This is me running around Lake Burley Griffin in our nations capital, Canberra in December 2011.  This was the first Ironman 70.3 race that I had competed in and my 2nd attempt at the Half Ironman distance of a 1.9km swim, a 90km ride and a 21.1km run.

This race took me a little over 6 hours to complete, 6:09 to be exact and given the weather conditions of the day and another thing that happened which I will talk about later, it was a very pleasing result.

Canberra 70.3 was my 'A' race which means it was to be my main race of the 2011/2012 season, so all of my training was geared towards this race.  Throughout the season I had competed in a few sprint distance races and also a long course (2km/80km/20km) race in Geelong in February.

Fast forward to March 2012 and the inaugural Asia Pacific Championship race, otherwise known as Ironman Melbourne arrived.  This was a huge event for Melbourne and the sport of triathlon and the best thing about this race is that 2 of the 3 legs, Swim / Bike take place in my local suburb of Frankston, Victoria.

I am a member of the Mornington Peninsula Triathlon Club which is located in Frankston, Victoria.  I have only been in the sport for 2 seasons and when I started out I was looking for a club that I could join so that I could learn about this new sport.  Here I was just turned 50 years of age and starting a sport that most people take up in their 20's.

My first triathlon ever was at Mordialloc in the summer of 2009/10 and it consisted of a 200mtr swim, an 8km ride and a 3km run. The swim was in surf like conditions, the ride was in a blustery headwind and the run wasn't much better.  I finished the race in around 35mins and I thought what the hell have I got myself into and a second later I thought, is that it, is it over already - I wanted more.

A work colleague who had been involved in the sport for a few years and was the person who introduced me to triathlon came down and watched me do my first race.  After I crossed the finish line, he said 'well done' now how about we do a Half Ironman race in November - I said what's a Half Ironman ?? So 8 months later I lined up in Shepparton, Victoria for the Half Ironman race (1.9km/90km/21.1km).  I finished this race in a little over 6:40mins.

So now I am here about to race my first full Ironman distance race, why ? Well, after assisting as a volunteer at the inaugural race and watching so many people achieve their dream in finishing, I have to give it a go.  As I type this, the race is 332 days away, its seems like its years away, but the time will past quickly.

I will start training back with my training crew in the next few weeks and along with some other IM Virgins, I will begin my training and my journey to Ironman Melbourne 2013.

So follow my ups and downs, see how my training is going, and just general info about what will no doubt be a very very big challenge.

This video clip  and in particular the people in it are my motivation and inspiration.

Until  next time,

Gary