Heart of a Champion by Patrick Lindsay Page A

because Bucko and Banno did it.’
    Running was natural to Greg, but he was on a steep learning curve in the water and on a racing bike. He used his innate physical intelligence to gradually improve his swimming. By observing training partners with superior techniques, he corrected his body position and stroking. He was a long way from being an elite swimmer, but he slowly cut down his times and built up his condition. And despite growing up with a pushbike and spending many hours in the saddle on his paper and chemist runs, Greg was still a relatively weak cyclist when he started in triathlon. But he learnt to put down dedicated bike kilometres, constantly learning how to improve his bike training, adding some gym work for his legs and putting in time on the stationary training bikes to help with his technique. He also saw the benefit of setting up his bike correctly, and he and Richie would spend considerable time working with bike mechanics and taking advice from the experts.
    Richie was soon performing consistently, regularly featuring in the top ten in local races, often making it into the top five. His swimming leg was always his strongest and usually gave him a substantial lead going into the ride, where he generally at least held his own. His running held him back. Greg could spot him 5 minutes into a 10-km (6.2-mile) run and reel him in, but Richie’s swimming was so far ahead of Greg’s that Richie would still beat him home.
    By the time The Great Race at Surfers Paradise came around in May 1986, Greg had a few triathlons under his belt and Richie was a genuine contender. It was a half-Ironman: a 2-km (1.2-mile) swim around Jupiter’s Casino, an 80-km (50-mile) bike ride around the Gold Coast hinterland and a 21-km (13-mile) run around the Broadbeach area. Greg convinced Leonie to compete and persuaded a big group of friends to come.
    The longer distance was both a big step up and a major challenge for Greg and the others. As usual, he lost touch with Richie in the swim but nevertheless struggled through it. Then he had a solid ride and another powerful run and finished in about 5 hours. Greg was elated, but almost immediately he heard that one of the earlier runners had collapsed and died, just metres from the finish line. He had a powerful feeling of dread, which was confirmed within minutes when one of his friends rushed over and told him the stricken runner was his best friend, who was, in fact, still alive but on life support at Southport Hospital.
    Richie’s heart had stopped beating for almost 4 minutes before paramedics revived him. Then he lapsed into a coma. He was on life support for almost a week, and Greg stayed at his side, ‘all day, every day’, with Richie’s parents. ‘Richie had had a cardiac arrest at 20 years old. There had been no history of heart problems.’ Having regained consciousness after about 40 hours, Richie had a pacemaker implanted and was given a clean bill of health. ‘He, Peter Brunker and I started training again. Richie had no other ill effects. He was lucky, a healthy young man.’
    Looking back, David and Liz Walker now think Richie may have misunderstood a warning of his impending heart problem in the months leading up to his heart attack in the race at Surfers. One day, he’d just returned from a long bike ride in very cold conditions when he fainted at the kitchen sink as he tried to take off his gloves. He recovered immediately and put it down to the cold, but David insisted that he have himself checked out. ‘He went to see a doctor, and the doctor told him that he thought it was indigestion. He gave him a cardiograph and other tests, but nothing showed up. That reassured us. He was super fit. We had no inkling anything was wrong.’
    Richie’s doctors performed the full range of tests on him after his Gold Coast collapse but again found no abnormalities. David tried to dissuade Richie from competing in more