IT was urging from her kids that saw Bec O'Connor do her first triathlon two seasons ago and when she tackled the sprint event at the Big Husky Triathlon Festival on Sunday, it was her kids who spurred her on to reach the finish.
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As she ran down the victors' chute, cheered on by her children, to stop the clock after one hour, 49 minutes and eight seconds, it was an emotional moment.
"My boys were at the line right at the end. So they saw me do it, they saw me complete it, I think I did it more so for them, to show them you can do something big if you try," she said.
"To have them go 'Yay, go Mum', seeing them at the end smiling, it was really emotional when I finished.
"I just didn't want to give up for them, I didn't want to walk, I wanted to finish it. I saw them on the beach running out, I saw them on the transition coming in and I saw them on the run."
While O'Connor has long been part of the Bathurst Women's Hockey Association scene, playing for Souths, she is a relative newcomer to triathlon. She is currently in her second season.
"We used to watch the boys' uncle, Michael O'Connor. After watching him the kids were keen to do it, so we signed them up," she said.
"They did it for a season ... then the following season they were like 'Come on Mum, you can do it.' I knew a couple more of the Bathurst Wallabies people as well and they told me I should do it, so I was like 'Okay'."
Michael and Bec then decided that they would step up from club racing to attend the Husky Festival for the first time. They weren't the only Wallabies who did so, with the likes of Amanda Robinson, Carly Sewell and Fallon Gray making their debut as well.
For Bec O'Connor it meant going from Wallabies short course races consisting of a 300 metres pool swim, 16 kilometre cycle and 2.5km run to a 750m ocean swim, 20km on the bike then a 5km run.
It was challenging, but the desire to have her boys see her cross the finish line spurred her on. She clocked a 22:25 swim split, covered the cycle leg in 48:13 and completed the run in 32:08.
"I'd never swam in the ocean for that reason, normally it was just for relaxing ... swimming out against the waves, that was the most shocking bit. It was a different feeling, you can't train for that, you've just got to get your head in the swim," she said.
"The ride was pretty good, I was happy with that. But after getting off the bike, you sort of have that wobbly, jelly-leg feeling.
"I was just determined not to walk, I just kept shuffling along. I was trying to get under that six-minute pace and once you sort of find your pace and rhythm you get into an automatic mode, you just don't stop and keep plodding along."
