BATHURST pair Terry Roberts and Richard Hobson have successfully completed the world’s most gruelling physical one-day test, the annual Hawaii Ironman, held on Sunday Australian time.
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The duo qualified for the World Championship courtesy of performances in other events over the previous 12 months and both headed to Kona looking for personal bests.
Roberts had completed the torturous 3.8 kilometre swim, 180km bike leg and 42.2km run twice before, while Hobson was attempting it for the second time.
Competing in the 50-54 years age group for the first time, Roberts was able to finish 34th in his division despite a tough bike leg where he lost ground on a handful of competitors.
Roberts left the water in 36th, finishing in just under 70 minutes before taking on some brutal conditions on two wheels across the lava fields in scorching heat.
Head-winds were proving a real problem for the entire field and Roberts, who took five hours, 39 minutes on the bike, was bumped back to 46th by the time he had finished the trek and prepared himself for the marathon – literally – that lay ahead.
He picked his way through a number of rivals and eventually was verging on a top 30 finish, but had to settle for 34th, finishing in a personal best time of 10 hours, 46.39 minutes.
His run leg lasted three hours, 50.14, and he was 790th overall.
Hobson, meanwhile, was competing in the 40-44 years division for the final time and he would eventually place 80th, and 518th overall.
In contrast to Roberts, his race finished on a tough note as he struggled at the back end of the run leg.
He finished the swim ranked 53rd (1.03.06) and improved that to 47th after hopping off the bike, finishing the ride in 5.13.01.
Early in the run leg, he had worked his way into 44th, but things started to get tough from there and by the time he crossed the line he had slipped back to 80th overall for his classification.
He still managed a personal best time, though, crossing the line in 10 hours, 17.53 minutes, his run taking 3.53.58.
Bathurst had one other connection to the event in the shape of former CSU nursing student Paul Roberts.
The 29-year-old managed to cross the line 587th, 63rd in the 25-29 years men’s category.
“The swim: brutal contact,” he posted on a Facebook update after the race.
“The bike was into a brutal block headwind for approximately 80km. At one point I and all others were on the small chain ring going down a solid hill.
“The run was going well but my skin on the sun side felt like it was melting.”