Some of my best memories in triathlon are from Port Macquarie. I watched my first Ironman there in 2012, completed my first Ironman in 2013, qualified for Kona there twice and seen numerous friends and athletes achieve some amazing goals at this race venue. I head back to Port Macquarie each year for these very reasons. This year I had set my sights on racing the 70.3 and had organised my schedule with Dani so that we were not training for events at the same time to try to make managing family life a bit easier. Things had been tracking quite well……

Unfortunately in the build up to the race I managed to pick up a virus, which subsequently turned into a chest and sinus infection. 2 weeks out I was laid up in bed and had to have a week off work and training. As we headed into race week and the antibiotics kicked in, I started to feel better each day. My infection had almost cleared and I was waking up each morning managing to do some light exercise without fatigue. I still had some chest congestion, but my physiological signs were tracking well during exercise and recovery. I decided, upon consultation with the Coach that I’d be fine to race and just planned to revise my intensities and race strategy a little - I didn’t want to miss this one.