Launceston can feasibly lay claim to one of the country’s fittest quinquagenarians after Steve Muir took out his age group at the Noosa Ultraman.
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After nine months of preparation, the Perth Primary School groundsman made the trip to the Sunshine Coast earlier this month to compete against about 55 other athletes, including 10 from the 50-60 age group.
Tasked with 10 kilometres of swimming, 425km on the bike and 84km of running over three days, the 51-year-old put in a dream performance to finish in 34th place overall.
Muir said his three-strong crew of Louise Bishop, Rae Dowling and Chris Moore had played a big part in his success.
“The whole race just went perfectly for me,” Muir said.
“The preparation was correct and all the training but it was more of a team effort because I had a crew there and they prepared everything to perfection so everything fell into place.”
Aside from some early-race apprehension, Muir managed to maintain a steadfast determination throughout the race.
“About 2km into the swim I didn’t want to do it anymore, I wanted to get out,” he said.
“But in saying that about 6km into it I didn’t want it to stop.”
Muir said before the event’s final leg – the 84km run - he had never ran further than 42km in one stint.
“I only did a run-walk 42km once in training and I did a lot of 30km, so I was always worried I wouldn’t be able to do that distance.
“But on the day I just took it easy and ran within myself and the first time I started walking was probably at 70km mark to go up a few of the steeper hills.”