KEY POINTS:
Hamish Carter has had two months "retired" but admits the Beijing Olympics look attractive.
At 7am on New Year's Day, Hamish Carter will lace up his running shoes and head out onto the streets around his Mt Eden home. He will probably follow that up with a couple of hundred laps of the pool and a few kilometres on the bike before he does it all again the next day. And the next.
January 1 represents the first day of training for Carter, the non-retired triathlete, as he heads into his 16th season on the circuit.
Most people think the 35-year-old retired after winning silver at September's world championships in Switzerland but Carter is back. Again.
"Once a week, someone comes up to me and says, 'I thought you'd retired'," Carter says at a Mt Eden cafe. "I had thought the world champs would be my last race and I wasn't sure what was going to happen next. But, after a two-month break, I feel it would be nice to stay in the game a bit longer."
His rivals should probably have expected it. Every year when they line up at an early season event, one of them pipes up with a, 'what are you still doing here, old man? You should have retired by now'.
Coincidentally, across the road in another Mt Eden cafe fellow triathletes Nathan Richmond and Kieran Doe are contemplating the year ahead. Richmond, in particular, the third member of the New Zealand triathlon team at Athens with Carter and silver medallist Bevan Docherty, is also thinking about Beijing and the prospect of lining up with Carter.
"He's still got it," Richmond says of an athlete for whom he has the greatest respect. "You can never count him out. You'd be stupid to be planning that Hamish Carter won't be around for the next Olympic Games."
Says Carter, unconvincingly: "I probably won't be there."
The conversation develops: "I guess I could be sitting here in 12 months thinking the Olympics are only eight months away and I could give it another crack.
"Who knows?" Not Carter.
Although it might be something of a joke, retirement is something the Olympic champion has regularly contemplated. He considered it as far back as 2000 after his disappointing 26th at the Sydney Games when he was world No 1 and favourite.
Athens was then supposed to be it but the realisation that he could cash in on his success became apparent. Triathletes aren't wealthy, with the winners' purse about US$10,000 for bigger events, but Carter's marketability became a powerful tool. Why get out when you're at the peak of your earning potential?
It seemed, however, that he really meant he was retiring when he made the start line for this year's world championships. There had been a danger he would skip the Lausanne event, as tiredness and a lack of motivation gripped him.
"Leading into the world champs, the last two weeks were a real struggle," he explains. "The writing was on the wall. I think it started when I won a World Cup race in Edmonton this year and when I came across the finish line, I didn't feel much joy. That was the first time I had won a big race and I was surprised I wasn't a bit more excited.
"I guess it was inevitable after the Olympic Games. It's hard to find something that gives you as much of a buzz. Everything is a little anti-climactic after that.
"When I went to Europe and I was on my own again, it dawned on me that I didn't want the lifestyle of a professional athlete. I didn't want to travel and to be away from home.
"Right there and then, I lost the drive to race again. But Roger Mortimer [manager] helped me get to the start line. It motivated me to think it would be my last race."
When he crossed the line in silver medal position, 15s behind winner Tim Don, the passion returned. It proved to him that he could still compete and win, even at age 35.
There's a certain Peter Pan element about Carter and it's not just because of his boyish blond curls and constant energy. "I'm adamant about not growing up," he admits.
No one, though, can beat Father Time, not even one of the fittest athletes in the world.
But the adage that 'you're a long time retired' is appropriate when referring to one of New Zealand's most successful sportsmen.
There is also the small matter of not knowing what he would do if he wasn't a triathlete.
"I have no idea," he admits with a laugh. "It's going to be a major transition, when the time comes, and a scary one.
"Until I'm in that place, I won't know what it's like and I've been working with Roger trying to anticipate the next move but we don't quite know when it's going to be."
There is a danger, of course, that he hangs on too long and his reputation diminishes.
He talks about giving back to the sport that has brought him so much success and giving back to his sponsors who have been alongside him for the ride. It's not often the best reason to stay in a sport, however.
"I know there's a major danger in that," he says.
"Roger says, 'if you're going to race, that's great, but make sure you do it properly. You can't do it half-heartedly because that's when you get beaten and finish out of the top 10'. The last thing I want to do is fade away and spend the last couple of years finishing 20th or 30th."
Two months off have taken their toll on Carter. As he hung decorations on his Christmas tree with his children, Phoebe (2) and Austin (5), and walked Austin to school, Carter's physique suffered, relatively speaking.
"I'm probably the heaviest I've been for 10 years," he says trying to keep a straight face. "I'm up to 73kg. My race weight is 68kg, so I've packed on a few kilos. And I'll put on another two at Christmas."
"All my clothes are starting to get a bit tight and the suit I wear to functions is tighter each time I put it on. It's going to be a real struggle to get back into training.
"The key for the first week of training is to make it pretty hard. You need to shock your body back into the zone because if you do it slowly, the body thinks you're still on holiday. It's going to be horrible and messy and I'm going to feel like death but look, it's part and parcel of what I do."
Weight is one of the reasons Carter got into triathlon. From the moment he watched as John Walker won gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, he's wanted to excel in a sport, any sport.
At first it was going to be rowing and Carter was in Auckland Grammar's Maadi Cup crew. He continued to race but in his late teens, his lean frame became an issue. He found himself shifted out of the stroke seat and then out of the eight altogether.
"I just poured myself into rowing and it was a big part of what I did," Carter says. "But I just wasn't as big as Rob Waddell and I had to do something else."
That something else was triathlon. A friend suggested Carter compete at a Whangamata event in 1991 and, although he got "annihilated" and was "beaten by girls", he could see a future in a sport that had gained traction in New Zealand because of Erin Baker and Rick Wells.
Carter dominated the New Zealand scene for a long time before the arrival of Docherty, winning 22 professional triathlons, 12 World Cup events and a bronze medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. For a long time, however, it seemed victory at a major event would escape him. Until Athens.
Carter had always been one of the country's most popular athletes, along with great friend Sarah Ulmer, but he became public property in 2004 with his success at Athens. In any street or restaurant people stare or say hello.
Last week, he and Ulmer had the chance to complete a rally driving course and were being auctioned as part of a charity fundraiser. At last count, they were going for $860 ("that's pretty cool"), trailing a lunch with National Party leader John Key ($3050), a simulator flight with All Blacks captain Richie McCaw ($1850) and morning tea with Prime Minister Helen Clark ($2500).
Carter was seventh on a 2006 Readers Digest top 10 list of the most trusted New Zealanders, just behind Peter Snell. And, despite his cupboard looking a bit thin after countless requests, he's regularly approached for gear to be auctioned off.
"I don't think you ever come to grips with it [being public property]," he says. "It's still a bit weird. But it's a real privilege to be able to help people out or put a smile on their face. It's a bit like giving someone a Christmas present, to see the joy you bring them. One day it will be all over."
Just like his career.
For now, though, Carter will race in a handful of ITU World Cup events to help ensure New Zealand earns three places at the Beijing Olympics. He will line up in a smattering of events in the US and Europe and continue his foray into adventure racing. He still wants to race in the Coast to Coast one day.
It might seem Carter has been around forever but it will still be a sad day when he finally packs away the running shoes and starts a day job.
When that will be, no one knows, least of all Carter.
