‘I can’t sit still’: Former Supercat ready to go the distance in gruelling Geelong ironman challenge
A MIXTURE of boredom and wanting to push himself to the limit will send former Geelong Supercat Kris Blicavs into action at the Geelong ironman this weekend.
After playing competitive basketball for more than two decades, Blicavs stepped off the court last year after losing his passion for the grind of the game.
But the 34-year-old, who teaches basketball at Western Heights College, still found himself wanting to compete and stretch his athleticism.
He will line up for the Ironman 70.3 at the Geelong waterfront on Sunday morning, with some of the world’s best athletes to swim 1.9km in Corio Bay, bike 90km and finish off with a 21.1km run.
“I can’t sit still, so when I finished basketball I thought I needed something to chip away at,” Blicavs said.
“I have always been intrigued by the mystique around the Ironman, so I thought, well there is a half-Ironman around Geelong so I might as well sign up.”
Blicavs, the older brother of Geelong AFL star Mark and Australian Opal basketballer Sara as well as husband of Supercat Steph, said while he may not have “done adequate training to smash it out of the park” he is keen to see how hard he can go.
He said he would still “toy around” with playing 3x3 basketball after touring globally in recent years but he also had designs on taking on full-course Ironman events or even the daunting Hawaiian Ultraman. “I’ve got the full one on the bucket list and I would be lying if I said I hadn’t looked into the Ultraman stuff,” he said.
“I like to see things as opportunities rather than roadblocks. So many people these days, they shoot themselves down before entertaining the idea of what could be. It is odd to me that people see things as something they can’t do instead of what they can do. When it’s all said and done, I don’t want to look back at how I carried myself over my lifetime and think I didn’t put all my cards on the table.”