TACKLING a triathlon is no easy feat in itself, but doing so and beating your personal best makes it all worth the while. This is exactly what local resident Scott McHugh did on March 17.
Scott, who is a competitive member of the Shepparton Tri Club, took on the 2XU Triathlon Series Race 5 at Portarlington which involved an 800m swim, 28km bike ride and 8km run, which he managed to complete in 1 hour 50 minutes and 17 seconds, finishing 17 out of 30 in his age group.
Scott said, “I’ve been doing triathlons for three years now and got into it to help keep me fit to ride trail bikes.
“I was pretty pleased with my result and did it fairly comfortably. It was the best swim I had done and at the end, I knocked 10 minutes off my previous time doing the triathlon two years ago.
“You need to have a fair bit of resilience. The hardest thing to overcome was the swimming, but the only way I could do that was to condition my mind and body so I started swimming three times a week.
“It’s a balance between pushing hard enough to be competitive but not so hard that you blow up.
“I’m looking forward to completing the half triathlon at Port Macquarie on May 5 where I will complete a 1,900m swim, 90km bike ride and 20km marathon. The plan is to beat my previous time.”
