Powyer had taken on sprint and half ironman distances in the past but trying out the standard distance - situated between those two - made her test the balance between power and endurance.

She nailed it.

Powyer came home with a bronze medal for her age group at the end of her 1.5 kilometre swim, 40km bike and 10km run as she completed the course in 2:46:30.

That time put Powyer below the three hour mark she was hopeful of beating and it put her only just outside the top 10 overall women's finishers.

"I got a bit under three hours so I was pretty happy with that," Powyer said.

"I was quite surprised because I struggle a bit in the swim so when I got out and looked at my watch I thought 'That's a bit quicker than what I expected' so that gave me a bit of confidence going into the bike leg.

"There were a few hills on the bike leg, which made things a bit different from the Western Sydney half ironman a couple of weeks earlier, which was flat. The quads were a bit sore by the end of it but the conditions were great and there was no wind.

"I wasn't used to running in the hotter conditions so that was a bit of a challenge."

The heat couldn't stop Powyer's rise in the standings.

Powyer climbed from sixth in her age group coming out of the swim up to third by the end of the run leg.

Pacing was a challenge for Powyer but she was pleased with her splits.

"I couldn't really predict how I'd go," she said.

"The intensity of an Olympic distance is much higher than the longer distance so I was going off my heart rate to judge this one. I was happy with it."

Powyer wasn't the other Bathurst competitor to get themselves on a podium.

Darren Fenton (2:58:24) cracked the three hour barrier as well on his way to bronze, riding an excellent bike leg in the process.

Junior competitor Will Kelly made it a bronze triple for Bathurst with a 1:18:03 in the sprint event.