Sam Long and Lionel Sanders as you’ve never seen them before!

Triathlon stars Sam Long and Lionel Sanders aren’t in race action right now – and they’ve clearly got far more important things to focus on.

Both have become fathers for the first time over the last year or so and Halloween week has seen them take their sons out trick-or-treating!

It was around this time last year when Lionel and wife Erin announced the arrival of their child Levi, posting at the time: “Took a little hiatus from social media to enjoy the birth and first few weeks with our little pumpkin, Levi!”

And a year on Levi was being pushed around in a buggy bike by ‘No Limits’ alongside his good friend Long who was carrying little Leonardo, who was born at the start of August.

All smiles on Halloween

“This is the greatest picture on the internet,” was a popular and typical response to the photo Long posted on Instagram of the trick or treaters, which he titled: “Typical Dads doing Typical Dad Things”.

And Sam has had further cause for celebration recently as Leo’s mum Lara Gruden said ‘yes’ when he proposed to her.

Back to work

And while both men are enjoying a bit of downtime, they are also working hard in training to ensure they hit the ground running next season.

Long won three middle-distance races in a row between May and June in a busy and successful season which sees him at #9 in the PTO world rankings.

And he said: “A rest and reset was just the thing I needed. Getting back to training never feels easy! I took a 2.5 week break off from running and it is taking work to get back. Sometimes it feels like it would be easier to not take a break but it is needed for long term growth and sustainability.”

Sanders meanwhile has had an up-and-down year with the low point his highly controversial disqualification from the 70.3 World Championships in Finland for crossing an imaginary centre line during the bike section.

That’s contributed to him dropping out of the top 30 in the standings and he vowed after his third place at 70.3 Augusta in late September: “You will not see me on a race course again until I have something better to show you.”