Heart of a Champion by Patrick Lindsay

competition. Frank Paino took one look and recognised the bike. He said, “Is that Gary Sutton’s bike? What are you doing with it?” “He loaned it to me so I can go in a triathlon tomorrow.” He said, “So you want a new tyre?” I said, “Yeah.” “Well I’m not selling it to you. Why? Because it’s Gary Sutton’s bike.”’
    Greg immediately switched into salesman mode and eventually won Frank Paino over. He rode home very carefully with a new tyre and a spare. ‘The tyre cost me 50 bucks and I had to get another one. I thought, “I’ve just spent half my week’s wages on two tyres. I can’t afford to do this sport. It’s a silvertail’s sport!”’
    Greg drove down to Lake Illawarra with Leonie. He was jumping out of his skin with anticipation and only realised that the lake was full of jellyfish after he’d muscled himself halfway through the swim. Every other stroke he squished into a jellyfish. His body soon went numb. He’d wasted so much energy kicking during the swim that when he struggled out of the water, he cramped. Looking around at the changeover to the bike, he realised he was in the bottom third of the race with perhaps 1000 competitors ahead of him. He took an age to get his shoes on. Then he put his helmet on backwards and had to stop and change it. The ride was 36 km (22.4 miles) of cramping and overtaking before Greg came into his own in the run leg. By then his cramps had eased, and he scythed through the field to finish near the top 100 with one of the fastest runs of the day. ‘It was the greatest thing. I still remember the pain, the ecstasy, the whole lot. That one day was just fantastic. Richie was about fifth or sixth. It was great. I couldn’t wait for the next one.’
    But that was the last race of the season. Greg had to wait six months for the next one. He threw his energies into training with Richie and Peter Brunker, a surf club friend. Richie had joined his father as an apprentice butcher but later took a job as a lifeguard at Cronulla Beach so he could concentrate more on his triathlon training. He was totally dedicated: one New Year’s Day when his family was lazing around in the heat of the Sydney summer, Richie headed off for a 20-km (12.4-mile) run.
    Liz Walker noticed the contrast between Greg’s easy-going attitude to sport and life and Richie’s. ‘A lot of the triathletes, including Richie, took it so seriously. If they got a flat tyre they’d blow up about it. If it happened to Greg, he’d just burst out laughing—“Look what happened to me!”— and he’d have them all laughing with him. Richie loved that about Greg. He’d come home laughing and telling us what Greg had got up to.’
    On the other hand, Greg learnt so much from watching Richie’s swimming technique because he was a natural like his mother. Similarly, Richie deferred to Greg on running. The Walkers transformed a garage at the back of their new house into Richie’s room so he could stay at home but still be independent. Richie and Greg would spend hours in this haven talking about triathlon and pumping weights.
    Around this time, largely through the Wide World of Sports coverage, word had started to spread about the ultimate triathlon event, the Hawaiian Ironman. It quickly attained iconic status among the growing band of extreme sports aficionados. Two blokes from Greg’s surf club, Paul Bannister and Warren Buchan, had finished the 1984 Hawaiian Ironman and returned as conquering heroes. Richie and Peter Brunker idolised Banno and Bucko, and were determined to follow in their footsteps and take the challenge on those distant lava fields. Greg was swept up by their enthusiasm. ‘Richie would take me on swims, and then on weekends in the winter, we’d ride. Peter Brunker and Richard and I would ride to Shellharbour and back. We did that