Last month he travelled with wife Marion and children Christine and Tom to Port Macquarie to take on a full ironman event. 

Drew completed the 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2km run in an impressive time of 12 hours and 37 minutes. 

He said he was extremely happy with his race. 

"I wanted to challenge myself and set a goal of completing it in under 13 hours,” Drew said. 

He took up the sport of triathlon about 10 years ago in an effort to get fit and lose some weight. 

“I had a few kilos to lose and few of my friends were runners so I started running with them,” Drew said. 

He well and truly caught the bug and started competing in triathlons in Cootamundra and around the Riverina. 

“The thing I like about triathlons is the variety of sport; it allows for all-round fitness,” Drew said. 

While he has completed 11 half ironman events, Port Macquarie was his first full ironman.

“I went into it having followed a good training program; I knew if I stuck to what I knew I’d finish but you can never be sure what is going to happen on the day,” Drew said. 

He said his biggest concern was the third leg, a marathon-length run. 

“After a while it becomes as much about your mental capacity as your fitness, you really need to concentrate,” Drew said. 

He said it was surreal crossing the finish line in the evening after taking off on the swim leg at 7.15am.

With dozens of people lined up along either side of the last 100 metre stretch cheering competitors on, Drew said it was “a real buzz”.

“The atmosphere was great,” Drew said. 

With one ironman under his belt he said he will definitely like to do another one, however will wait a while and concentrate on family after devoting so much of his time to training. 

Drew thanked his wife and children for supporting him to achieve his dream of completing an ironman. 

“I couldn’t have done it without the support from everyone,” Drew said. 

While he took up the sport late, Drew loves it and encourages others to get involved with triathlons. 

With a number of triathlons around the Riverina as the Riverina Tri-Series is staged, Drew said it is a really accessible sport for people to get involved in.