Since my initial story, my one of my two major events for this year’s sponsorship have occurred and I am currently in New York for the marathon tomorrow.

The Ironman World Championships, held in Kona, Hawaii was held on the 14th October 2023. I flew over one week prior to Kona, to start to acclimatise to the heat that is experienced in Kona. I have been training in Brisbane all through winter, however the heat on race day will be well over 30 degrees with extreme humidity. I really suffer with the heat when training and competing, so I was also attending weekly sauna sessions to start to get used to being in a heated environment, as well as running and cycling with winter training gear still on even though it was starting to warm up in Brisbane.

Once I arrived, the heat wasn’t too bad, and I also didn’t suffer any jetlag. I thought wow this is good; everything is still going my way. However, on the day, it didn’t stay that way. The highest heat on my Garmin said 33 degrees, and the humidity was crazy from the start until when I finished at approximately 8.30pm that night.

My swim was amazing, although slower than I was hoping. The water was calm for the 3.8km swim, but with 340 women in a mass deep water start it took a bit to get into some clear water to get into a rhythm of good swimming. I would have like 1 hr 8-10 mins but did it in 1 hr 13.

My ride was also good with doing it in 6 hours 30 mins for 180kms. This is a PB for this distance in an Ironman Race, however it is always hard to compare events like this as you are at different venues, different course, hills, road surfaces and weather conditions. The heat really got to me at the 80-90 km mark before the next aid stations heading up a hill into a head wind. Was feeling a little dizzy but knew I just need to get to the next aid station for some water and much needed swig of coke!

Once I was up that hill, it was all systems go to head back down that hill, which is always fun!

Once I got to the transition of the end of the bike, it was onto the last leg, a 42km run.

It was approx 3.15pm and I just had to keep going until the sun went down. There are aid stations every 2kms with ice cold water, cups of ice, cups of coke, Gatorade and various foods like pretzels, lollies, bananas, and oranges.

I couldn’t take much food/drink on by this point, and ended up just tipping water over my head, ice down my tri suit and sucking on orange quarts just to keep fluids going in. My hip and knee issues weren’t too bad, I could feel them, but it was mainly the heat that was getting me.
I made it through 19kms until the sun went down. From here on I could start to keep running through to each aid station and once I hit the 9km to go mark I realise I was on track to do a PB overall as well as on this marathon run as part of an Ironman. So, I put everything into those last 9kms that I could.

Overall, I did a 17min PB in one of the harder Ironman’s in the world and it was amazing.

It was a history making event with it being the first all-female event in Kona due to the men racing in Nice a month earlier. I experienced something that I never thought I would and just soaked up not only that finish line but the entire week. I met so many new people, listened to all different back stories of how and why others were also there and ultimately walked around an entire woman only event without anything covering my alopecia, hoping that other women out there would learn to accept their own self-doubts and be who they really are without hiding.

I am currently sitting in my hotel room writing this update waiting for the New York Marathon tomorrow. My glute and knees are still playing up but hoping they can get me through one more run tomorrow. The highlight though was last night when I was lucky enough to be chosen to carry the flag for Australia in the Parade of Nations Welcoming Ceremony, something I applied for using my Alopecia to create awareness. It was an amazing experience, and something I will forever remember. It was however pretty cold to be walking around without a Beanie on in New York this week with temps ranging from 1 to max 17 each day so far!!!!

Thank you again to Australia Alopecia Areata Foundation for providing me with my sponsorship so that it makes my daily training and attending events like these that much easier.

Sally was a part of our sponsorship program – you can also participate! Go here to learn more https://aaaf.org.au/sponsorship-program