I’ve been a member of the Excite IT team for over 10 years, including 6 years with itaba3, who Excite IT acquired in 2010. During that time, I’ve worked my way up from 1st level service desk technician to my new role of General Manager.
Outside of working in IT, I played Rugby with the Drummoyne Dirty Reds from 2004 to 2013, before starting to coach in 2014. Since finishing my playing career, I needed a new physical challenge to keep me fit and fuel my competitive spirit. A few friends roped me into Triathlon and despite almost quitting 200 metres into my first swim, I kept at it.
Early last year, my friend and training partner Luke Byrnes suggested we should do an Ironman. Not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into, we signed up for the New Zealand Ironman in Lake Taupo, on March 7th, 2015.
For those of you who don’t know, an Ironman consists of a 3.8km Swim, 180km Bike ride and 42.2km Run. It will probably take me somewhere between 11 and 14 hours to complete. Having never swum more than 1500m, cycled more than 70km or run more than 14kms, we formulated a training plan 12 months out.
Since March 2014, we’ve completed our first 2km ocean swim, Half-marathon, Marathon, Half-Ironman, as well as cracking 180kms on the bike. In training we’ve roughly covered 150km of swimming, 5,000km of cycling and 1,000km of running during that time.
Training for such a big event is quite a selfish pursuit, as friends and family are expected to work around your training schedule, which can take up entire days at a time. With this in mind, I thought that I should do something that isn’t selfish and raise money for a charity. With my two nephews having Autism, I’ve chosen the Autism Spectrum charity, who undertake research, as well as provide support services to families and people living with Autism.
Excite IT has donated $1000 towards my fundraising. I’d appreciate any contribution, big or small to this cause.
Click here if you would like to donate
