Ellis claimed a spot in the race’s 50-54 age group when she finished second in the Geelong event at the weekend. It means she will take on the world’s top 100 competitors at the major event in September.

The half-ironman includes a 1.9-kilometre swim, 90-kilometre cycle and 21.1-kilometre run.

Ellis has competed at both half and full ironman events in the past and said she had never expected to do so well.

“I love doing it and it was just a gradual process,” she said.

“I did not expect to do ironman because I thought it is just way too far, but the more I did it the more I got better.”

Before September arrives however, Ellis must first prepare for the even longer Ironman Australia event at Port Macquarie on May 1.

The full race involves a three-kilometre swim, 180-kilometre and a 42-kilometre run.

Joining her at Port Macquarie are fellow Horsham athletes Kelly Miller and Sally Pymer.

Miller will be competing at the event for the second time and is hoping she can improve on her performance in 2015.

“So much goes on and there is a lot out there you can’t control,” she said.

“The hardest thing is sometimes getting to the start without an injury.”

Miller, Pymer and Ellis are all dedicated to their ironman pursuits and put themselves through heavy training regimens they must balance with their work and family life.

It includes early sessions before work, hitting the road in the evenings and longer sessions at the weekend.

Miller said a lot of her training was done while people were still asleep.

“It is very new to me and I think you learn something from each event to make you better,” she said.

“It is a bit daunting to finish at Geelong, then having to think, now I have to double that distance for each leg.

“I couldn’t do it without support from family and friends and both Susie and Sally have been big inspirations for me.”

Ellis has plenty of time between now and her world half-ironman challenge to get prepared.

She said she would be training hard for the full event, before cutting back and tailoring her workload for the world half-ironman.

“I train probably two hours every day and then on weekends it gradually increases,” she said.

The ironman community in Horsham is small, with four competitors at the Geelong event at the weekend.

This means it can be tough for Ellis to find training partners who had schedules that matched up with hers.

But she said they would get together for a session when they could find the time. “It is good to train together because we cover a lot of kilometres,” she said.

“I do a lot of shift work as a nurse, but Kelly and Sally often train together and I’ll join them when I can.”