Chris Waterhouse - 273

In the last year he has become faster and stronger, and hungrier. And so he is in Florida waiting for the race to begin.

He’s a man of many names – Animal or Ooffie or just plain Ooff. Even some of his mates don’t know his real name!

Chris, 29, isn’t a mystery to us though. In his first Forster, he finished top 50 overall (which he repeated this year) and got a spot for Kona. In his debut in Hawaii, he finished in the top 200 in 10:21:46.

When racing, and often when training, Chris goes for it. Not unlike his sister. The determination to succeed is a family trait indeed. That being said, he’s learning – albeit slowly – that you don’t need to flog yourself every session.

He tackles the challenge of a long brick with anticipation and as another self learning experience. He now combines strength with his aerobic program.

On Tuesday’s through winter, he’s been rising as early as 4 am to do half of the session on the wind trainer. He completes the session in the evening at a bike track where he enjoys teaching some of the other cyclists what hard work is all about.

Every once in a while, he’d head into the National Park after the track – as you do – dodging the occasional deer. Tess says one time his lights failed in the dark going up the Waterfall hill and it was apparently a very interesting experience. But this Sutho-based surveyor has an internal GPS system that works day or night!

Tess says he often does his long runs on a hilly 6km course, where his fastest recorded time was 30 minutes – so you know it was H I L L Y.

As we’ve heard in recent days from Florida, Chris is quite relaxed heading into the race. And so he should be – the hard yakka is done and it’s time to shine.


Forster 2004 9:19 45th overall

Forster 2005 9:25 45th overall

Cairns ½ 2005 top 20

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