Beginning in triathlon

So, mid 2007. I had run a few half marathons and marathons when my brother-in-law suggested trying a triathlon. He had done one at Cronulla and suggested we do one in Mooloolaba, Queensland in 2008. I liked the idea of riding a bike - I hadn't learnt to ride a bike until I was 14.. hadn't ridden one since 2000.. swam a little when a small child, on holidays and at school. How hard could it be?

I bought a bike, much like this one - a Giant hybrid flat bike bike. Sweeeeet!















I went swimming at the local pool. And I discovered that swimming is very hard. 50 metres is a long long way, and putting your face in the water is unnatural. But in the same way I had with running years before, I started small and worked up. 50m non-stop, then 100m, then on. 20 minute bike ride, 30mins, 40mins.

In late November 2007 I did the first race in the Kurnell sprint triathlon series, a 750m swim, 20km ride and 5km run. I was so slow at swimming that the event organisers were following me in a boat, picking up the buoys as I passed them so they could pack the course up. Looking at the results file now - wow, that 750m took me 30 minutes. I finished around 1h45m and remember saying at the finish that it was the hardest physical activity I had ever done, including the marathons.

It was fun though, and I was bitten enough by the triathlon bug that I did another couple of sprint tris in January and February 2008, leading into the Mooloolaba Olympic distance triathlon in March 2008. A few of us stayed together in a unit in Mooloolaba (a beautiful beach resort) and we had a real athlete village feeling going on - we practiced our transitions (changing from the swim to the bike, changing from the bike to the run - putting on socks and shoes etc). The Olympic distance is a 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run and I was very happy to finish in just under 3 hours. A year later I got that time down to 2h50m but also did a long course triathlon as part of a team - I did the 83km bike leg and while I was happy not to do the 2km swim, I was a little jealous of the runner doing the 20km run leg. In 2010 I did the full long course event by myself in just over 6 hours.

Mentally I've always had a problem with events that are 'half-' something. When I was doing half marathons I was fascinated by doing a marathon, it was an itch that wouldn't go away until I had done one in the goal time I had set myself. The same thing then happened with triathlons..

Having done the long course (close to half ironman distance) I then had my first DNF (did not finish) at Half Ironman Yeppoon. I had not trained for it, and had a bad migraine the day before. The 1.9km swim took me 1h20m, I was exhausted and pulled out before the bike leg. [I always meant to go back and do the event again - unfinished business - but unfortunately the event no longer exists].

In October 2010 I did the Gold Coast Half Ironman and I think it was at that event that we had the 'family meeting' where Graham (my brother in law) convinced our families to support us in entering Ironman Western Australia, taking place in December 2011. After we entered that event, another race organiser, Challenge, announced a Ironman distance event in Cairns in June 2011. With Graham having links to Cairns we decided to enter that one too. I later entered a charity bike ride from Melbourne to Wollongong, taking place in October 2011 - making 2011 the year of 2 x Ironman triathlons and a 100km bike ride.