On Sunday the Bathurst father completed the full ironman distance in the Challenge Cairns triathlon.

He sizzled through the 3.8 kilometre swim, 180km bicycle leg and 42.2km marathon run in a time of 11 hours, 40 minutes and nine seconds.

That’s not a bad effort for a 43-year-old who took only took up the the sport a couple of years ago at the insistence of his daughter Brooke who is a junior with the King Cain Bathurst Wallabies Tri Club.

Tuynman’s efforts racing in the John Maclean Foundation colours earned him a 32nd place out of 109 competitors in his 40-44 years age category and 239th outright in the field of 618 triathletes.

His momentous day included splits of 1:00:39 in the water, 5:50:27 on the bike and a 4:37:55 run.

Still feeling a bit sore and sorry for the experience, Tuynman said yesterday the event was everything he thought it was going to be and more.

“I knew there would be pain involved and there was,” he said. “I was stoked that I finished, that was the main goal. I was happy with the time, although the run was a bit disappointing.

“Everything else was good, but I did cop a five minute penalty on the bike for blocking which surprised me. You cop those sort of things on the chin. There’s no point arguing.

“However, it did give me a chance to have another gel, make up another electrolyte mix and have a bit of a stretch before the last 60 kilometres of the leg.”

Tuynman said that with race day conditions of 29-30 degrees, he’d never been as hot in his life than on the run.

“There was no wind, high humidity and a hot mix tar surface,” he said.

“Chris McCormack [who won the event] said the bike was like riding on the lava fields of Kona.

“But what made up for the tough conditions was the fact there were spectators lined up four and five deep for about 2.5 kilometres down the main street of Cairns during the run.”

Tuynman said he’s now got the ultra-distance bug and will be a definite starter at the Challenge Cairns triathlon next year.

“It’s just spectacular up there. I reckon that once the other blokes in the Wallabies [club] see the television replay on June 25 on ONE HD they’ll all want to have a crack at it.

“Sure there’s the pain, but that’s easily forgotten once you finish. My aim will be to go under 11 hours next year. That would be nice.”