ON a day when he pushed himself through 226 kilometres of racing, where he vomited and fell agonisingly short of victory, Bathurst triathlete Richard Hobson still had plenty to be proud of.
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Not only did Hobson mark the ninth Ironman race of his career and fifth appearance in the Port Macquarie event with a second placing in his age group, his oldest daughter Lucy was amongst those who finished as well.
Though the Hobsons have previously competed at the same events together, Sunday's Ironman Australia at Port Macquarie marked the first time Richard and Lucy had both conquered the gruelling distance together.
On top of that, they both covered the 3.8 kilometre swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run that is an Ironman in impressive time.
Richard's 10 hours, 40:23 minutes effort placed him second in the men's 55-59 years category, while Lucy placed fourth in her female 25-29 years division as she crossed the line after 11:54.58.
Those efforts were good enough to earn the pair invites to the World Ironman Championships, but as this year the men's and women's events will be at split venues for the first time, they both declined.
"Probably, to be honest, she's the reason I went. She put her hand up and I said I'd do with her, stupidly. But nah, it was okay," Richard Hobson said.
"I was actually thinking about, it was pretty special. Not many people would have the opportunity to do a sport with their kid, especially an Ironman. So that added a bit of something to help me get through it.
"The tragedy is she qualified to go to Kona, so had it still been at Kona for the men instead of Nice, France, we could've been there together.
"To go to the World Ironman Championships with my daughter would've been something special, had it been the old way we would've been at Kona together, so that's a bit disappointing, but that's how it is."
Not many people would have the opportunity to do a sport with their kid, especially an Ironman.
- Richard Hobson
While his daughter Lucy was making her Ironman Australia debut, Richard Hobson was well versed with the course.
But what didn't work in his favour was that all of his rivals did not start at the same time as has been the case in many of the previous editions.
That's one of the reasons Stuart Mendel took out his age division by 66 seconds.
"With a rolling start, you just don't know where you are. There were three waves and I was in the first wave, he could've been in the third wave, so you just don't know," Hobson said.
"I wish we'd all go together then you could go head-to-head, but I had no idea where he was.
"But there were a couple of rookie errors I made too, but that's alright, that's how it goes."
The errors came after Hobson had blazed through the cycle leg with a brilliant 5:05.35 split. For one of his 10km intervals on that leg he averaged over 52km/hr.
"My thought with my coach was to use my bike strength to try and get the lead then knock the run back to something which was comfortable," he said.
"That was going well for about 26 kay, but I overloaded my gut with too much Gatorade and gels and things started going pear-shaped. I had to have a chug-a-lug a couple of times and that drained me of a bit of energy and it took me awhile to get going again.
"The last 20 minutes I felt pretty good and I ran home pretty good, but the damage was done."
While Hobson went through a tough period on the run, that's when another positive came.
A large contingent of Bathurst Wallabies Triathlon Club competitors were competing at Port Macquarie and one of them - Ironman first-timer Gavin Borg - was alongside Hobson offering encouragement.
"I caught up with Gav doing the event, Richard Argent-Smith during the event and everyone was having a great time. Ironman, it isn't easy to get through one, so if you can have a smile on your face and be chatting to club-mates, it's even better, it's motivating," Hobson said.
"While I was throwing up, Borgy was patting me on the back going 'Are you alright?'. That means something, that's special, it absolutely motivates you."
Bathurst Wallabies Hobson, Borg, Argent -Smith, Christopher Walsh, Luke Patterson, Stephen Page, Thomas Hanrahan all completed the Ironman course.
On top of that, Barb Hill, Terry Roberts, Peter Bennett and Matthew Hayes all finished the Ironman 70.3 race, with Roberts clocking a time of 5:20.43 to place fourth in his 60-64 age division.
Candice Falconer was the other Bathurst Wallaby to compete as she tackled the teams relay with her brother Sam.
"It was so good to have so many Bathurst people there, it was unbelievable, and a lot of them were first time Ironman athletes, which was awesome," Hobson said.
"There was some bad luck, Luke Patterson had three flat tyres. Now there's an excuse for anyone to pack it in, but he didn't, he stuck it out and he got home.
"There's a lot of money, a lot of time that goes into it ... there's a lot of sacrifices so you've got to make it worthwhile.
"So it's just awesome having so many locals supporting the event. The support you get from the crowd as well, it's just amazing."
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