. ‘I don’t know what that says about us really... gluttons for punishment maybe?’ observes Burns.

Indeed. Obiter is so exhausted just listening to Burns that a nice cup of tea and a sit down is in order.