The long-time friends and triathletes clinched the pairs’ category at the gruelling race for the fourth consecutive year.

They finished in four hours, 18 minutes and 11 seconds, a personal best, competing under the team name Princetown Institute of Sport (Elite Squad).

The Anaconda Adventure Race asked competitors, as individuals, pairs or teams, to complete 50 kilometres of body-testing disciplines on Sunday.

The event started with a 1.9-kilometre ocean swim before a 13km ocean paddle, 14km trail run, 18km mountain bike ride and 1.2km beach run.

Greening and Creed entered as a pair, meaning they each did all four disciplines and could not be further than 50 metres away from each other at any time.

They finished 10 minutes and 35 seconds ahead of runners-up Wes Enticott and Tony Freijah, after setting up the win with strong run and ride legs.

Greening said he and Creed having the same strengths and being similar-standard athletes was crucial.

“We swim OK. We were second after the swim and third after the paddle,” he said.

“But once we got to the run we made that eight minutes back up.

“The guys who were eight minutes ahead of us had a surf club background. They were quite strong on the paddle and good swimmers as well.

“We went into the mountain bike with a slight lead and extended that out to about a 10-minute lead.”

Greening, who underwent shoulder surgery at the start of the year, said the adventure race was one of his favourite competitions of the summer.

“It’s one of our favourite races for the year because it’s one of the only races you’ve got company. You’ve got someone next to you the whole time,” Greening said.

“If you’re feeling down, they can get you up and encourage you. Rather than being on your own, you’re with your mate the whole way and you can train together.

“That’s why we enjoy it so much. It’s that little bit different. It also breaks the triathlon season up a bit, too.

“You do get a bit sick of riding out the back roads and running on the roads.”

The Lorne race was the third of the Anaconda Adventure Race series, which also had legs at Noosa, Queensland, and Augusta, Western Australia.

Individual competitors from Warrnambool included Toby Pettigrew (5.03.07), Gavan Cooper (5.31.52) and Freya Parrotte (5.50.49).

A men’s team of Jon Watson, Brett Harrison, Peter Logan and Gary Rodgers clocked in at 4.27.55.

Jenny Dowie and Katrina Lamb finished in 5.17.53 and Lisa Logan and Debbie Rodgers crossed the line in 5.38.25.

Five other teams included members based around Princetown completing the challenge.