Melissa Rollison/Hauschildt Triathlon Running Photos by, Timothy Carlson

ATHLETE TOWN

“In long course we have very little to do with Triathlon Australia. We’re all out on our own. But there’s a lot going on here in Boulder – it’s really good. I’m here with my husband; he’s pretty much my coach, so we just work out my program together – we do squad for swimming, but do our own bike and run. Sometimes on a Saturday I’ll jump in with some of the other guys for a long ride. Craig Alexander is here and lots of other athletes live here. It’s like athlete town.

“Why Boulder? The altitude and the location – you can go for a long ride and only go through maybe one traffic light. There’s no stopping – all the roads have massive, wide shoulders for the bikes. And the cars are so good anyway. It makes training a pleasure. At home I live in Brisbane; you go for a ride there and you’re stopping every 100 metres for traffic lights or roundabouts, and then you’ve got cars tooting you. But here, we’re on the edge of this tiny residential area with open fields and long, straight, quiet roads in every direction: you get on your bike and you can go for miles without stopping. There are so many great climbs – you can ride 30-40km straight up before you hit a descent, and there are great running trails right from our doorstep. It really is just the perfect training environment.

“Cars at home hate us. Last time I got home I was like, ‘Oh my god, I almost got killed out there!’ I’d forgotten about that.”

BEGINNINGS

“It’s not like sport was in the family – my whole family thinks I’m weird. I’m the odd one out. I was always active as a kid, and we were always doing outside things. When I was 11, I did the school cross country and I think I made it through to regionals and did all right there. Then someone suggested I should train for it, so I met up with my coach at that time, Brian Chapman. His coaching base was like a two-minute jog away from where I lived. I used to train with him twice a week and that’s how it all started.”

RUNNING

“I guess as a runner we are all a bit obsessive- compulsive – because you’ve only got one sport, you don’t want to miss a day. You might have a niggle, but you’re too afraid to take a day off, so you train through it. This is a reason why I really like triathlon now – if I’ve got the slightest little niggle, I can miss a run and jump on the bike, or jump in the pool, and I’m still training for my sport. But runners are kinda crazy – we always run through injuries and usually make them 100 times worse.”

“When I was training for the 2010 Comm Games, I got an injury, so I got a bike to keep training. But I still couldn’t get over it, so I joined the Wynnum Redlands Cycling Club and started riding with them. I did a few races and won. My manager is part of the club, and he suggested getting me into triathlon. I kept distancing myself, saying, ‘Nah, I can’t swim.’ That was true: I’d never done any swim training.