Jesse Featonby Interview: The Funky Trunks

Name: Jesse Featonby 

DOB: 8 December 1987

Favourite leg: Run

Favourite piece of kit/equipment: Funky Trunks

Favourite sporting cliché: What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

Drink of choice at the post-ride coffee stop: Cappuccino

One thing we don’t know about you: Could have been a Rugby League superstar.

By Rebecca Wiasak. 

Unlike many elite athletes Jesse Featonby chose the real world first instead of trying to ‘live the dream’. He has a Bachelor of Medical Science from the University of Canberra and works in physiology at the Australian Institute of Sport as the senior scientific officer of Biochemistry and Haematology. His competitors have skipped the whole getting an education thing and opted against moving into the workforce, to have a crack at racing professionally. But Jesse plans to take that path only when the opportunity presents itself. For now he is happy setting himself up for life after triathlon. He took some time out of his workday at the AIS in Canberra last week where he reflected on the recent ITU Asian Cup in Korea and explained the idea behind ‘Drag Friday’.

 

TT: Only last week you were confirmed in the ITU World Cup in Huatulco. Had you planned to race overseas again before the domestic season? How did it all come about?

 

JF: We wanted to do some World Cups towards the end of the year so Ben and I decided there were two opportunities – one to go to Korea, and one to go to the States. It sort of works out well because in the States there is the USA Pro Champs and a Lifetime Fitness race in LA and then the World Cup so we sort of wanted to go for that option and try and base ourselves in America with one of Thomo’s mates.

 

TT: It must be good having contacts like Simon Thompson to get some of your expenses covered.

 

JF: I think in the States it is pretty friendly, they have home stays so you don’t have to look for accommodation and that saves a bit on costs and running around. I haven’t got it confirmed yet but by the looks of things the home stay is pretty good because you’re staying with another athlete and they know where the training venues are.

 

TT: Some athletes who are not in the state institutes or National High Performance program find it hard to get a start in some of the ITU elite races overseas. What has your experience been coming from Canberra and not being in a program?

 

JF: Well you’re not looked after and you’re not getting any extra help. You have just got to get results. I was lucky enough to be part of the national program camp in January and showed myself there, that I had something, and the coaches saw that and luckily after I got injured they continued to support me and wanted to see me race. This is the first time that I have been selected into a World Cup and they are happy to select me next year as long as I can keep showing results.

 

TT: Do you think being in Canberra is a bit of a barrier?

 

JF: It’s not an obstacle and it’s not holding you back. But it makes it a little bit harder because you’re not up there with your competitors and you’re not in the national squad. I think it makes you tougher and ready to try and prove yourself when you travel away. We’ve got good facilities. You’ve got no excuses really to be able to perform well. You’ve just got to get up there and put it all together on race day.

 

TT: You could be at a national performance center, like the VIS or NSWIS, with fantastic facilities but have decided to stay here in Canberra. How important is the squad environment that you’ve got at Tridents where you actually want to go to training and really enjoy it?

 

JF: They’re not your immediate competitors so you don’t have to feel threatened by them. They’re always good to push you to your limits but you don’t get angry with them, and you don’t hold a grudge against them. They make it so much fun. It’s so good.

 

TT: You started a bit of a revolution in the pool with some pretty out-there bathers. I would even suggest that you were the Funky Trunks ambassador at Tridents.

 

JF: I was. I am claiming it. I love them. I have quite an obsession with Funky Trunks. I had the Stars and still have the Stars. They were in Albury – they were massive in Albury. It took me ages to get my head around them in Albury and then I came up here for first year uni and Liam was like ‘wow – they’re cool’ and then he bought some. And then it took quite a while for Craig and that to get them. It has definitely gone out of control now. They make swimming fun.

 

TT: There has been a bit of talk on twitter about the Friday morning swim session that has been aptly named ‘Drag Friday’ where you wear clothes to increase the resistance. But somehow you even manage to make a challenging session like that fun.

 

JF: You have to wear drag pants or restrictive clothing like compression pants. I just wear old bike pants with holes in them. We call it ‘Drag Friday’ and today Robbo walks in with red lipstick. It’s quite funny.

 

TT: Do you find yourself racing in sessions?

 

JF: You’re not racing but you’re trying to use them to push you to your limits. I guess that is probably one disadvantage of being here. You haven’t got guys that are streets ahead of you so that’s why you have to train with the runners or train with the cyclists to try and push the limits a little bit.

 

TT: You were invited to train with the National High Performance program at the AIS in January this year and got injured at the camp. Were you just a bit too eager to impress?

 

JF: I was still working while I was on the camp. I got my scholarship last year to work here at the Institute and I was still working and training so I wasn’t used to doing the massive volumes that the other guys had been doing. They were here for a pretty tough camp and I chose to do every single session and show myself, and I showed myself but on the last week I could feel a pain in my foot and it got worse and worse and worse. On the last day we had a VO2 and after that I couldn’t walk and one thing led to another and I was in a boot for sixteen weeks.

 
TT: What improvements did you see during the camp?

 

JF: My VO2 and physiology didn’t improve but the fitness that I gained from it was pretty amazing. I was doing times in sessions that I’ve never done before. We got filmed in the pool and we got filmed running so I just learnt so much that way. Everything was looking good.

 

TT: You mentioned finishing up in the boot, which is always an unpopular fashion accessory for athletes. Was that your first major injury to deal with?

 

JF: I had a shoulder reconstruction three years ago so that was my second major one. It’s the first time I haven’t been able to do anything at all. It was quite difficult for the first six weeks being restricted to do absolutely nothing and then after that slowly getting back into swimming and cycling and then eventually running after 20 weeks.

 

TT: How difficult was it to get back after an overuse injury like the navicular stress fracture?

 

JF: It wasn’t hard to keep focused. I always knew what I wanted to do. It was just hard when I started coming back and then you’d feel something sore in your foot, so you’d stop running and start stressing over it. I think that was the hardest thing for me, getting over that mental ‘you’re okay, you can run, you’re not going to break’. Things are going good now and I had a good team of doctors and physios to help me through it. I was lucky enough to see the AIS doctor and AIS physiotherapist because I have connections through work.

 

TT: You were successful in gaining a postgraduate scholar position in biochemistry at the AIS in 2009, which is very much about the experience and has very little financial reward. Was it tough to make a decision that would provide better career prospects but delay your triathlon goals?

 

JF: The day that I got offered the scholarship, I got offered a contract to race in France as well. So I had two things sitting on the table – one where I was going to be earning €500 just to turn up and race, or a job that could help my future career. So I talked to Graham Allbon who has been my supervisor, and he raced professional mountain bikes when he left uni and he found it so difficult when he came back to try and find a job, even though he had a degree. He kind of guided me and was a bit of a career advisor. He told me to suck it up and do it, and then whatever I want to choose in life I can go from there. But I will always have some work experience and some more skills and something to have over other graduates. It was more just tying to broaden my skills and my resume.

 

TT: You’ve done it in reverse to a lot of other athletes. They do the degree then go to sport. Or just finish school and go straight to sport. Do you think it has been a disadvantage for you knowing that the guys you are racing are all doing it full-time and you’ve got to work?

 

JF: There’s no doubt that I could have done it. I was a pretty successful junior and then I had the opportunity to either have a dig or go to uni. I chose to go to uni. For three years I had to suck that up and then keep telling myself ‘you’re going to go pro after this’. I don’t regret it for a second because the opportunity that I’ve got here working is phenomenal. It would be nice to have a crack at full-time and maybe see where I could have gone, or I can go. I still think that my best years are ahead of me and things can still happen.

 

TT: You’ve got two balls in the air right now. At what point do you take a punt and decide which life to pursue?

 

JF: I think you’ve just got to wait until those opportunities come up. I’ve got my job until the end of January and then after that I’ll see what comes up. At the moment there’s probably not a position because of funding within the Institute for a second lab person, so that leaves the door open to take on a triathlon career. But in saying that if I get injured again and there’s an opportunity to stay here, I’ll take that. I’m lucky enough to have those options.

 

TT: You are racing the Olympic Distance format but are the Olympic Games a goal? What do you see as the pinnacle of your sport?

 

JF: Everyone wants to go to the Olympics but you’ve got to be realistic. There are only three athletes who can potentially go. It’s a long, long way from where I am at the minute. But I am going to give it my best and hopefully I can have a go at going full-time and say ‘I gave it everything’. I have always wanted to do a World Cup and I am achieving that in a year where nothing seems to have gone right so that is pretty cool. Who knows where it can lead from there. I guess just giving it 100% is the best thing you can do.

 

TT: On race day in Korea it was 38 degrees. A week earlier in Canberra it was minus 4. In a field of 60 men less than two thirds finished. How brutal was it and how did you make it to the finish line?

 

JF: It was the toughest race I have ever had to do to finish. I have never gone into a race not thinking I was going to finish. That was a first. It was a new world of hurt. It was a good race and having a little bit of preparation with a better climate I might have gone better. But in saying that I gave it everything and just cooked on the day. I couldn’t go any harder. It was disappointing to not go your fastest. I probably went faster in my warm-up than what I did in the actual race.

 

TT: To look at it on paper the race was pretty slow. One of your training partners was kind enough to point out that your run split was only 25 seconds faster than Michelle Wu. Were you just in survival mode?

 

JF: Well actually, they started the girls a minute behind so we were exactly 10 minutes ahead of each other in the run and 2.5 kilometers means you’re a lap in front so I was looking over my shoulder the whole race thinking Shell is behind me, I can’t let her beat me. That was probably one of the only goals I had during the run, other than to finish. It was just the way it was. The more I tried to push hard, the more my body was just rejecting and saying ‘no’. It was just bizarre. I have never, ever felt that before. I couldn’t lift my legs. I was breathing deep, but you didn’t have that feeling that you were really giving it to yourself. You were just trying to stay alive pretty much.

 

TT: I know some athletes have not recovered well after Korea but you were back out the following weekend racing round three of the Australian Duathlon Series where you placed second in an unusual 2.5km run/15km bike/2.5km run/15km bike/2.5km run format. How have you recovered?

 

JF: It took me ages but I seemed to race okay at the duathlon. I was still pretty fatigued, not only from the race, but from the travel. It took a lot out of me. I had to come back to work at 9am on the Tuesday which was a bit shit. I caught a cab from the airport straight in here. That’s life.

 

TT: You moved from Albury to attend university. Was part of the reason you chose Canberra because there were potential opportunities at the AIS?

 

JF: I always wanted to do medical science and I got offers for Melbourne and offers for Canberra. Before uni I went to stay at Jono Hall’s place and got to check out St Kilda and Melbourne and liked it, but didn’t love it. I came here and it was a bit like Albury, just a bit bigger so I enjoyed it more. I was in NSWIS at the time and a coach through that introduced me to Ben and I formed a good relationship with him and Tridents. I didn’t really come here expecting to work at the Institute of expecting to race for the Institute either. Luckily things have worked out well.

 

TT: Having lived through a few Canberra winters do you now regret that decision?

 

JF: Absolutely. The amount of times I have said ‘I’m never going to live here again’ or ‘this is the last winter I am going to live here’. I reckon I have said that every year. For some reason you just keep getting tricked into staying here. You get sucked in. I’d love to be able to miss a few.

 

TT: What motivates you to get out of bed and train when it’s minus 4?

 

JF: I guess having a goal. Goals in life, and being at work too means you can’t train any other time of the day. You’ve got to get up and do it. It makes you organised. When you want to achieve something you know the hard work that it takes to get there.

 

TT: So you don’t lie in bed hoping for a text message from your coach saying it’s minus 5 and training has been called off?

 

JF: I’ve done it before. It’s important to get good clothing and I guess last year when I didn’t have the money to do it, you had to wear old gloves. But now earning money, you can actually go out and buy good gloves and make it a little bit more comfortable.

 

TT: Is there a chance you will get picked up by AIS program next year and offered a full-time scholarship?

 

JF: It’s all results based so if I can get results then they will pick you. I have just got to aim for the national races and hopefully I can do my best. There are no guarantees, you could even get results and they might not pick you. I can’t let them choose the path for me; I’ve got to be able to choose that for myself. I’ve figured that out – the political side of triathlon.

 

TT: Your coach Ben Gathercole guided Simon Thompson to the Olympics. That must be good knowing that he has done it before and knows what he is doing.

 

JF: I guess every athlete is different so he has got to change his approach. You can’t use the Simon Thompson model for every single person. I think Ben has come from such a good coaching background. His dad was head of Swimming Australia and he has a good pedigree. Carol coaches swimming so it’s such a coaching family. The way he treats you, and the relationship that you build is pretty amazing. The amount of stuff he does behind the scenes is pretty incredible and I guess that makes you want to give everything you can to help him out and not let him down either. You do have a bit more faith in him because you realise what he does for you, and you know when you don’t do something you see how wound up he gets and disappointed. The emotion comes through and it makes you realise that he does put a lot of heart into it.

 

TT: You often go home to race in Albury and were a multisport festival ambassador there last year. Is it just an opportunity to see your family or do feel strongly about giving back to the community?

 

JF: Albury is a pretty big sporting town. There are a lot of athletes who have come through there. For such a small town it has a lot of athletes like Lauren Jackson, plenty of cyclists, Tim Berkel and Rebekah Keat, so lots of triathletes as well. Every opportunity you get to race down there is pretty good. I’ve got sponsors that are still down there so you like to race in front of them and family and friends, to show them what you can do. I guess because you’re always in the paper…even though I’m in Canberra and have lived here for five years, if you get a good result your name gets in the Albury paper. If you can get down there and race in front of them, they get to go ‘that’s the guy that has been in the paper’ and actually see him racing. You make the most of that.

 

TT: Does your family keep all the newspaper clippings? Is there a shrine to you at home?

 

JF: The whole back room. Like the ‘pool room’. It’s quite funny.

 

TT: A lot of junior athletes find it difficult to secure sponsorship yet the local Albury bike shop has supported you since you were 15. Is it a matter of who you know, not what you know?

 

JF: Can I name drop? The Full Cycle. When I was 15, I had just started triathlon. I only did one at school and I did a few local ones. I just wrote them a letter and it was a letter on a piece of paper from school. I said if I could have any support, then that would be great. It started off, he gave me some gels and I was only new to it so I am thinking ‘what are these cool things, what do you do with these?’ Then it grew to clothing year-by-year and I’d get results. I’d always send in my results by email or handwrite it again or get him a photo from the race. And then with more results, he started loaning me a bike and then I’d get a bike for a year and then he’d update me with that bike. We grew a really great relationship and now it has been 7 years that we’ve been together and he still supports me, even though I am in Canberra. I’ve got to do the right things by him, like make sure I promote his logo and promote his brands and just keep in contact with him all the time. He’s happy from that end. I appreciate everything that he’s done for me. Like you said, a 15-year-old wouldn’t get any sponsorship in Canberra. For him to give me a little bit of assistance always helps. I think it’s important if anyone does get sponsorship, they’ve got to maintain that connection and communication and not just see another person because they might give you a one-off better deal. You’ve got to show faith in them, and they’ll show faith in you.

 

TT: What quality do you think he saw in you? He must have believed that you could make it, unlike many other kids who do the sport for three years, go away to uni, get a girlfriend and then lose interest.

 

JF: He has done that for a lot of athletes and has been let down by them. I don’t know what he saw in me, or if there was anything that he saw in me. I just try and help him out. You don’t want to let him down either. So there’s a lot of pressure when you turn up to a race. You want to get out of bed on those early mornings because you think ‘I’ve got a sponsor, I’ve got to look after him and get his brand out there too’.

 

TT: There are some pretty big highs and lows in this sport. I was there when you crashed out of the 2009 Australian Olympic Distance Championships in Perth. How do you ride those highs and lows out – especially when you put so much time, energy and money into a sport and walk away from a race on the other side of Australia with no result?

 

JF: It’s hard and I think triathletes are very hard on themselves – me included. If you have a bad race you want to either flog yourself at training the next day, or not eat, or punish yourself somehow. I guess once you do taste success, you’ve got to make the most of that and remember what it feels like. If you do have a low, just look at the big picture and go ‘there is going to be a tomorrow’. I’ve had plenty of setbacks I guess like everyone. You’ve just got to keep bouncing back and whatever it throws at you, just come back bigger and better.

 

TT: If you got injured tomorrow, would you be happy walking away from the sport?

 

JF: I’ve never had a full crack at it, so I can’t walk away from it saying I gave it everything. I would definitely do rehab and try to get back. Whether or not it would be with triathlon, I don’t know. It might be with another sport depending on the injury. With my foot, I was nearly ready to go pick another sport but you get wound up in at and you remember where it takes you. It takes you overseas, and the experiences that you have with triathlon are incredible.

 

TT: Your dad Greg is a cyclist so there is obviously a family sporting connection there. Is that the sport you’d pursue?

 

JF: Probably. My dad was a good cyclist within Australia. He was kind of a good role model for me because he worked full-time as well, as a carpenter and managed to race professionally in Australia so it just showed to me that you can do it. You don’t have to be a full-time athlete. If I was to pick another sport, it would be cycling because I reckon it’s pretty fun.

 

TT: Despite having a professional license you still seem to make these rookie mistakes in races like forgetting to take off your swim cap and goggles. I guess it shows that it can happen to the best of us.

 

JF: I’ve made so many mistakes over my triathlon career and had so many funny moments. Every time I travel with Mum and Dad to a race we always end up going “remember the time you did this or remember the time you forgot that”. It’s hilarious to think that I spend so much time preparing and getting ready for a race and then come race day I forget something, or do something stupid. The Hobart incident is classic. My first pro race and I came out of the water and freaked out when I saw the front bunch leave transition. In a state of panic I threw my helmet on and headed off onto the bike. It took me until the first kilometer before I realised that I was still wearing my cap and goggles. After 20km I had a massive headache and had the whole crowd laughing. I was a bit embarrassed but it was quite funny. I could write a book on all my forgettable moments in triathlon.

 

TT: If you weren’t a triathlete what would you be doing and where in the world would you be?

 

JF: My other passion is obviously lab sciences and I am starting to develop a passion for anti-doping and anti-doping research so I would probably pursue a PhD or some form of study in trying to refine anti-doping methods and that can take you so many places with the amount of funding that is in that. I reckon that would be a pretty cool career, to chase the dopers and clean up the sport.

 

You can follow Jesse at his blog:

jessefeatonby.blogspot.com