Jacinta Worland

Jacinta has competed as a professional Triathlete for 10 years and competed in age group and professional races in Olympic distance for 5 years. Jacinta also competed in 3 world championships as an age group athlete, including: Worlds in 98 in Lausanne Switzerland finishing in 10th place overall; Worlds in Montreal Canada in 1999 and finished 4th; and World championships in Perth 2000 coming 7th place.

Jacinta then took up Ironman distance and raced in Forster ironman. Jacinta has also raced in events such as Ironman Australia (Apr 07), Ironman Western Australia (Nov 2004) and Ironman Australia (Apr 03).

Jacinta has also raced many half marathon and full marathon races and last year rode from Brisbane to Sydney over 10 days raising money for cancer to help support work by Camp quality and in the fight against Breast cancer and Prostate cancer. Overall, the team Jacinta rode in raised $440,000 in total.

Keith Mearns

Keith is a new addition to the successful Team Telstra for this year’s Mark Webber Challenge. His sporting interests began with rugby union and cross country as a schoolboy. He successfully completed his first triathlon in 2004, and after a few years of competing Keith has slowly migrated to endurance events, completing his first 100km ultra marathon in 2006. Since then he has completed several ultra marathons and multi-day adventure races.  Although only relatively new to adventure racing, for Keith the satisfaction is in pushing as hard as possible and finishing the event with both eyes firmly on the way ahead.

Mark Comer

Mark’s sporting involvement started with Australian Rules football, basketball and swimming as a schoolboy, as well as Karate which he’s studied since 1994.  He still claims to be relatively new to endurance sports having competed in his first short course triathlon in 2004, and never having run further than 10km prior to this - and got hooked.  He has competed in two Ironman triathlons in 2005 – one in Forster, Mid North Coast NSW and the other in Panama City Beach, Florida.   Since then he has become an adventure racing enthusiast, racing as part of the successful men’s Team Telstra in the Mark Webber Challenge in 2006 and 2007.

Richard Palmer

Richard’s sporting interests started with cycling, rowing, rugby union, running and swimming as a schoolboy.  He has rowed in the Australian Championships and represented NSW country in Rugby Union but his main interest over the years has been Triathlons. Richard has competed for the Bondi Running and Triathlon (BRAT) club over the last 20 years in many events. After a move to Newcastle the focus has changed to cycle racing on Mountain bikes as well as Road Racing. A keen interest in running events has developed into an emphasis on off and on-road Marathons with favourite events like the Six Foot Track, Mt Wilson to Bilpin and the Gold Coast Marathon. Further interest in adventure racing includes the recent Teva serious and being part of the successful men’s Team Telstra in the Mark Webber Challenge in 2006 and 2007.

Here is Richard’s thoughts on the Mark Webber Challenge.

I have an appreciation and respect for the Mark Webber Challenge, and the level of racing, having completed two of them. Building on this experience, I have tried to tailor my training to Tasmanian conditions as well as the style of racing. This has included weekly running and mountain biking plus taking part in more races to improve speed.

My preparation for this year’s event has spanned 5 months of training, using the Gold Coast Marathon in July as a focus for training through winter, then followed by the Australian Duathlon championships and a Teva adventure race. I also competed regularly in mountain bike club racing and road racing. To fit training into my daily activities, my training regime has consisted of early morning sessions.

Having 3 children under 6 and another due in two months, plus a full time job, made training a challenge. I get up every day at 5am for a paddle, then ride to work. I also use my lunch time to run and after work cycle home. On weekends I again get up 5am and do a long run on Saturdays and a long ride on Sunday morning plus I get out for a longer paddle. The hardest part of juggling training, working and family life is that some weeks can feel hard but as you build strength and endurance it becomes easier and the benefits are more easily recognised.

I am very much looking forward to this year’s Mark Webber Challenge.

Phil Barrett

Phil has a wide range of sporting interests including running, cycling (road and MTB), kayaking, hockey, triathlons and adventure racing.

Having grown up in Perth, Western Australia, Philip earlier in his sporting career  was a member of various state and national hockey teams including the Australian Men’s Indoor hockey team, Australian Universities Hockey Team, the Perth Thundersticks National Hockey League Team and the West Australian U/21 Hockey Team. His international experience includes as a player in 1994 in the German Bundesliga (National League with Club an Der Alster - Hamburg).  Philip was also captain of the Australian Men’s Indoor Hockey Team tour of New Zealand in 1998 and Captain of the Australian Men’s Indoor Hockey Team tour of South Africa in 2000/01.

Philip has also raced in the Australian Ironman Triathlon in 2001 and the New Zealand Ironman Triathlon in 2002 and 2003, was a Member of the Australian Olympic Distance Triathlon Team to Hawaii in 2005 and is a multiple Melbourne Trailwalker and Gold Coast Marathon Finisher.

Philip’s most recent adventure racing achievements are as the winner of the Mark Webber Challenge Adventure Race corporate team category with Telstra in 2006 and 2007.  Philip is currently playing top-level veteran’s hockey with Camberwell and also participating in running, MTB, swimming, kayaking and adventure racing events.

Here’s a message from Phil on his preparation for the Mark Webber Challenge:

In early June 2008 once selected to participate in my 3rd MWC event as part of the Telstra team, I put together a 20 week program to train for the event.  The training program involved training in all disciplines (including cross country running, MTB, kayaking, indoor climbing etc) each week with some selected events to compete in along the way to test how my training was going.  Events which I competed in consisted of a series of cross country running races, 50km and 6hr MTB races, long kayak races and some duathlons.

In order to be competitive I train between 10 and 20 hours per week.  I have a very supportive wife and a 17 month old child who enjoy the same activities as myself.  Part of the training involves my commute to and from work.  I either run or ride to work every day and am able to incorporate a lot of my training into these sessions as well as training at lunchtimes when work activities permit.  This ability to combine training within my work/life balance means that I am able to lead a very healthy and active lifestyle whilst working in a very dynamic area of Telstra - Procurement.  By being able to combine my training and my work, I benefit greatly through feeling healthy and better able to perform, manage time and handle stress. My job involves managing a team of procurement experts as well as multiple Telstra procurement projects simultaneously.

The MWC is a fantastic event which provides me with a ‘goal’ event to train for and focus on and I receive great support from my colleagues with Telstra Procurement.