At the 2011 Ironman World Championships 4 Aussies made quite an impression with a 4 Musketeer theme, and they backed it up with some fine performances. John "Aramis" Mergler, Brenton "Athos" Yates, Andy "Porthos" Reynolds, and Todd "d'Artagnan" Israel make up this fast crew and we chatted with head musketeer John Mergler to learn more.

Slowtwitch: John, glad to have you here.

John Mergler: It’s great to be chatting with Slowtwitch

ST: I noticed the Musketeers for the first time during the bike check-in Kona and after that I saw you guys everywhere. Are you guys like a dripping faucet? Once you hear it you can't tune it out?

John: More like “that song” you hear on the radio and you can’t stop humming all day. It was a bit like that in Kona, we became quite identifiable, what with the Musketeer facial hair, matching kit all with the musketeer logos and matching bikes and equipment. This unified look was made possible by are very generous sponsors who bought into the concept and supplied us with the best kit out there… thanks 2XU, Velosophy and Scott bikes.

ST: What inspired the Musketeers theme in the first place?

John: We have all be training together for a few years but the birth of the Musketeers goes back about 12 months as the four of us Brenton, Todd, Andy and I were all training together in preparation for Ironman WA with the aim of qualifying for Hawaii in 2011. We started to develop an interesting dynamic, a sort of healthy mix of hard work, competitiveness, trash talk and a lot of laughs. It soon became clear that we where quite identifiable, particularly when we were doing the high intensity time trial work on the 4km circuit around Centennial Park in Sydney. It occurred to me at this point how good we would look dressed up as the 4 musketeers riding hard around the park with capes flapping all focused on a common goal. We had a few laughs about the idea at the time and it became a bit of a running joke.

Two of us then qualified in WA for Kona and that really put the pressure on the other 2 to get there. So we put together a training camp at Falls Creek in the mountains in Victoria Australia over Christmas to prepare Brenton for Ironman NZ and Andy for Ironman Australia. It was at this point that the Musketeers really took traction as a concept, particularly the notion of ‘All for One, One for All’. Ironman is a tough sport and hard to train for and we found this motto really helped us to work together and support each other. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, good days and bad days and having this bond has really motivated and propelled us to achieve our goals. So…Brenton was the next one to race and on a very wet day in Taupo New Zealand he pulled out his A race and finished 2nd in his age group and 15th overall. There were now 3 Musketeers lining up for the big one! The pressure was on Andy to pull something out the bag and qualify at Ironman Australia, arguably one of the most contested age group races on the circuit. All for one… we were right with him, trained with him and the fourth Musketeer delivered by executing a brilliant 3rd place in his age group to get that magic spot. From this point on the Musketeers developed into a brand and me managed to attract some great sponsors and started planning and training in earnest for the October race in Hawaii.

ST: How were the nicknames decided and how did you become Athos?

John: This is quite a funny story…. as the mustaches and beards started to grow we needed to adopt our Musketeer personas. I went on- line and found this description of the four Musketeers and sent them via email to the other guys claiming Athos as my Musketeer monocle and asked the others to claim theirs.

Athos is the oldest by some years and is a father figure to the other musketeers. He is described as noble and handsome but also very secretive, drowning his secret sorrows in drink. All true apart from the drink!!

Aramis loves and intrigues women and is conflicted by his earthly desires and his closeness to God.

d'Artagnan is the youngest most skillful of the Musketeers he is also free of vices that inhabit the others

Porthos, honest and slightly gullible, is the extrovert of the group, enjoying wine, women and song and is known for his portly stature and eating habits.

Aramis and d’artagnan were snapped up very quickly by Brenton and Todd respectively, leaving Andy to begrudgingly accept the honor of assuming the mantel of the great Porthos in our adventures ahead.

ST: All of you are quite fast, but you and Todd had especially awesome days in Kona. Does that put pressure on everybody?

John: We all had our own expectations going into the race, and based on these; we all had a brilliant day. Todd had a great race coming 47th overall and I managed to secure an age group win, which I was especially happy about. We were really happy with 2 podium finishes out of a team of 4 and look forward to greater things in the years to come.

The real pressure is not from each other’s results, but the expectations we put on ourselves to perform to our maximum potential. Kona 2012 brings about a new wave of expectation. Todd is now pro and will be racing in a new field. I’m returning to defend my title. Andy and Brenton (2011 being their first Kona) have been humbled by the lava fields and are determined to return and master the art of the Hawaii Ironman.

ST: Is it difficult to coordinate that you show up everywhere together?

John: When we are training it is just the discipline of coordinating the sessions and doing the work. The Musketeer motto is ‘All for one’… This is what drives us to show up. There is no ‘out’ for a Musketeer, one in, all in. That’s what gets us out of bed and training together every time…well, most of the time. We are human after all! In Kona we agreed that at all times we would meet for group sessions, social and media events always attired in our Musketeer 2XU uniform and we were all staying with in half a mile of each other so we became quite visible and certainly recognized.

ST: Have you done any events with the capes on, or are those reserved for pre and post event stuff?

John: We recently did a charity event for Red Kite. This was a 360km team time trial around Sydney’s Centennial Park (92 laps) which we executed in 9 hours 42 minutes. We donned the capes for that event and again for the last 1km of the Kona Ironman. Running down the finishing shoot with people cheering, wearing a cape. Surly it doesn’t get any better than that.

Outside of racing, we find a cape really ramps up a trip to the supermarket. Definitely worth a try.

ST: Where in Australia do you all reside?

John: We all reside in Sydney in the Eastern Suburbs. Living close to each other makes it easier to commit to training. Centennial Park has become our training home for a lot of Musketeer based activities.

ST: We assume that you are back at your day job, and we are quite certain it does not involve fencing.

John: Ha! Much as we would all love to fence our way through the off-season, the Musketeers are mere mortals and with that comes a day job. It’s certainly a balancing act between work, training and family. This sport can be taxing on the people we love and we are fortunate to have such a great support network.

ST: So what do you guys do for a living?

John: When the 4 Musketeers are not playing dress up and racing/training we attempt not to fall asleep at our desks. Brenton is a lawyer, Todd a teacher and artist, Andy a financial advisor and I work in recruitment. We are looking forward to the day that we are so rich and famous as the musketeers that we can give up our day jobs and become fulltime Musketeers.

ST: Did the beards stay on for Movember or are they already gone?

John: The mos are still around and have taken on a life of their own. Andy has gone for the 1970' accountant look, Brenton's has matured as a Musketeer, Todd has slimed down version and mine comes and goes. They will all be back in their full glory for our next Musketeer commitment.

ST: What will be the next adventure for the four of you?

John: We are currently preparing for IM New Zealand and Melbourne… these will be our qualifying races for Kona 2012. Part of this preparation will be a week long intensive training camp at altitude… this training camp is where it all began for the Musketeers. We are also working on putting together a plan for the 4 of us to TT across Australia a distance of 4200km in under 7 days .... in full musketeer kit and cape of course.

Naturally we will also be planning some massive challenges for ourselves along the way… Ultra distance runs & rides and mammoth ocean swims. It’s the Musketeer way… we will keep you posted

All for one, one for all