I didn’t have the surfside upbringing that you often hear about from IronMan and IronWoman athletes. In fact when I was 10 I was afraid of the water.
I didn’t trust it – I sat on the side of the beach and stared at it when my family and friends would go swimming.
I might never have come to love if it weren’t for a bit of luck. I was born in a small inland town called Warwick, but my family moved to the Gold Coast when I was about nine because my dad got a job there as an electrician.
My parents really wanted all of us kids, my two brothers and I, to be safe if we went down to the beach with friends. At first I really liked it, before I went through that brief ‘scared of the water’ phase when I was 10. Soon after that, I was right back in it.
I fell in love with racing and training, and I’ve always been a very competitive person – growing up as the only girl with two brothers certainly helped that. Even now, my fiancé and I like to take separate cars to training and then see who would gets home the soonest.
Growing up, I wasn’t as successful in the sport as I wanted to be, and just sort of made up the numbers. When I was a teenager that I started to get up in the placings a bit more consistently. There wasn’t really a turning point – it just happened naturally. I loved the sport so I kept going.
I got my first-round win in a Nutri-Grain IronMan series when I was 18 or 19, and that was an amazing feeling. I had a few more round-wins after that and eventually won the series for the first time in 2008.
Oddly enough I won that 2008 series without winning any of the individual rounds. In 2011 I was first in four of the rounds but lost the series because of one bad performance – it shows what a great test of consistency the IronWoman Series really is. I managed to win a second time in 2012.
I lead a pretty hectic life. In addition to training full-time I also work and study as a trainee accountant. It’s pretty much the exact opposite of being an IronWoman – but it’s really great to have a balance between mental and physical activity in life.
In the free time that I do have I just like doing simple activities, spending time with my fiancé, whether that’s grabbing a coffee, going for a walk on the beach or going to the movies – I love a good chick flick!
As I’ve spent more time participating in the sport, I’ve faced a few trials. The biggest challenge for me was about two or three years ago, when I realised that part of me had fallen out of love with the sport. I trained hard and did all that I could, but the passion wasn’t there.
I still don’t really know what caused that. My training was something I had been doing for a long time and it had a very repetitive nature. I felt like I was just doing it because I was there – I was burnt out.
My fiancé, who is from Wales, had been wanting to visit his family, and so after a bit of thought I decided to take some time out, and go travelling overseas with him. When I took that step away from the sport, I didn’t know if I’d ever step back in.
We visited my fiancé’s family in Wales but also spent some time jet-setting around Europe, visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, Italy, France and the Greek Islands.
While I was there I was just enjoying myself, enjoying the moment. Being a fan of anything to do with sports, I couldn’t resist seeing a bit of the Tour de France and the London Olympics.
Seeing the riders in the Tour de France struggle up the massive hills in the French Alps was an amazing sight that stuck with me. I always imagined that it was easy for them, but the looks of struggle on their faces told me that wasn’t true.
As it came towards the end of our time there I still really didn’t know what I wanted to do, but the closer we got the more I realised that I did miss competing, and I wanted to come back and get into it again.
I set some goals. In 2013, for the first time the girls were allowed to do the Coolangatta Gold long-form race. I wanted to be there. I won it, and training for it set me up for the rest of the year. I then managed to defend my Coolangatta Gold long-form title in 2014, which was a great achievement.
I also took out the Australian championship in 2014, which means I’ve won the big three – the Coolangatta Gold, the Australian championship, and Nutri-Grain IronWoman Series.
While I do currently have the Australian title, Coolangatta gold and Nutri-Grain title, that has been done before by both Courtney Hancock and Alicia Marriott. What hasn’t been done is to get them all in one season. That’s what I hope to achieve in April at this year’s Aussies.
After that I don’t know whether I will keep racing or turn my attention elsewhere.
Right now, I love it, and that’s enough for me.
WITNESS THE UNSTOPPABLE
The Nutri-Grain IronMan and IronWoman Series showcases some of the most daring and impressive athletes in Australia.Witness the strength, courage and determination of these super-fit men and women as they tackle brutal surf and sand all around Australia.
Check out the full broadcast on Channel Nine this Sunday or head here for more information
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