The big race has arrived for Launceston Triathlon Club's Ava Wheatley.
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She is competing in the women's 18-24 category of the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii which starts early Friday morning (Tasmania time).
The course encompasses a 3.86-kilometre swim, 180.2km bike ride and 42.2km run.
LTC president Di Webb said Wheatley was the youngest person from the club to have competed at Kona.
She added not many people from LTC had raced at the event.
"She's a great role model for other young people and it will be really interesting to hear about her experiences when she comes back," she said.
Webb praised Wheatley's hard work in the lead-up to the event.
"She would have had to sacrifice a lot to be able to train and prepare," Webb said.
"And it's a big commitment from her family to get her over there."
Webb also provided insight into how challenging this particular Ironman is.
"It's incredibly hard, not only has she got to be able to do all the legs and distances but she's also got a new environment to get familiar with very quickly," she said.
The president noted it was much warmer in Kona and it would have been difficult to simulate those conditions during training in Tassie.
Wheatley, who started triathlon when she was 14 and has strong heritage in the sport, is being supported by family members in Hawaii.
Her grandfather, Peter, has competed at Kona.
The 21-year-old qualified for the world championship after bravely finishing Ironman Western Australia at Busselton in December.
Wheatley had plenty of reasons to throw in the towel during the 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and marathon.
She broke two toes during her transition from the swim to bike leg.
"My foot started swelling up and I couldn't put my foot in my bike shoe," she told The Examiner earlier this year.
"So I rode the entire 180 kilometers with my left foot out of its shoe and sitting on top which was hard because it meant that I couldn't pull up.
"Then I ran the 42 kilometres with the broken toes and ended up with blisters that covered my feet."
The young athlete dealt with excruciating pain for the best part of 15 hours.
She is wearing bib 1401 for those wishing to track her progress on the Ironman Tracker mobile app.
Live race coverage can be found at ironmannow.com.
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