On the 14th of April two of our own Iron Men, Rhett and Lloyd Barker, set off on their 2nd Iron Man challenge. After completing the 70.3 Iron Man earlier in the year, and completing both the 70.3 and Full Iron man two years prior, they knew what mammoth task lay ahead of them.
3.8km Swim, 180km Cycle and 42km Run
Through the eyes of Rhett Barker:
We do a lot of loops in the race which allows spectators to see their competing friends and family more often. The crowd support was phenomenal especially when you have ideas of throwing in the towel on the run section. Our names are printed on the race numbers, so you have complete strangers screaming your name and motivating you to keep moving the whole way around.
Lloyd, Stef Boscia (my mate) and I had 19 family supporters and you cannot believe the mental lift it brought us, looking forward to seeing them, and then to actually see them with high fives, big smiles, screams of encouragement. We then looked forward to seeing them on the next loop. Brought tears to our eyes!!
Just when you think you are having a tough day out, you ride past a father and son team where the son, who must be in his late teens, is autistic and being assisted by his dad. His Dad tows him on a boat in the sea, they have a specially designed bike where his son sits in front of his handlebars and on the run he is pushed in a special running pram. I saw the joy in his son's eyes when he stretched out his arms and touched people's hands on the side of the road. His Father must be a very special person to take him on this journey. They finished in just over 15 hours.
I also ran past a blind chap who was obviously being assisted by a friend. They had a short piece of rope keeping them together.
At 23:40 on Sunday evening after we had all showered and had dinner, we went out onto our hotel deck to see if any of the runners still had a chance of finishing before the 17hour cut off time. In the distance there were lights, an ambulance, two police 4 wheelers, two supporters on mountain bikes and two Ironman Isuzu support vehicles and in the headlights we could just see two pairs of legs still going. We all ran down to the road (some of us limping) and joined the support team encouraging these two chaps who had 1km to go. They had been going for 16 hours and 50 min and the clock was ticking. Were they going to make it? We all ran the last km with them screaming encouragement and they made it to the finish line with 2 min to go. You cannot believe the commotion at the finish line!!
It was quite a day to say the least!
I just wanted to thank you all for all your messages of support before and during the Ironman.”
1786 registered entrants started the race, of which 1542 men and woman completed this epic challenge. We at BIB salute you all!