By Alistair Gray
Some of you may know Kathy La Fauce; she is that friendly, unassuming, smiling face who often greets you at the Bribie Island swimming pool watching over you as a lifeguard to ensure you are safe. Yet, Kathy is someone special: a high achiever and an international sportswoman with incredible qualities who has been fighting back after a severe bicycle accident and went on to compete in the 2023 Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. This is her story.
Kathy or Doctor Kathy, a research scientist, was dared by a colleague to compete in the Townsville triathlon festival just after completing her PhD or postdoctoral studies. Until that point, she had only ever taken part in the council running festival, but nothing serious. She didn’t even have a bike or any of the gear. After entering the triathlon and purchasing a bike, her interest in triathlons took off.
She didn’t have a coach, training by herself for years, entering smaller distance races depending on work commitments. Being involved in scientific research she never really had the opportunity because there was always weekend work, being on call and things like that. Kathy herself even said, “how can you train seriously when you can’t go out for a seven-hour bike ride?” In other words, she never had a personal life.
Kathy did more than 11 years of scientific fieldwork, graduating from James Cook University with a Bachelor of Science from the School of Veterinary Sciences and earned her PhD. Her PhD was on aquatic pathobiology, studying diseases of aquatic organisms and vaccine development for aquaculture. She worked with North Queensland prawn farmers and then in Tasmania on vaccine development for the salmon industry. Other roles included working as a policy officer for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; as deputy manager and science officer with the Heron Island Research Station working with turtles and as a hatchery technician for the Gladstone Water Board. After moving to Tasmania, she decided she wanted to give her sporting interest a real go, giving up her old life of long hours and research for lifestyle.
“I wanted to concentrate on my hobbies and interests rather than other areas of science,” she said.
Kathy found a coach in Tasmania and started training for the half-distance Ironman 70.3km. Then tragedy struck at Easter time in 2022 here on Bribie when Kathy was hit by a car while training on her bike, suffering severe head trauma and concussion. Kathy said she had to change everything she did in everyday life to reduce the effects of the symptoms by getting to know what she could and could not do and how to minimise the adverse effects of her concussion. Unfortunately, the challenges are still not over, with no guarantees she will return to her former self. She said it was about being determined to move forward and not giving up.
When Kathy started recovering from the injuries, her coach asked her how she felt about doing a full Ironman. The plan was always to start training for the full Ironman after the completion of the race she had been training for when she was hit. With sheer determination Kathy trained hard, competing in the Cairns Ironman competition in June, qualifying for the World Championships in Hawaii. Shock kicked in upon realising there wasn’t much time between June and October when the World Championships were run.
“The race was such an amazing experience, being in the nation's parade and behind the Australian flag, calling out Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. The experience was surreal,” Kathy said.
The race was more remarkable, being the first-ever female World Ironman Championship with 2097 starters. Kathy finished the course in just over 13 hours and placed at 1271; a super achievement for this 40-year-old. Ironman competitors must complete a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike ride and a 42.2km (marathon) run within 16.5 hours.
Kathy is building a personal training business focusing on NDIS clients, but also providing Yoga therapy for kids, tackling mental health issues, anxiety and stress, bed wetting, exercise and hormone regulation for females.
Kathy is a super role model to us all, particularly those struggling with a disability or other issues. She wanted to pass on this message: “Don’t give up. Just have the focus and strive to do it. You can find a way around whatever you are dealing with. If I had said no; that would be too hard; I can’t deal with this anymore, I wouldn’t have experienced what I have today.”
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