NICK North may have had his struggles in the Port Macquarie 70.3 Ironman on Saturday, but the Bathurst triathlete still finished an impressive fourth outright.
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In warm conditions North completed the 1.9 kilometre swim, 90.1km cycle and 21.1km run in a time of four hours, 24 minutes and 10 seconds.
His splits for the swim (24:48) and cycle (2:20.36) were the quickest of any competitor in the field and helped North rank second in his 25-29 years age division.
Still, North felt he could have done better.
“Some days you have it and some days you don't. Unfortunately today was the latter,” he posted on Instagram.
“I struggled to keep any nutrition down in the heat and it hurt me on the run, but in saying that, to come away with the fastest swim/bike and second in my age group and fourth overall, I can't be disappointed with that.”
North was not the only member of the Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club in action at Port Macquarie.
Both Kath Malligan and Nick Hoskings did the 70.3 race, while Andrew Burke, Luke and Danielle Patterson, Mark Burns and James Kelly tackled an even bigger test.
They completed a 3.9km swim, 180.2km cycle then 42.2km run.
“We all survived, all of us from Bathurst survived and did really good,” Kelly, who is also the president of the Bathurst club, said.
“Mark Burns beat his goal time by an hour, so he did really well, and Luke was the best of the Bathurst guys home in the full Ironman.
“We all finished, we all achieved what we wanted to achieve out of it.
“We are all thankful to our families, to put the time in do it, it's an extremely selfish sport.”
While Luke Patterson (12:32.43) was the fastest of the Wallabies’ contingent, his wife Danielle (13:29.06) actually made a stronger start.
Her splits in the swim (1:12.42) and cycle (6:17.35) helped her to an impressive 16th in her 40-44 years women’s category.
Burns’ effort of 13:41.54 far exceeded his goal, while Kelly, who had hoped to finish in 15 hours, took just over 40 minutes less than that.
Given the testing nature of the Port Macquarie course, they were efforts to be proud of.
“They say the bike ride is the hardest Ironman ride of the year, and yeah it was tough. There’s is one flat stretch, other than that you seem to be rolling up and down hills all day long,” Kelly said. “The road surface in some areas is not the best, it is not an easy ride at all. But I suppose if you’re going to do it, you might as well do the main one.”
Meanwhile, former Bathurst resident Sam Poole was another to complete the gruelling Ironman course. He clocked an impressive 10:48.59 to place 30th in the highly competitive 30-34 years male category.
“That’s an amazing effort – to do that sort of time is just phenomenal,” Kelly said. “There’s some very serious athletes that wouldn’t get that sort of time.”
