Dehydrated and cramping, he pushed on, drawing on hidden strength to make it across the finish line. With five years of triathlons under his Karate black belt, Graeme Fulton knew he couldn’t pass up a lottery entry into the World Iron Man Championships in Hawaii, even though his heart valve was deteriorating. Graeme has been a regular at The Prince Charles Hospital since he was 12. He was born with a narrow heart valve and had a valve replacement in 1995. The active Toowoomban has been fortunate to have no rejection and no need for ongoing medication. Returning home after years working in Mt Isa, Graeme decided to get back into sports. His first major undertaking was the 10km run at the Gold Coast in 2003, where he was inspired by the marathon runners. “Mum wasn’t thrilled about it!” he says. “The marathon ended near the finish line of the 10km run and I saw all these people coming in and thought I’d never be able to do that.” Three years later, Graeme competed in the Gold Coast Marathon, coming in just outside the top 300. The following year he entered the Australian Iron Man Championships and finished 800th out of a field of 1600. To compete at the Hawaiian event, participants need to qualify in the other national events, but there are also 50 lottery spots offered. Graeme entered and was thrilled when he won the chance to compete. “My heart valve was deteriorating but I knew I wouldn’t get another opportunity to compete in Hawaii,” he says. “I made a special appointment with Dr Pohlner at The Prince Charles Hospital before the race. He said I’d be ok, as long as I didn’t make a habit of it.” With the race having moved to the end of the Hawaiian summer, Graeme had to brave Toowoomban winters to train at least five hours a day. When the weather got too bad, he went to Townsville for three weeks to acclimatise. On his surreal day competing with the professionals, Graeme started at 7am, fit and ready to take on the other 1799 competitors. After gaining an excellent 900th place in the 3.8km swim, things started to unravel. Somewhere along the way he lost the salt tablets meant to stop cramping. After tackling the 180km cycle, Graeme started having chest pains during the full marathon and and couldn’t breathe. He slowed down to a walk for an hour managed to slowly increase to a jog and finally ran the last 10km into town. Graeme finished the race in 12 hours and 53 minutes, coming in at number 1292. The winner, also an Australian, finished in just over eight hours. “He was lucky I let him win on the day,” Graeme laughs.