Heart of a Champion (12 page)

As it happened, the morning after Greg and Sian's dinner date, Greg and Paula Newby-Fraser were committed to fly to San Francisco to race in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, a big deal with appearance fees and television commentary. But that was far from Greg's mind as he squired Sian out to dinner at a romantic alfresco café on Pearl Street Mall, Boulder's finest.

Unfortunately, Boulder's summer storm season interrupted the proceedings and the diners were forced to wait out the downpour in the nearby St James pub. Two beers later, Greg and Sian were pouring their hearts out to each other. The storm passed, dinner resumed, and romance blossomed. ‘Didn't get any sleep at all that night. I had to pick up Paula at 5.30 for a 7.30 flight out of Denver. At 4.30 I went for a run.

I never, ever run on the day before a race. I ran for an hour, like a frigging gazelle. My feet didn't even touch the ground. I did the race, broke the course record by 7 minutes. Came back on Monday and that was it. We started dating.'

The romantic dinner in Boulder was on 18 August 1992. It was only a few months later that Greg proposed.

H
OWEVER, DESPITE THE JOY OF BEING IN LOVE
, things were not all rosy. In the altitude at Boulder, Greg had learnt a painful lesson. He had badly miscalculated the amount of rehydrating needed. In the low humidity at altitude the air was much drier than it seemed. An athlete's recovery took much longer at altitude than at sea level and it demanded much more rehydration than usual. Greg was known as ‘the camel' because of his ability to go for a long time without water. ‘In races, that probably made me who I was because I was very efficient. In fact, in races I'd be very good at rehydrating, but in training I'd just go and go and go.'

Greg knew hydration was important to an athlete. He was about to find out that it could be critical. Water comprises about 60–65 per cent of an elite athlete's body weight. Most resides in the body's cells and is known as intracellular water. The balance, extra-cellular water, is either in the bloodstream or between the bloodstream and the cells. When an athlete sweats, he loses water from the blood first, then from the fluid bathing the cells and eventually from inside the cells. Dehydration reduces blood volume and causes the heart rate to jump as the heart tries to maintain the body's demand for blood to supply its overworked muscles and vital organs. It leads to fatigue and overheating and, of course, it impairs performance. Tests have shown that even a drop of 1 per cent of body weight through fluid loss can impair performance.

Training at altitude, Greg misjudged the amount of fluid he was losing and the amount he should have been drinking to replace it. Unknown to him, the problem gradually became more serious. By August, just at the time he and Sian were starting their relationship, he was experiencing mild discomfort in the stomach. By September it had worsened. ‘I passed blood but I didn't do anything about it, and by the time I went back to San Diego I was just in excruciating pain. I was staying at Paula's, getting ready for the 1992 Ironman, and only two weeks out I just had to go and see a doctor. He booked me in for a colonoscopy straight away and found that I had burnt a small hole in my colon—just through dehydration. After the colonoscopy, I went home, had a few days' rest and flew to Kona and did the race.'

In addition to the breakdown in his intestinal wall, the dehydration caused Greg to suffer severely from haemorrhoids. They required painful operations and involved subsequent major soreness, not to mention a severe case of constant mirth from his friends. And this was happening less than two weeks out from Hawaii.

Nevertheless, and against his doctor's advice, Greg decided to compete in Hawaii. He kidded himself that he would race but wouldn't push himself. He took a few days off, rested completely and concentrated on making sure he was getting the best nutrition. Then he went to Kona in October 1992.

Once there, Greg forgot all his doubts and went flat out. He had a brilliant swim, going under 50 minutes for the first time. He stayed with the leading pack on the bike and came into the changeover in fourth place. Many observers had noticed how much thinner he was than usual but, at that stage, he looked strong. Greg moved into third place, behind the ultimate winner Mark Allen and Cristian Bustos of Chile but he soon began to lose touch. Around 18 km (11.2 miles) into the run, he was struck by painful stomach cramps that brought him to a standstill. As he waited for them to subside, he was passed by Jurgen Zack and Wolfgang Dittrich. Greg ignored his pre-race resolutions about not pushing himself and battled on. He forced himself to run through the pain and the discomfort, and somehow managed to regain his rhythm. In another example of a determined mind overriding the body's warning systems, he finished the run just 1 second over 3 hours, gaining sixth place.

‘It did affect me. In retrospect, I shouldn't have risked it. On the run, I didn't have very much left in the tank at all, and during the ride I was a little hampered as well. But I still finished sixth. When I look back at my 1992 results, they were OK, but it was a race that I'd rather forget.'

At the time, Greg said, ‘In hindsight, which is a wonderful thing, I have learnt a valuable lesson. It seems life is full of these lessons. When your body hurts, listen to it. Slow down!'

I
T WAS DURING THAT TRIP TO
K
ONA
, on 13 October—Noelene's birthday—that Greg proposed to Sian…in typical Welchy style. ‘Greg told me later he'd planned to propose on the morning of the Ironman race but he didn't want to ruin my race. After the race he went out with all his Aussie mates and I went to bed early. He arrived home at 3 o'clock in the morning, singing at the top of his lungs and carrying a cardboard cut-out of a beer model he had borrowed from a bar. He was very drunk and very funny. We started wrestling in the closet and he pinned me down and said, “Will you marry me?” I said, “I will if you remember this in the morning.” That's how he proposed. In the morning I sat on his lap and said, “Do you remember anything about last night?” And he said, “Yeah …when do you want to get married?”'

As he often did, Greg knew what he was doing, even when he was playing the goose. But Vince Williams called his bluff. After they became engaged at Kona, Greg and Sian went to Honolulu for a couple of days and looked for a ring. When Mary and Vince picked them up at the airport on their return home, only Greg's parents and a few close friends knew of their engagement. Greg tried to broach the subject with Vince on the way home but Vince kept avoiding it. They diverted to a Hamburger Hamlet in Westwood for a few beers.

‘I was trying to ask him the question. He kept on changing the subject and he just wouldn't let me get there. And I just came out with it, I said, “Well, you're not listening to me, so I'm just going to tell you anyway. I'd like to take your daughter's hand in marriage. Would it be all right?” And he wouldn't give me an answer. Then Mary jumped across the table and it was all big kisses and hugs. “Of course, of course, of course!” Vince, the bastard, just kept stringing me out. It was one of the funniest nights.'

Luckily, Vince and Mary shared Greg and Sian's certainty about the couple's future together. ‘We'd only been going out for two months but I knew we were destined to be with each other. I also loved her family. Our families got on brilliantly.'

Greg and Sian were engaged for 15 months. They flew back from Hawaii and immediately set about finding a house in San Diego. They'd both agreed that it was the ideal location for training, and it was also close to Sian's parents. Within three months they'd found a place and moved in.

Greg relished his immersion in Sian's family. He was used to that kind of closeness and grateful for the way the Williamses accepted him.

Greg also found a great friend in Sian's brother Steven, a dentist who lived outside San Francisco. And he especially enjoyed the heady challenge of being confronted by Vince's prodigious intellect. Greg loved the way it stretched his mind and his knowledge. Vince amazed Greg with his vast reservoir of general knowledge.

Sian had told Greg that she and her parents and brother would often stay up talking into the small hours, sometimes until 4, 5, 6 in the morning. If they couldn't resolve it, and they each had their own opinion, the arguments would rage until Vince had won. ‘It was a big change for me because, in my house, we would generally only talk around the dinner table. We didn't live complicated lives, and we didn't voice too many opinions about politics or the state of the world.'

Greg's time with Sian made him realise that although he'd always been the life of the party, he'd been holding a lot of his feelings inside. ‘I wasn't the type of guy who expressed things outwardly. Sian would say, “You know, Greg, if you hold these things in, they'll just boil up inside you and come out in a heated moment, and that's not good for anyone.”'

Greg learnt about the Williams family's early days in America, when they lived in Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley—a multiracial melting pot, home of ‘valley girls' and ‘mall rats'. While Vince commuted each day to his work at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Mary, a registered nurse, managed a ward at the local hospital. There she was struck by a major problem with the treatment of quadriplegics, and so she began bringing them to live at her house for extended periods. Many were on respirators and totally dependent on their carers. Her involvement grew to the stage where she and Vince took out a second mortgage to cope. Vince became actively involved and they created New Start Homes, a company that bought houses in the local community, adapted them for wheelchair access and settled a growing number of quadriplegics in them. ‘Mary wanted to teach them how to live in the community…quadriplegics on respirators, unheard of. She put them back into their own homes. She taught them how to use the computer and how to look after themselves. That's the type of family they are. And my family are wonderful too. I'm very lucky.'

Over the years, Greg and Sian became increasingly involved with New Start Homes. ‘It's a big part of my life. We've all got a hand in it and it's just the most incredible thing.'

W
HILE HE WAS TOUGH ENOUGH TO MAKE IT TO THE TOP
in one of the most gruelling sports, the essential Greg had changed very little. He was still as generous as ever. By late 1992, when Greg came home to his parents' house, he was in the best financial shape he'd ever been in, far better than he ever imagined when he set out to try his luck as a pro. From his race winnings and sponsorships, he'd managed to stash away about $50 000. Not bad considering he was averaging about $60 000 a year at that point. He was always an excellent saver, despite the heavy training and travel expenses, and he was feeling proud of his efforts and secure in his future.

But within a few days he learnt that his Dad Pat had been retrenched. His company car went along with the job. Pat and Noelene were in dire straits. They'd been forced to sell Noelene's car and now it would be a battle to meet their mortgage payments. Greg comforted them and then slipped out to his bank. He returned with a large envelope. Pat and Noelene were stunned to find a cheque for $20 000 inside. Greg told them they could relax, knowing they'd have the mortgage covered while they sorted things out.

Not long afterwards, Greg was able to help out further—and make one of Noelene's dreams a reality. ‘Mum always wanted a red sports car. I'd won a race in Orange County in California that was sponsored by Mazda and the prize was an MX5. I asked them if I could take delivery in Australia. They initially said yes but it fell through. So I ended up taking delivery of it in the States, selling it there and buying a car in Australia that I gave to Mum. She's still got it and it still looks brand new.'

In 1993, things were looking better and better for Greg. He came second in the new Pro Series in Australia and won the United States Pro title for the second year running. Then he went to the World Duathlon Championships and triumphed again. But, in the final countdown to Hawaii, he was hit by the truck that broke his knee. The accident threatened his career.

G
REG AND
S
IAN'S WEDDING ON
19 D
ECEMBER
1993 brought together a wonderful confusion of family and friends. Sian's former fiancé Chip, still a pal to both of them, threw a pre-wedding party the day before the event. The big day went off beautifully, with a host of family and friends reading texts during the ceremony. About two weeks before his wedding, Greg had thrown away the crutches he'd had to use after the crash some months earlier, and on the morning of his wedding, without telling anybody, he slipped out for a jog for the first time since the accident.

At the church Sian ‘looked like a movie star'. Greg cried with joy, as usual. After a rollicking reception, the newlyweds headed off on their honeymoon, skiing in Utah—with 26 of their closest friends and family in tow. Kay Macpherson was one of them. ‘It was so much fun. It was the best time that I can ever remember. Everybody got on so well and everyone was so happy for Greg and Sian. It was a wonderful feeling being part of it. Mind you, the night we had to go to the wedding rehearsal, he forgot to pick me up. They all arrived at the church and when it came to my point in the proceedings, I wasn't there. But he rushed someone back to pick me up and it all turned out beautifully.'

Greg was delighted at finally marrying his dream girl, and he felt an overwhelming desire to recover his strength and fitness and mount a deadly serious attempt on winning in Hawaii. After recovering from the honeymoon, he returned with a vengeance to rehabilitating his knee and building up his wasted leg muscles.

He set his sights on Ironman Japan in June. Back in San Diego, Greg's doctors had told him after the bike crash that there was absolutely no way he could do that. That was not good enough for Greg. He was determined to prove them wrong.