Most athletes wouldn't choose a 113-kilometre event for their comeback from foot stress fractures, but Michelle Wu is confident she'll be able to handle the Canberra Ironman 70.3 triathlon after three months away from racing.
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The 2010 champion and last year's runner-up in the women's pro division only started running again three weeks ago, with the lure of starting her comeback on her home course too much to pass up.
"I could have chosen a smaller one to do, but I love racing in Canberra, being at home and I couldn't miss this race again - I missed it [in 2009] and it was just really hard watching from the sidelines," Wu said.
The 29-year-old will be among the hundreds of triathletes lining up at Commonwealth Place from 6.15am on Sunday for the 1.9-kilometre swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run.
"I'm not putting any pressure or expectations on myself, I'm just going to go out there and obviously give it a good shot and see what happens, but I'm really not too fussed about results or anything like that at this stage."
The two-month running lay-off has had some benefits, forcing Wu to focus on her non-preferred swim leg.
"I've been putting in the work on the swim and bike while I haven't been able to run, so I'm definitely looking forward to having a bit of a better swim than I usually do.
"But I still think my run is going to be my strongest part of tomorrow, even though I haven't been doing much of it … there's some really good swim and bike girls up there, so I predict I'll be chasing out of the water.
"I'm just going to have to bike and run my little legs off I think."
