Gold Coast triathlete Jenny Alcorn planning record-breaking return to Hawaiian Ironman Championship
Connor O’Brien, Gold Coast Bulletin
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November 3, 2016 12:00am
CONQUERING the “big kahuna” of the triathlon world is not enough for Gold Coast endurance junkie Jenny Alcorn.
The 57-year-old last month took victory in the prestigious Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, topping a field of 52 athletes in the female 55 to 59 age division.
She powered through 3.8km of swimming, 180km of cycling and 42km on foot in 11 hours, 18 minutes and six seconds – but has already declared she will use her winner’s automatic entry for 2017 with an ambitious goal in mind.
“I’ve won it so I have ticked that off, now I want to go back – each age group has a record so that’s probably what my next goal will be,” she said.
The treacherous Kona conditions meant her time last month was 40 minutes slower than her qualifying time in Cairns in June.
“I’m still annoyed with my time … I’d be looking to go closer to 11 hours,” said Alcorn, who has mentored the likes of Emma Snowsill and Ashleigh Gentle across more than 20 years of coaching.
She is not about to rest on her laurels. Alcorn will soon travel to Lake Crackenback in the Snowy Mountains for the Cross Triathlon World Championships on November 17 to 20. It is effectively a modified triathlon event, with 1.5km of swimming in a wetsuit followed by a tough and technical 30km mountain bike ride and then a 10km off-road run.
Alcorn defied her limited mountain biking experience to win a qualifying race at the same venue and has now set her sights on claiming a second world age group title in a single year.
Despite having just reached the pinnacle of her career, there remains no lack of motivation. Alcorn wakes up at 4.30 every morning and says that triathlon is a lifestyle.
“It’s just part of who I am now,” she said. “It’s what I do, it’s my passion.”
Alcorn’s path to Kona was hardly run of the mill. The 1992 duathlon world champion emerged from a long retirement two years ago to run her first ironman triathlon and qualify for the 2015 world titles in doing so.
A heavy bike crash during training restricted her to the sidelines in Hawaii that year but she returned even more determined in making it to this year’s event where she withstood a late charge by respected rival Ellen Hart to eventually cross the line with a winning margin of two minutes and 42 seconds.
“I put myself under a lot of pressure because I told everyone I wanted to win,” she said.
“Ellen Hart at the 30km mark in the run was 20 seconds behind me … she was obviously catching me and there was 12km to go and I just knew if she caught me it was going to be hard for me to hang onto it so I just decided she is not going to catch me and pretty much found another level. That was my proudest moment.”
