GOLD COAST, Australia (Monday, November 26, 2012) - Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS), 21, is a sports fanatic. From F1 racing to the NBA, Fitzgibbons often blasts social network claims and cheers for her favorite teams or athletes across the globe. The current ASP Women’s World No. 2 has taken on a new challenge to test her own fitness, pairing up with ironwoman Jordan Mercer to tackle the Mark Webber Tasmania Challenge, a five-day endurance battle including mountain biking, trekking and kayaking. Australia’s Surfing Life caught up with Ms. Fitzgibbons to see what prompted the new endeavor. This… is their story…
Surfing Life: The Mark Webber Challenge sounds insane – 5 days and 350km of mountain biking, kayaking and trekking – are you kidding me! You wilfully signed up for this?
Sally Fitzgibbons: I am definitely embarking on the longest race I have ever done. I’m nervously excited about going into the unknown. I know I have done all the training for it, but there is such a big workload ahead of me. I can’t wait to push myself to the limit.
I will be competing with Jordan Mercer in the Elite Teams category. We do all of the legs together and help each other navigate through the Tassie wilderness.
What new things did you have to learn to prepare for this challenge?
It is so awesome to be doing the race with Jordie. She taught me how to paddle a kayak, but mountain biking was a new discipline for both of us. I didn’t really read the fine print before agreeing to the race and then found out how long it was … hmmm a little crazier than I first thought. Haha. It is great learning new things in the off season and all the extra work load and fitness will put me in good stead for 2013 World Tour season.
