WHEN Peta Cutler made her return to triathlon this season after a two-year break, her aim was simply to finish the races she entered.
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As it turns out, she did a whole lot more than that.
In her return race, the Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney, she claimed bronze in her age group. She then won her first Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club race of the season, being the first female finisher over the long course distance.
In February she won her age group in the Geelong Ironman 70.3 and in the process, earned herself an invite to the World Championships in Nice, France.
Then on Sunday in the Bathurst season finale, the 'super mum' took outright honours in the long course race, bettering all her male and female rivals over the 500 metres swim, 16 kilometre cycle, 5km run course.
"No way [did I think I'd go this well], but I'm going to run with it," Culter beamed.
"I loved it today, it was so good. I would have loved to have done the short course memorial one, but with my training - I'm training for Port Macquarie [half Ironman] - I thought it was better to do the long one.
"I really just wanted to have a good race and see if I could beat some of my personal times."
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Cutler was more than a minute faster than any other female through the swim, her split of 8:06 also seeing her ranked third outright behind Nick Hosking and Paul Upston as she emerged from the pool.
On the bike Cutler clocked the second fastest split - 24:38 - of all the long course competitors as she improved to second outright.
She then set off in pursuit of Hosking in the run leg and by the time she reached the halfway mark of that discipline, Cutler had the lead.
She went on to take the win in 55:24, holding off Hosking 55:37 for the outright honours. Steve Jackson (57:28) placed third.
"I used Nick to pace myself on the run. He was running with me, so I thought I'd give it a crack too. It was great," Cutler said.
"On the bike the air felt a little bit thick so it was a little bit harder to breathe - it was really foggy out there - but other than that, I couldn't ask for much better racing conditions."