Though disappointed he succumbed to the heat during the 42.2km run, he finished the event flying the Aboriginal flag in a moment of pride for both himself and his  people.

“It was an awesome experience,” he said.

Now ranked 369 in the world, his first ‘crack at the dream’ consisted of a 3.86km open water swim, 180.2km bike ride and a 42.2km marathon. 

“The swim start is crazy, you really are in a swimming moshpit, people are everywhere. During the ride, at stages I would just start smiling to myself and think how cool is this, people try their whole life to get to this event and here I am doing it. 

“I started to enjoy it less during the run as I started to struggle. It ended up becoming less about going as fast as I could to just getting across the line. Even with 1500m to go I had to stop and started feeling dizzy but dragged myself on,” he said from Hawaii.

Of the 2367 athletes who competed in the championship in Kailua-Kona, Nat competed in the 30 to 34-year-old male age group, where he attained a rank of 75 out of 186 competitors. 

“It has been a dream to qualify for Kona and one day finish it. I wasn’t sure if I would ever be good enough to qualify let alone complete it, so to finish is amazing,” he said.

“Hopefully I will qualify again and get another crack at it.”

The world championship is the culmination of several years of fitness focus for the former Forster High School student. Five years ago he was diagnosed with the rare and potentially life-threatening Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological condition which affects one in 100,000 people annually. 

It left him bedridden in hospital for two weeks and it took him six weeks to regain functionality in his body again. Doctors advised Nat that it was unlikely he would be able to participate in any endurance sports ever again but he quickly set out to prove them wrong.

“I just wanted to walk again. But I soon started setting goals for myself whilst in hospital. One was to play first grade rugby again and do a triathlon, as the doctors said I may not have the same speed or endurance so I took that as motivational challenge for me to show myself that I could.” 

He said he soon got hooked on triathlons, watching YouTube clips about the Ironman and the Hawaiian Ironman.

“My goal quickly became one day to do an ironman and qualify for Kona. As a kid growing up and watching the Ironman as well I always thought it was something that I would do one day,” he said, never dreaming that one day he would get to do Hawaii.

In 2012 he applied for the Indigenous Marathon Program (IMP) and was invited to tryouts in Sydney. After impressing in trials, Nat was meant to make his marathon debut in New York, but Hurricane Sandy led to the cancellation of the event, with the IMP helping instead with the clean-up.

Now living in Sydney where he works at Sydney University’s Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience centre, Nat qualified for 2015’s Ironman World Championship after finishing first in his age group at this year’s Ironman Australia, held in Port Macquarie in May. 

After losing several family members at a young age, Nat hopes his efforts can inspire the next generation to lead a healthier lifestyle, and so prior to the event he declared his ambition was to finish the race holding the Aboriginal flag.

“It was such a great feeling. My partner handed me the flag with a couple of hundred meters to go. Carrying the flag over the line I felt like I was representing my people as much as myself and showing the world and our country that being Aboriginal is something to be proud of and that we are a strong and proud people that can do anything.”