Trio push themselves

Running a half-marathon would be a nightmare for some people, let along adding a 1.9km swim and a 90km bike ride to the mix.

But three Port Hedland athletes have done just that by successfully completing the SunSmart Ironman 70.3 in Busselton earlier this month.

The event was a first for Liz Pevinsky who, not being a keen swimmer, had never dreamed she would complete such an event.

She achieved her goal of completing the event in less than seven hours, finishing in 6hrs, 51min.

"There was an enormous and overwhelming feeling of accomplishment on completing the event," she said.

Pevinsky encouraged others to consider taking on the challenge.

"Don't let fear get in the way of accomplishing what you now see as the impossible and believe in yourself," she said.

Considering Jacque Rykers' record of completing two full ironman events, one of them only weeks before the Busselton event, and three half-ironmans, you could consider her something of an expert in the matter.

For the past 18 months, she has been training hard for the events, and only missed out on beating her time from last year's race because of a four-minute penalty she received for being too close to the rider in front of her as they turned a corner.

Rykers said she was so cold during the bike ride her teeth didn't stop chattering until 50km in.

"That really annoyed me, but I absolutely smashed the run - I did a huge (personal best) and I pushed myself really hard," she said.

"I was stoked with that."

Rykers is taking a well-earned break from ironman training before planning for her next event.

Adding some testosterone to the trio of Hedland competitors was Nathan Groch, in his first official half-course event, having completed a full-distance event in December.

Along with Rykers, Groch had completed a half-distance event held in Hedland last year, but the legs were in a different format.

Although he was disappointed by his race time of just over 4:49, he said the colder conditions had been challenging.

"The rolling wave starts with the swim were different and made it challenging swimming through slower swimmers from the groups that started before us," he said.

"It was an incredibly cold morning and the first hour on the bike was a struggle - I couldn't feel my fingers or toes.

"The result wasn't what I had trained for, so I'm upset in some ways, but still happy with the overall result - I stuck with my race plan and was on track for a really competitive finish."

Groch said he had a solid swim and a strong ride, but 3km into the run, his back and hamstrings cramped.

At one point he questioned if he should quit the event.

"From then on, it was an 18km shuffle from aid station to aid station," he said.

"(But) it was an incredibly well organised and run event and the crowd on the foreshore was sensational.

"It was a great feeling to race alongside all of the male and female professional athletes.

"I don't know any other sport in the world that does that."