Ironman Australia race report - by Anthony Fletcher
Location: Port Macquarie, 11.07pm, 4th May, 2025
My demeanor is starting to get a bit emotional – there is something in my eye… think it might be a tear. Turn a corner off the main path and then another corner and I am greeted by a red carpet and flashing lights. “I was born for loving you baby”, booming through the PA. “Anthony Fletcher Ironman Legend #10” yells out the voice of Ironman Australia, Pete Murray. Teammates and supporters yelling out “Go Fletch”!
I’ve been waiting since 2013 for this. The year this crazy Ironman journey started. 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and this one at Port Macquarie, 2014 in Cairns and 2017 in Busselton WA. Every single one of them I said at some point of the day that I’m never putting myself through this again. And then ….. nek minut I’ve entered another one lol.
The journey to an Ironman finish line is never an easy one and never an orderly and gradual build of fitness. There is always challenges – personal, medical, physical and obstacles put in your way to test you and let you know what you are made of. I’d done this enough times to take these things in my stride but this one threw up a few challenges. I engaged the support of super coach Duncan at the start of the year to help me in the lead up.
“Why do you need a coach?”, I hear you ask, “You are a coach”. Ant Middleton says in his book “.. when someone else drives you on, or when a situation compels you, you will realise that you can function beyond your own self imposed limits. Beyond your comfort zone. Its having an outside force telling you that you’ve got to be better and do better. You start to get a glimpse of how capable you are and how far can I push myself”.
The value in having a coach is not always in the technical of the programming but having someone in your corner to push you more than you own mind will and that is why I have a coach, along with the fact that different people have different perspectives and ways of doing things that have value. I really do have to thank Duncan. Even though I got sick I think the level of fitness i got to before I got sick meant I had a higher base to fall back on and probably helped me get through it in the end.
Back to the challenges I faced. January, February, March, training the house down and big gains in fitness, feeling pretty good and thinking this could be a good crack at the Port Mac course this year. April, oh April, wheels come to a grinding halt, get a nasty cold which sidelines me for most of April when I would have been hitting most of my longer training sessions. I’m still not 100% by race day but it is what it is.
Race Day, it has been raining a lot in the last couple of days and overnight before race day. Announcement early race day AM is that the swim has been cancelled. Devastating for most, and for me on any normal year, this year I said the myself “Thank f%$k” given I wasn’t 100% healthy, reason given that there was too much E Coli in the water due to recent storm runoff and many that had done the practice swims and got sick.
We started by our bikes in transition and then rolling start from the mount line – 2 bikes every 4 seconds. Finally on the bike course at around 9.10am. Clipped in and going, rode past my accommodation balcony and wave to my wife at the 400m mark and then I was on my way with 180km until T2. Taking a UCAN gel every 30-40 minutes and usually chewing on one of my GU chews to keep the nutrition up.
Plan was to take it out pretty easy and I was feeling pretty good hitting half way at just on 3 hours which I was pretty happy with. Started to fatigue and slowed slightly around the 4 hours mark, which was around the duration of my longest training rides before I got sick, go figure lol. The southern part of the course between Port Macquarie and Lake Cathie and back is particularly hilly and windy and I did the second half of the bike course about 30 minutes slower for a bike time of 6hrs 36mins.
T2 can be an interesting place, a lot of things go through your mind, including “ do I actually want to exit this tent lol”. I’ve never not exited the T2 tent but it’s been a place of soul searching and finding that “why” for you to go on and I usually find it, usually the embarrassment of being a coach and not walking the walk and talking the talk lol but I am human and I still have the thoughts you just have to channel them for good and not evil. It’s ok to have them just don’t dwell and always push yourself onwards.
Onto the run course … and I really found out how underdone I was there. Was able to run a fair bit in the first 5km and then progressively less until around half way I was reduced to walking only. Quads were screaming at me and the last lap was quite painful. The highlights of my run course was running (or walking) past my mates in green, the SBTC green army. Love you guys, you got me to the finish line with your cheers.
At the 41km mark, I stopped at the personal needs bag station and collected my medals from my last 9 ironman so I could run the last km and down the chute with all my old medals. Felt like a nice touch and I really enjoyed my finish this time, getting acknowledged as an Ironman Australia Legend and having my supporters and teammates yelling out “Fletch”. It was a humbling experience and one of great personal pride to be Ironman Australia legend #459.
