As the old saying goes ‘You are only young once’ and nineteen year old Sunshine Coaster Matt O’Brien’s New Year’s resolution was to follow his heart and make his dream a reality, temporarily shelving his studies at the University of Queensland to be a part time barista and full time triathlete.
Matt is making his IRONMAN 70.3 debut at Sunshine Coast on 8 September, to have a crack at qualifying for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships for his age group and to see what he is capable of, with the right training and advice.
“I needed to reset and this year I decided to take a step back to have a look at what I wanted to do. I am really glad I made the decision to train full time because even if nothing comes of it, I can say I gave it a crack, or I am giving it a crack. There will never be what if’s and no regrets.”
“My parents live in Noosa, it is really good place to train and there are a lot of really experienced heads in the local area. I actually talked to Justin and Belinda Granger, sat down with them and had a coffee and asked them what they thought. They thought why not, you may as well. You are only 19 once in your life and you don’t want to have regrets and that is what my dad was telling me.”
Matt knows it is a roll of the dice, but if everything goes right the former Tasmanian could be following in the footsteps of another lad from Ulverstone, Craig Walton, who moved up to the Sunshine Coast to follow a dream and became a triathlon legend.
“We used to holiday up in Noosa a fair bit and would come up when the triathlon was on and I was nine we moved up because the family loved it. I was a bit of surf club kid growing up so I was always around the beach and Noosa was always on around the same time as the surf club season was on, so I always knew it was going on but I was more into basketball, AFL when I was younger.”
“The first time I was involved in triathlon was in a team in Noosa about 2017, so it wasn’t that long ago. I went to the University of Queensland to study Exercise Physiology and I joined a tri club down there and that was when I started to really get into it.”
“I only did my first sprint distance in January 2018, a QTS race in Caloundra and my memory is the blisters on my feet from running with no socks on. That was the stand out but I just loved it and decided that it was the new sport that I was going to apply myself to.”
“Caloundra was my first individual race and then my first Olympic distance was Noosa Triathlon last year. I learned a lot at Noosa because I thought that more is better than less, and I took in a lot of carbs and caffeine and not enough water. I got off the bike with massive cramps, it was insane. So, Iearned a lot about the importance of nutrition in a very short period of time.”
Matt is working with Sunny Coast coach Rob Dendle but living in Noosa there is no shortage of experienced people training there, willing to offer sound advice and a flexible boss to assist with training friendly shifts.
“I did bit of shopping around looking for a coach when I decided to take time off to train and talked to a few people and Rob’s experience aligned with what I wanted to do and he gave me a bit of his time and I asked him what his thoughts were and how I should go about it. Something just drove me to train with him and it has been going really well.”
“I have worked as a Barista at Gibson’s in Noosaville for a couple of years and my boss at the café has been very generous given me some pretty good shifts that I can train around.”
“When I raced Yepoon I just had my dad there to support me but this time I will have good friends from around the Noosa area, my mum and my sister, everyone can come along and watch. It is a really spectator friendly course as well, especially the run.”
“While it is fun and exciting to go and race at different places but there is nothing like racing at home. I do my Friday open water swims at Mooloolaba and I love that little stretch of beach. I am really familiar with it all and the course suits me. It is literally a dream mix of what I want and it is literally a 20 minute drive, so there is not much more you could ask for,” Matt said.
