The former Tamworth Magpies prop is part of a growing number taking up triathlon and will tonight race in the fifth race of the Tamworth Triathlon Club’s twilight enticer series.

He’s also been doing the competitive Kootingal Bowling Club series and was last weekend among a handful of Tamworth Triathlon Club members who travelled out to Goondiwindi for the annual Hell of the West triathlon.

It was his second attempt.

Last year he competed as part of a team, competing in the swim leg.

This year he went the whole hog – the 2km swim, 80km bike ride and 20km run.

“I hadn’t done that distance before,” Carey said, although he had done a fair bit of

training.

“All I wanted to do was

finish.”

He achieved that, clocking just over six hours and six minutes for the gruelling course.

“I was really happy with my swim and ride time,” he said.

His swim time was quicker than he did the previous year.

“I suffered from cramp and heat in the run,” he said.

Because of flooding, the course had to be altered and meant the run leg was split, with competitors getting out of the lake from the swim leg and having to run 3.2km to their bikes.

Keith Slater, Chris Walsh, David Hathway, Kelly Moore and Mia Cottrell-Dormer also competed as individuals.

All finished, with Cottrell-Dormer winning her 35-39yrs age group and Moore placing sixth in the 30-34yrs.

Several other club members did the triathlon as a team, with Warren Ansell’s team coming in third.

Carey got into triathlons as a way to get back into sport after retiring from rugby.

“I live at Kootingal. I’d seen them out there riding and thought it looked like fun,” he said.

“I went down and had a look and bought a bike.”

He soon found himself doing the enticer series and the shorter races of a Sunday.

This season he’s stepped up to the longer races and has been improving every race.

It is a family occupation too, with wife Jaime also

competing.

“When I joined, Jaime, my wife, had no intentions.

“Now she does the shorter races and a couple of Saturday races,” he said.

That’s one of the aspects he enjoys about the sport – it’s something they can do together.

Racing commences at 6pm tonight.