Australian Triathlete - 01.08.2018

30 | AustrAliAn triAthlete

Tim Don

up on the run, which was hard to deal

with. Without Julie and Kelly, I definitely

wouldn’t have carried on.

I had only seen Kona in 2011 as a

spectator, one of the years Crowie

(Craig Alexander) won and it was like,

“WOW!” I knew I wanted to qualify while

putting as little stress on my body as

possible. I come from speed background

with running, so we decided I would do a

series of half races in 2014, as well as the

Ironman 70.3 World Championships, and

then do my first Ironman in Mallorca. I had

never been to Mallorca, but I think the

course suited me and I was able to pull

away on the run and I was lucky enough to

win the race. Looking back it was easy, not

the winning, but the process, and that was

the most enjoyable full-distance race I

had done until Ironman Brazil this year.

Having 11 months to gear up for my

first Kona was really good because it

allowed me to focus on 70.3 racing for

the year. I was still learning in every race

I decided I needed a coach who
knew long distance racing. Over the
years, I worked well with coaches I could
see versus correspondence. I had gone to
the Athens Olympics with Julie Dibens and
knew she was a successful athlete at long
course. However, she had also made the
transition from a world-class ITU athlete
to a world-class 70.3 athlete and had
podiumed at Kona, so I knew she had the
background I needed. I realised the bigger
portion of the race was the bike and I
knew that was her specialty.
My first half distance triathlon was
actually in 2009 in South Africa and it
was a hell of a hard experience. I was
wintering there during my ITU days and
thought I would just give it a-go. I even
managed fourth place. My first proper half
race was in 2013, and I struggled a lot with
my nutrition and proper pacing with my
bike speed. It was a steep learning curve,
but Julie had told me I would need my first
year to learn the ropes and get everything

dialled in so that 2014 would be a better

year of half racing.

Racing the half distance was a big

and frustrating change for me. I was

used to flying into ITU races and being

treated like the main attraction as the

professionals. In ITU, I was used to racing

in the middle of the afternoon, having a

perfect transition area, the briefing was

perfect, and all the roads were closed for

the race. With halves, you race at 6:30 in

the morning, you’re starting in a muddy

field next to a lake, there are 2000

age-groupers and I felt like I was back at

the beginning of my junior days, which was

great, but I was used to a different scene.

I had to find new sponsors and

reinvent myself once I had moved to

America and jumped up to long course

racing. Looking back, it was fun but

stressful. Suddenly I was getting beat by a

bunch of athletes I didn’t know. It was a

big learning curve. I would have very

average races, bonk on the bike, and blow

KONA 2016: Tim had great aspirations at the World Championships but the race didn’t go to plan and he had to pull out during the bike leg.