Mooloolaba Triathlon

 On Sunday morning, 12 dedicated staff members, two impressive spouses and one ex-Pacific staffer woke at 5.00am to prepare for the Mooloolaba Triathlon. With a spring in their step, butterflies in their stomachs and a desire to accomplish their personal best, these wonderful people gathered together at 6.00am for the feat ahead: a 1.5km swim, a 40km ride and a 10km run. There were mixed teams, mixed ages and mixed abilities, but everyone was equally excited and prepared!

It was an amazing effort by all teams on the day. The conditions were tough – windy and very hot with intermittent showers.

Our incredible ocean swimmers – Mr Darren Hooper, Mr Ben Dutton, Mrs Sarah Atkinson, Mr Mick Vidulich and Miss Adriana Schuster – were undeterred by the fierce undertow and bobbing horizon, all returning within minutes of each other with Hoops in the lead.

Our riders were machinelike with excellenttimes clocked in tough conditions with a strong returning headwind. Mrs Colleen Beattie was closely tailed by her husband Chris, Mrs Jenny Hoffman, Mrs Toni Fisher and Mr Brett Jones. All did well to weather the heat and sporadic rainfall.

Finally, the glory team members (the runners) who had the pleasure of crossing that finish line, recorded superb times. Given the heat and the time of day, their efforts were appreciated. Mr Damien Evans clocked in our fastest run time to date in less than 45 minutes, but Paul Atkinson, Mr Mike Healy, Mrs Mel Pietrala and Mr Josh Danzey closely followed him.

For all those people who appreciate the stats, our teams came is as follows:

• 1st – Team 2 – 2 hrs 44 min (Mr Darren Hooper, Mrs Colleen Beattie and Mr Mike Healy)
• 2nd – Team 1 – 2 hrs 53 min (Mrs Sarah Atkinson, Mrs Toni Fisher and Mr Damien Evans)
• 3rd – Team 4 – 2 hrs 57 min (Mr Mick Vidulich, Chris Beattie, Mrs Mel Pietrala)
• 4th – Team 5 – 3 hrs 7 min (Mr Ben Dutton, Mrs Jenny Hoffman and Mr Josh Danzey)
• 5th – Team 3 – 3 hrs 37 min (Miss Adriana Schuster, Mr Brett Jones and Paul Atkinson)

Congratulations everyone. We also wish Miss Adriana Schuster all the best for her wedding day in three weeks and thank her lovely husband to be, for driving her up and back for the triathlon.

Mrs Lu Pollard, Triathlon Organiser