MEC had athletes racing in Port Macquarie across both half and full iron distances as well as in Melbourne over the weekend.
With the overarching goal of completing 3x Ironmans in 2019 and the first being Port Mac things got interesting for David Lloyd when just over a month out from race day he needed to go in for surgery to clean up some cartilage in his knee. True to his character though he still wished to get the 3x events done. After consultation with the surgeon and getting the green light he made the start line and completed the event on Sunday. A training day to build for the other 2 events in the coming months.
Adrian Moore also took on the iron distance and whilst it wasn't his best day he knuckled down and got the job done. Plenty of learning to take away and an opportunity to put them into practice when he lines up for Cairns IM next month.
Kerrie Thomas raced the 70.3 ahead of Cairns Ironman next month and got through the race well albeit untappered and the body tired from a strong training block. Back home to Darwin now to put the finishing touches in training.
Sam Doust did the swim leg as a part of a team in the 70.3 distance getting her first taste of the circus that is Ironman. If it didn't scare her off we look forward to seeing her on the start line as an individual competitor in the future.
In Melbourne we had Stacey De Bono and Adrian Polidano take in the Wing for Life Word Run which raises money to fund research for spinal cord injuries. A little different to your standard race format in that you run as far as you can until the 'catcher car' reaches you. Stacey clocked just under 24km in around 2hrs and Adrian who is concentrating on running events for the remainder of the year made it 35km in just over 2hrs 40min.
This weekend we wish Travis and Donia all the best mechanical luck for the Ultraman in Noosa. Amazing how far both these athletes have come and a credit to their resilience.