By Abbey Cannan
Last weekend 50 extreme athletes ranging from 25-to-55-years-old from 15 countries competed in the Noosa Ultraman endurance race; swimming, cycling and running a combined 515km over three days.
The champion of the event was professional Iron Man athlete from New Zealand, Carl Read, who finished the 515km race in just 21 hours and 27 minutes.
Carl is the first person in the history of this event to be a two-time champion, breaking his own run-record from the previous Ultraman event. Carl finished the 84.3km run in just 6 hours and 29 minutes, which is currently about six minutes off the world record.
“Going up the hills was fine, coming back down I was like crawling because my legs were so sore. And then all I could think about was getting to the 10km mark, go under the bridge and then get up that last significant hill and then try to bring it home. I looked at my watch and I thought I was well under my run record but I knew looking at my average pace I was well off the world record so there was no point trying to go for that,” Carl said.
Coming in at second place was Australian competitor Matthew Woods, completing the incredible distance in just 23 hours and 29 minutes.
Matthew, who is a journalist and lawyer, said he competes in these events just to see how far he can push himself.
“I still haven’t found my limit so I’ll have to try something else,” he said.
When feeling exhausted, Matthew said he continues to push himself by just breaking down the course into sections.
“I never feel alone out there because I’ve got my family and my support system,” Matthew said.
Ultraman event coordinator Dayle Jordan said that the weekend had been fantastic, with the local community really getting behind the event.
“All of the athletes, including 10 women and 40 men finished on time on day one. Day two we had one athlete withdraw because of illness and one athlete finished after the cut-off time, but although they can no-longer qualify they are both continuing today as participants to push through and finish what they started,” Dayle said.
“The conditions were great for the swim, with a bit of a current in the afternoon and Sunshine Coast local Damon Faint was the first swim finisher.”
The first female to cross the line was Tracy Morrison in eighth place.
