Brent McKinnon

Age 31
Sport Played Surf Life Saving - Endurance Ironman
Years Played 22 years

Tell us about yourself

I have been involved in Surf Life Saving (22yrs), Surfing (22yrs), Swimming (22yrs) & Waterpolo (15yrs) throughout my life. In somewhat of a return to form, I have for the past two years trained throughout the depths of Sydneys winters between 15 & 25 hours per week to compete the iconic Coolangatta Gold ironman event. Gold is noted as the toughest one day individual ocean event over 46.5km from Surfers Paradise to Coolangatta & back involving a 23km ski paddle, 650m beach run, 3.5km ocean swim, 4km beach run, 5.5km board paddle & finishing with a 10km beach run. Proving to be Mr consistency I have finished middle of the field with a 34th & 35th from my last completions, both in a time of 4 hours 54 minutes in varying conditions. Although 2008 I see as an improvement with the last 10km being run in hightide wet sand!! I will be back for more punishment.

Proudest Sporting Achievements

Representing Australia in waterpolo - 1995 Aust Schoolboys team to South Africa Training and completing 2007 & 2008 Coolangatta Gold. 3rd Place overall (1st place 30-34yrs) 2008 - Coogee Wedding Cake Island Swim 2nd Place Overall Club Pointscore - World Life Saving Champhionships - Elouera SLSC - Team Manager. Numerous State & Australian medals in swimming, waterpolo & lifesaving.

What are you hoping to achieve

I am currently training for and hopefully will put in a good showing in the 2009 Harbour Bridge to Manly swim (11km) - 15th March, 2009. This year after two years competing in the opens against the professionals in the Coolangatta Gold, I aim to step into my age category of 30-39's with a view to winning or giving it a damn good shot anyway!

How does LineBreak help

Over the years of training and competing I have become atuned to my body and what pains and twinges are what and at my age with the desire for endless hours on & in the water as well as beating the pavement, I now know what it takes to maintain my body. Linebreak compression garments help me before, during and after training/racing to do this. They get me warm before, keep the blood circulating during hours on the ski, board and running when feet, leg and bum get cold and numb and afterwards they aid my recovery. The problem is keeping up with the amount of gear I need from day to day in getting it washed & dry as well as the wear and tear.

My Blog

29/09/11

Conditions for this years Coolangatta Gold was a complete turn around from last year, which saw a strong Southerly winds and large surf conditions.

This year was little to No surf, light north winds to start giving us nice push down the coast for the opening 23km ski paddle (Kurrawa to Greenmount), hitting the beach comfortably in 4th position heading into my favoured swim leg. The NE wind was building through the morning, I didn’t find it too bad in the 3.5km swim and was actually faster than last year's split, coming out with a 3 min advantage, the board leg was another story. By that stage, winds were up to 25-30 knots with a constant 2-3ft wind chop making for a long slow grind for the 5.5km board paddle from Currumbin to Burleigh, times were roughly 20 mins longer for this leg than normal leaving everyone with sore, red salt burnt eyes.

Thankfully I built on my lead from the swim and further again in the final 10km run leg to finish in 5hrs 5mins 18secs, with a lead of over 21mins.
Going into the race I was nervous that I didn’t have the KM’s in my legs for the run after suffering with ITB issues throughout the training block. Thankfully on race day there was no problems and finished comfortably.

To come away with a back to back win was incredibly satisfying as I know there were a few out to stop it, but most importantly I just wanted to prove to myself that I could push myself again to that level. Besides I had to fulfil the expectations of my support crew – no pressure! 

I am just sorting out the next couple of races, possibly looking at the Goldie Classic at Swansea next month and then the Royal Challenge, Cronulla in early December. I will also look at the Oceanswim Series around Sydney before finishing off the season with the State and Australian Surf Titles March/April.

Thanks to Linebreak for all your support.

27/09/11

Just a quick update.

Completed another successful Coolangatta Gold campaign on Sunday with a back to back victory in the 30-39yr category in a time of 5.05.48.  Tough conditions with a strong head wind for the second half of the course.

11/07/11

Not necessarily enjoying the cold weather, but trying to get through it to compete in the Coolangatta Gold again on September 25th.  I am aiming to repeat the success of last years race and take out a double in the 30-39 division!

Plenty of long, cold, dark hours being spent in the pool, on the water and on the road as I try and get my fitness and endurance back up to the levels I need.

So far the swimming and paddling is coming along well, however a niggling knee complaint has slowed the running down. It’s coming good now and with 11 weeks till the race I need to get into gear and make the miles count.

30/08/10
The end of the summer season went well for me with some good results at the NSW & Australian Championships as follows:

NSW Masters Championships
1st – 30-34yrs Surf Race
1st – 30-34yrs Tube Race
3rd – 130yrs Taplin Relay
5th – 30-34yrs Ironman

NSW Open Championships
Finalist Open Surf Race
Finalist Open Taplin Relay

Australian Surf Life Saving Championships
2nd – 30-34yrs Surf Race
7th – 30-34yrs Ironman

As you may have heard, the Australian Championships were cut short due to tragic death of Queenscliff competitor, Saxon Bird.

Following a big year with Coolangatta Gold preparations and a long summer I took a couple of months off to recover.
After a lot of consideration, the break convinced me that I wanted to get back into training and decided to have another assault on the Coolangatta Gold!
I am 11 weeks into my program, with the race scheduled a bit later than usual on November 7th, so 9 weeks to go.
It has been hard with the weather as this winter feels like it has been the coldest out of the last four for training. Getting a good rhythm with training has been tough, but making solid progress now and feeling stronger on the ski & in the pool, still need more work in the run and just starting on the board.
Thankfully, my LineBreak gear has come in handy and getting plenty of use in training and recovery.

Anyway, thanks again for the support and I will be sure to keep you updated as training progress before the Gold.




22/10/09
I am excited to say that I came 2nd in the 30-39 Masters category.  I also managed to achieve a PB of 4hrs, 40 mins, beating my old mark by 15 mins. Of course conditions help with this, but there was a lot of improvement in a lot of areas such as the run & board legs.  I had the tights on as much as possible leading into the race and my legs felt great come start time, especially after a calf strain.

I will send through another training and competition update for the site in the next week and include a full race review. 

24/8/09
My LineBreaks are definitely coming to good use during the cold mornings and equally as much on the warm winters days we have been experiencing.
Favourites so far have been the Long Sleeve White top, Short length black shorts and sleeveless top – which apparently someone liked more as it was stolen as I left it dry for 5 minutes only to come back and find it gone, not happy!
Otherwise, training for the 2009 Coolangatta Gold is going well. We have been blessed with this warm winter, but that is not to say that we haven’t had our fair share of bitterly cold mornings.
The race is now only 8 weeks away and I am well into my 3rd training phase with 2 more really big weeks before a long run-through day and a nice recovery week. Last week saw a sharp increase in distance and intensity at swimming, but it is welcome and I know that if I can push through these next two weeks of the same sort of effort I will be all the more better for it.
A typical week at the moment is seeing the group cover 25km swimming, 60-70km Ski paddling, 35-40km running and 10-15km board paddling, which constitutes approximately 16-20 hours training on top of a standard working week. Needless to say Sundays as a rest day are more than welcome relief and a chance to relax, recover and get ready for the next week.
Competition wise I will be competing at the NSW Surf Life Saving Endurance Championships on 19th Sept at Cronulla Beach and the first leg of the Fenn Elite Ocean Series on Saturday 26th Sept at Long Reef SLSC. These will be my last two hit-outs before the Gold on October 18th at Surfers Paradise.