NEXT time you are tempted to throw in the towel during a leg-wearying run or hop off the saddle and push your bike up a hill, spare a thought for Mike Le Roux.

The Cairns endurance athlete this week completed one of the toughest events in the world, the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii.

Pictures: Endurance athlete Mike Le Roux

In his first attempt at the event, Le Roux, 34, pushed some of the best endurance athletes in the world for three tortuous days, eventually finishing fourth.

Le Roux entered the race simply with the goal of finishing, but changed his plans after a brilliant start in the 10km open water swim last Saturday.

He had hoped to complete the swim in about three-and-a-half hours, but came out of the water in second place in 2hr 43min 19sec. Le Roux immediately switched his focus to the 145km cross-country bike ride.

"I suppose I was more surprised at being in that position as anything so I thought at that stage I’d capitalise on the quick swim time and make some distance on the first day,’’ Le Roux said.

"So regardless of what happened on days two or three, I’d be up there in the rankings.

"Then I just raced the 145km after that like I’ve never ridden before.’’

Le Roux recorded the second-best bike leg to finish in 5:25.52 and retain second place.

Riding high after his stunning opening-day performance, Le Roux entered the 276km bike stage full of confidence.

"Just on its own, that’s just a massive ride,’’ he said.

"I’d ridden a 260km training ride in nine hours 15 minutes but I’d never raced it so I was banking on around that time but I was feeling good and had another crack at it and got to the front and stayed between second and fifth for the whole day and from about the halfway mark I was about second and was (overtaken) shortly before the (finish) line.’’

Le Roux’s time of 7:55.46 was a remarkable performance and had his rivals worried heading into the final stage.

Suddenly, teams were trying to find out more about the mystery man from Cairns who was in second place.

"It was quite amusing because I only found out afterwards the guy ahead of me after the second day in first place was Alexandre Ribeiro who had won it four or five times before and this was his sixth crack at it, and even the guy behind me had won it twice and the guy in fourth place had been between second and fifth in previous years, so these guys didn’t know who I was or what I was about," he said. "I was like a cat among the pigeons.’’

The two-day endurance test would be enough to completely drain almost any athlete on the planet, but a double-marathon 84km run awaited on the final day.

"I was pretty shattered after racing the second day and 84km is a long way so the top two guys who subsequently finished one and two, they went out so hard they went through the first 10km in 38 minutes, which to start 84km is pretty quick.

"It’s not a fast 10km on it’s own but when you’ve got 74km to go…’’

While the leading runners, Ribeiro and Miro Kregar, struggled in the second half of the run, Le Roux kept a steady pace and finished in 7:04.07.

Le Roux’s overall time of 23:07.04 was less than three minutes behind third place and the best for an Australian in the 25-year history of the race.

While the race took place around spectacular Hawaiian scenery, Le Roux had little time to take in the sights.

"We’ve circumnavigated the whole island and covered everything but I didn’t get time to see much, I spent most of my time looking down through the handlebars at the white line.

"You catch glimpses but I could have been doing the same race in Cairns.’’

Le Roux arrived home in Cairns on Thursday morning and is still coming to terms with his monumental performance.

"You come back from something like that and it feels life-changing, but it’s not really," he said. "You realise what you’ve managed to get through and you learn so much about yourself, but I’m sitting here feeling like I’m in a bit of a hole.’’

Le Roux’s next goal is a 100-mile (160km) run.

"There are a few of them around I’d like to get to but budget-wise… I had to virtually remortgage our house on this trip," he said.

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