News
Stress junkies power     Matthew Drummond     19 January 2007
Australian Financial Review

Running a marathon is just one way to relax for type-A professionals, writes Matthew Drummond.   

Golf was once the corporate game of choice. But the ambitious stars in the banking, legal and corporate worlds are now looking for more adrenaline-pumping pastimes.   

Triathlons, marathons and extreme endurance activities are booming. This week the website for the BP Ultimate/BRW Corporate Triathlon crashed when registrations for the Melbourne event opened. All 5,000 spots were filled in less than 90 minutes, with accountants, bankers and lawyers most heavily represented.   

Head north to Noosa, home of the second largest Olympic-distance triathlon in the world - that's a 1.5 kilometre swim, a 40 kilometre bike ride and a 10 kilometre run - and the entrant numbers are similar.   

"A huge part of our business nowadays is catering for the corporate clientele that grows every day," says event organiser Garth Prowd.   

"Our 2005 survey had something like 72 per cent of the competitors being drawn from the business world, your corporates, managerial, professional-type people."   

Fuelling the boom are a species of career-climbing professionals who excel in high-stress, high-pressure jobs and are looking for similarly high-stress, high-pressure recreational activities. They were competitive at school, at university, in the office, and seem unable to relax unless they are competing on their weekends as well.   

Last Friday, Prowd was cycling in Brisbane and caught up with four friends from the corporate world.   

"They were up from Sydney and Melbourne and they're out on their $15,000 bikes," he says.   

"One was from Macquarie Bank, one was from a fund investment company. And I can tell you we were supposed to be out for a casual Friday morning ride but it was so close to the bloody Tour-de-France it didn't matter."   

"These guys are 65 and one in particular shouldn't really be going as hard as he was but every time we came to a hill he wasn't going to get dropped. The competitive spirit in recreational cycling is alive and well. To a large extent that helps drive [the growth]."   

Some, however, might be pushing themselves a little too hard. Last October during Melbourne's Around the Bay in a Day - a 12 hour, 210 kilometre bike ride - a collision took the life of a senior partner at law firm Allens Arthur Robinson. Tom Yunken, 59, was a keen cyclist, marathon runner and by all accounts very fit. But he suffered a heart attack after coming off his bike and died shortly after in hospital.   

Accidents are just par for the course. Clayton Utz partner Simon Newcomb came off his bicycle during the Noosa triathlon. Despite shattering his shoulder blade into 10 pieces, he still went on a cycling trip with his wife through Laos two weeks afterwards.   

As a partner in a top law firm, Newcomb admits his job is stressful and very time intensive. But his worst nightmare would be having to relax in a banana lounge by the pool.   

"I love the benefits of tri. I love to push myself to the limits and set challenges and try to overcome them. There's a lot of personal challenges and a feeling of achievement."   

Newcomb admits to being a typical type-A personality - a somewhat unfashionable psychological term used to describe stress-addicted workaholics. "One of my friends calls me triple-A," he says.   

Cardiologists coined the term in the 1950s, and claimed it was a potential risk factor in coronary disease. Characteristics include being impatient, excessively time-conscious, highly competitive, incapable of relaxation and insecure about status.   

"Events like the Around the Bay in a Day really attract those type-A personalities who can't really challenge themselves in terms of intensity of exercise so they go for duration instead," said Chris Price, general manager of SuperSprint, which organises the BP Ultimate/BRW Corporate Triathlon.   

"Our website and query information lines get bombarded immediately post events with people wanting to see their results and be able to compare those against their colleagues."   

Phil Jauncey is a sports psychologist who works with the Australian cricket team, the Brisbane Broncos and the Brisbane Lions.   

The type-A phenomenon was no longer widely accepted in psychological circles, he said. And there was more to explain the increased interest in endurance activities than simply wanting to be competitive.   

"They feel good because they get the endorphins firing and because it physically clears the system of toxins," he says.   

Flight Centre chief executive officer Graham Turner is a regular in the Noosa triathlon and the London Marathon.   

"The biggest thing you find in an executive role is you need to get away and release," Turner said. "And for me pottering away in the garden is the least relaxing thing I could think of in my life. But going for a three hour mountain bike ride in the bush, I find that really relaxing."   

But for some adrenaline addicted junkies endurance sports no longer give them the same kick. Macquarie Bank's chief financial officer Greg Ward does triathlons, and is in preparation for the London Marathon. But nothing beats hitting 260 kmh in his Porsche GT3 Cup Car around the race track.   

Considerable start-up costs will keep motor racing from becoming the next sports craze. Race cars range from about $200,000 to $700,000, and cannot even be driven on public roads.   

"You can lease the cars but you crash it, you buy it," Ward said.   

"It's a bit of a stress release and a challenge. It's good fun. You're mainly competing with yourself because the stopwatch is going. But having the races and all that sort of stuff, and jostling for position - it's good to try and be competitive. And I enjoy all that."   

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