The woman with the iron will, Mount Isa triathlete Elle Goodall, has battled extreme conditions to achieve her goal of finishing a full Ironman in Busselton, sadly minus the swim.
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Three days before turning 30, Elle’s excitement at tackling the challenge of a lifetime turned to heartbreak when her favourite leg of the race was cancelled due to sharks.
“Even though everyone is telling me I’m an Ironman, I feel like I can’t claim that just yet,” Elle said.
The Ironman Busselton swim leg had already begun when three large Tiger sharks were spotted in the water, Elle said.
“The swim had started, so a couple of people managed to get in the water but then they spotted the sharks and had to pull them out.”
Elle was in tears when she heard the swim was cancelled, and like many contestants, considered throwing in the towel then and there.
“I was absolutely devastated. I am a swimmer and I knew I was going to breeze through the swim, but that was also the part that I was most looking forward to,” Elle said.
Elle is no quitter though, and managed to pick herself up despite the significant setback.
Elle approached the 180km bike ride and 42.2km run with true grit and determination.
“I went out really hard, thinking I haven’t done the swim so I’ve got more energy than I would have. I went quite hard though, I think that was my first mistake,” Elle said.
Stopping at each aid station dotted 20km apart helped Elle immensely, as she gratefully took in doses of cold water.
Elle and the other triathletes were dealt another hitch half-way through the cycle, when officials had to alter the course due to bush fires.
“At the end of the second lap, I was nearly finished the ride, and I was in pain, I was hurting, and that’s when they told us the course had to be changed,” Elle said.
“I stopped and hopped off my bike for a minute and I was in tears. I was crying.”
But just like every time before, Elle got back on the bike.
“I was like, ‘No, I know I’ve got this in me, I want to see what I can do, I know I can push through’,” she said.
"So I got back on the bike, in tears, sniffling the whole way back to the end of the bike course, crying, shaking my head, just really disappointed I guess.”
Finishing the bike leg exhausted, Elle said volunteers who changed her socks and shoes for her were ‘amazing’.
“At that point, I was buggered.”
Approaching the run leg to end the race, Elle experienced an unexpected burst of energy.
“Yes! I’ve got all this energy, I don’t know where it’s come from! But I’m off that bike, thank god for that!”
"My legs were turning over really well for the first lap. And then it just kinda hit me – everything started to hurt.”
More water, flat coke, and watermelon helped Elle pull through another lap.
“It was hot. It was so hot, and with the bushfires it was smoky, just horrible conditions,” she said.
“That’s when the fatigue really hit me and the legs started to scream.
“There were people dropping on that course like you wouldn’t believe. People on the side of the road passed out, ambulances going past every five minutes.”
Elle said there were moments when she thought of pulling out, but managed to talk herself out of it.
“There was a lot of me talking out loud going, ‘No Elle, you don’t want to pull out, your legs are just tired, you can keep going’,” she said.
“I probably sounded like a freak, but that’s kind of how I managed to push through."
Holding onto memories of past successes helped Elle pull through. And when it all got too hard, she started counting traffic cones.
“For the last two laps I just had to do a walk / run, so I walked two cones and then ran two cones. It was just so painful, and I was crying,” Elle said.
Spectators at the side of the road were yelling, “If you don’t want to keep going, we understand! This has been such a hard day!”
“I was like, ‘No, no no no. I’m going to finish this’,” she said.
On receiving the orange wristband signifying the final lap, Elle found herself 1km away from the Ironman title.
“I bolted. I just ran so fast,” she said.
“And as I turned down onto the finish line it was red carpet, you could see the finish line, and all my family were allowed to be VIP, so they were all there,” Elle said.
“All the pain disappeared. I couldn’t hear anything. They put my song on as I was coming up to the finish line, but I don’t remember it.”
All Elle wanted was to hear the officiator say the words, ‘Elle Goodall, you are an Ironman’.
“I remember throwing my hands in the air as I was running down the red carpet, and everyone was yelling and screaming at me," Elle said.
Since moving to Brisbane a few months ago, Elle has been working closely with her trainer using an app to keep her to a strict training schedule.
“Making a move like that in the middle of such intense training was a big decision itself, because it interrupts your training,” Elle said.
“If I do a session it goes green, if I don’t do a session it goes red. It helps hold me accountable – because I don’t want to see any red on my calendar.”
Leading up to the event, Elle increased her training to twice a day, with no rest days, consisting of 6 hour bike rides, 3 – 4 hour runs, and 5km swim sets.
“Training was hard. And you’ve really got to be dedicated to make sure you do it. I didn’t miss any training days, which was awesome,” Elle said.
Ironman have been following and filming Elle’s Ironman journey. Her story will be shared in a documentary set for release this Friday, December 15.
