For Matt Wheatley, family was both the motivation and the means by which he recorded his best-ever effort in an ultraman.
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Competing in the third race of his career in Noosa last month, the 41-year-old completed a 10km ocean swim, 420km bike ride and 85km run in 28 hours and 28 minutes to finish bang in the middle of a field of 50.
While places meant little, time meant everything for the Launceston Triathlon Club president as he successfully chased down the benchmark set by his father.
"I'd actually been thinking about the run for two years - I'd been slightly fixated on the run," he said.
"I had a pretty aggressive target I wanted to achieve and I beat that by about 20 minutes.
"My dad Pete has done this race three times as well and he set a time of eight hours, 59 minutes a few years ago so I've been talking myself up for two years.
"I wanted to get below his time and I got eight hours 40, so I beat that by 20 minutes and I was very happy with that."
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To complete the three-day event, which begins with a 10km swim and 150km ride on the opening day and finishes with the double marathon on day three, competitors must spend no more than 12 hours on course during any one day.
Each competitor has at least two crew members to accompany them on the journey and assist in supplying food, water and transport.
Wheatley enjoyed more than double that number in his posse, which was led by his 18-year-old daughter Ava - one of the world's youngest crew captains.
Ava joined Wheatley's brother Andrew in pacing out 35km of the run leg each as well as organising food and equipment, while his mother-in-law Linda Farrington took on the role of navigator and managing nutrition and hydration.
Wife Sophie was the crew's driver and "mobile psychologist" for an event which takes more mental discipline than most.
Wheatley said even better than breaking the tape after a gruelling three days was getting to do so with those closest to him.
"The beautiful thing about this event is your family and friends and crew are almost expected to cross the line with you - you can't do it without them and it's as much of a celebration for them as it is for you," the Tasrail human resources employee said.
"The day of the run there were some very heavy downpours and flash flooding on the course, so as we were coming down Noosa beach - which is normally packed with tourists and swimmers and bathers - it was an absolutely biblical downpour.
"So it's an 85km run, I'm running down the beach with my brother on one side, my eldest daughter on the other side and they'd flogged themselves senseless on this run - they'd really worked hard.
"It was a really special moment where we had this immensely popular beach to ourselves, until we got to the end where we saw the finishing line and my wife and my mother-in-law and youngest daughter [Nella], and all my colleagues from this race are all standing out in the rain being drenched and everyone's cheering and clapping with great big smiles on their faces.
"It was an incredibly special moment."
Wheatley's effort earned him entry into next year's ultraman in Penticton, Canada, which he plans to complete following a fourth race in Noosa.
With three races and the ongoing support of his family firmly under his belt, he feels more comfortable than ever competing in the format and is no longer impacted by the mental weight of undertaking such a huge physical task.
"For the first two years one of the days I had a great deal of anxiety - fear basically," Wheatley said.
"This year was excitement. I was actually looking forward to the three days and particularly the run day - the day that a lot of people find the hardest and rightly so.
"I was bouncing out of my skin - for me that day was the culmination of two years of smack talk.
"I knew it was going to be a hard day that was going to require a good plan to come together, but for me it was actually the first time that I've actually felt like an athlete.
"It was the first time it felt like I knew exactly what I was doing and it was a good demonstration of a good plan being well supported and perfectly executed and it worked beautifully.
"I've been very blessed that my family's come on this journey for the past four or five years."
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