A TWO-DAY, 1400-kilometre drive one way is tough enough, but that marathon road trip won't be two miners' biggest challenge this week.
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By the time Aaron Darley and David Shoobridge return to Broken Hill next week after completing Ironman Australia, they will have travelled almost one kilometre for every competitor.
Around 3000 of them are expected to join Darley and Shoobridge when they dive into the Hastings River on Sunday morning in Port Macquarie's most significant sporting event of the year.
Darley is a plant mechanic while Shoobridge is a jumbo operator, but it is their decision to take on the gruelling swim-bike-leg marathon on the Mid North Coast of NSW that is the most intriguing.
In between dodging road trains while preparing for the cycle leg, the pair have been known to travel one hundred kilometres each way to prepare for the swim.
But it is an element of their training for the run leg that is most from left-field.
"We only get enough time to do one ride which will be four hours and then we get a couple of swims in before or after work and the running is chasing the kids around," Shoobridge said.
"Then we carb load with a stubby."
It's a 200-kay round trip to go for a swim, but that's what you do so a hundred kays, go for a swim ... and have a stubby.
- David Shoobridge
Training for the swim leg is generally done in the town's 50-metre pool although they do occasionally swim in the Menindee Lakes system.
But that also requires jumping in the car and going for a drive to get there.
"We went up the river two weeks ago and swam the channel because that's the only place we can put a wetsuit on," Shoobridge said.
"It's a 200-kay round trip to go for a swim, but that's what you do ... so (drive) a hundred kays, go for a swim ... and then have a stubby."
Shoobridge admitted he didn't know why competitors chose to compete at Ironman - he's already completed ones at Busselton, Cairns, Melbourne and two in Port Macquarie.
"It's something to do," he said.
"We'd both like to crack 14 hours; we're no athletes, but we'll get out there and have a go."
While the 47-year-old father of three will compete in his third Ironman Australia event in Port Macquarie, Darley will make his debut.
"I'm just tagging along," Darley said.
"Dave's been doing them for years and I used to do them as a kid, but then he swapped panels at work and came over onto my panel.
The ride is the ride, you've just got to poke along; the run will definitely be a battle.
- Aaron Darley
"He got me into them and I started doing them again."
His greatest concern was how he would overcome the challenge of the run at the end of the day.
"I'll have no drama with the swim because I used to swim as a kid, that's the easy bit for me," he said.
"The ride is the ride, you've just got to poke along; the run will definitely be a battle."
Darley celebrated his 40th birthday on Wednesday and his present will be hearing those famous words from Pete Murray of "you are an Ironman" as he crosses the finish line around 9.30pm on Sunday night.
"It (the race) was a bit of a birthday present I suppose - if you can call it that," he said.
"It's a bit daunting really, but we'll see how we go."
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