Most who join the police force as pro sportspeople
give their former jobs away. But the sport of triathlon seems to have
a near addictive hold on its competitors.
Could one medium-size police association end up with four of its
members as top-10 placegetters in this year’s Iron Man Australia?
“Impossible!” the sports statisticians would no doubt exclaim. “Special,”
king of commentators, Bruce McAvaney, might say – if it were to happen.
But the pundits probably do not know that two Police Association
of SA members have already crossed the Aussie Iron Man finish line
in fifth and sixth places. At last year’s race, in Forster, NSW, Constables
Matt Stephens and Matt White became the first two South Australians
ever to score top-10 honours together.
Now, with the two Matts poised to compete again, on April 4, brothers
Shane and Ryan Johnson are set to join them. And neither holds any
fear of taking on some of the world’s great pro triathletes over the
gruelling 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2km run.
Each genuinely believes he can match his fellow PASA members’ outstanding
success of 2003. “I know that I’m strong on the bike, and that I can
run a good marathon,” says 34-year-old Shane, a STAR Division officer
seconded to Adelaide Intel. “If that happens on the day, I’m confident
I can be in the top 10.”
Ryan, 23 and attached to Transit Services Branch, even dares speak
of a top-five finish. “Obviously, the barrier is how much you can
fit in with your training,” he explains. “You can train to a certain
level which is too much, but we’re nowhere near that. The more we
can train, the better.”
So the
brothers, now only eight weeks out from race day, are just about to
raise the bar on their already torturous training regime. From now
on, they will run, ride and swim more than 500km per week – each.
From their eastern suburbs homes, the two join up to run through
the Adelaide Hills, where they also cycle, as they do along the metro
coastline. Shane, who concedes he has ground to gain in the water,
swims every day at the Burnside Pool, while Ryan hones his swimming
skills at a city gymnasium.
But neither brother is about to undertake Iron Man Australia as a
novice. Shane, a former France-based professional triathlete, spent
from 1989 to ’92 as a competitor on the world stage.
Before he retired from the pro circuit in 1992, to join the police
force in ’93, he had raced in the US, Canada, France, Germany, China
and New Zealand, and won 44 triathlons. He also won gold with the
Australian open men’s triathlon team at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
in Auckland.
In 2001, Shane was named South Australian Triathlete of the Millennium
and inducted into the SA Triathlon Hall of Fame.
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| The brothers (Shane left) on the
cycle leg of the Shepparton race |
Ryan, inspired by his brother, took up the sport as a 15-year-old
in 1995. Over the next seven years, he competed in more than 80 triathlons,
representing Australia at the highest world junior level.
In 2000, he scored fifth place at the World Junior Elite Triathlon
championships in Perth, WA, and third place in the Australian Junior
Elite championships in Mooloolaba, Queensland.
The next year, Ryan competed in Italy as a member of the Australian
Elite Duathlon (10km run, 60km bike ride, 10km run) team. He retired
from professional competition in 2001, before joining the police force
in July 2002.
For both brothers, their assault on Iron Man Australia represents
a comeback to their beloved sport. Each qualified for the race with
outstanding performances in the Victorian Half Iron Man (1.9km swim,
90km bike ride, 21km run) championships in Shepparton last November.
But why make the comeback? “I always knew that I’d never done an
Iron Man,” says Shane, “and that, one day, I’d get back into it. It
just seemed the time was right.
“Age is another pretty serious contributing factor. I’ve probably
got a good four or five years of Iron Man before I start slowing down.
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| Crossing the finish line (Shane left) in Shepparton
|
“I’ve still got the ability to mix it with the best, so I thought:
‘Give it a red hot go for a couple of years’. And Ryan’s keen to have
a go as well, so I thought we could do it together.”
Ryan, too, relishes the chance to compete alongside his brother.
“That’s really enticed me,” he says “because I’ve never really had
the opportunity to race and train with Shane.
“Watching him do triathlons when I was growing up played a really
large part in my choice to go as far as I could in triathlon. It (Iron
Man Australia) is a good opportunity, because you can still maintain
a busy schedule at work, while also training.”
But both officers concede that, to combine their rigorous training
with full-time police work, is a tough task. Each has to miss out
on time with his family which, for Shane, is wife, Kimberly – also
a police officer – and young children.
Ryan insists the key ingredient is expert time management. “...being
able to stick to your plan,” he says, “training at the time you want
to, and fitting in other things, such as girlfriend, work and family.”
Many, however, strain to understand why the two put themselves so
willingly through the excruciating pain long known to be associated
with triathlon. Matt Stephens told the Police Journal last
year of how he had crossed finish lines in complete agony, and wound
up on saline drips to replace vital fluids.
Ryan speaks of his body screaming at him, asking: “What the hell’s
going on?” “You’ve got pain in your legs and stomach,” he says. “You
want to throw up. You’ve got pain in your heart and your arms; you
can’t swing your arms, and your head’s bursting.
“But you get through it, and think: ‘Gee, I got through that really
well and feel much better’.”
Ryan himself once succumbed to the punishing demands of triathlon.
“After that race in Perth,” he says, “I had to have two bags of IV
fluid put into me. That was just an Olympic distance race, which is
a short, two-hour race, but I’d just given so much that day.
“I had to get carried to the medical tent. I wasn’t really concerned:
I was glad that I’d finished fifth.”
Not only will the brothers compete against the rest of the field
in Iron Man Australia, but also against each other. And each insists
that brotherly love will not be enough to kill his urge to outdo his
sibling.
The will to conquer already exists in their workouts. “He might beat
me by a couple of seconds one day,” says Ryan, “and, then, days later,
it’ll be reversed. It’s like that all the time; and we’ll always congratulate
each other in that session.”
Beyond Forster in April, Shane hopes to compete in another two Iron
Man races, possibly in Korea and New Zealand. In light of his age,
and work and family commitments, however, he intends to “play it by
ear”.
Ryan, with a step-by-step approach, aims to compete in up to five
more Iron Man events in the next three years. “And at various locations,”
he says, “including New Zealand, Korea and, maybe the big one – Hawaii
– with Shane as my guidance master.”
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