This 70.3 had the potential to be my best race ever but probably not for the reasons you might first suspect.
A 70.3 is the total distance covered in miles in this triathlon event, made up of a 1.2 mile / 1.9km swim, a 56 mile / 90km cycle, followed by a 13.1 mile / 21.3km run. My Personal Best (PB) to complete an event of this distance is 5 hours 7 minutes and I figured that based on improving my run alone (which I was trying to do as part of 40s 4 40) I should be able to knock 20 minutes off, meaning that a 4 hour 40-something PB was ‘within reach’.
They often say it’s the journey that counts not the destination and ‘the journey’ is definitely one thing I appreciate about longer distance events.
This particular journey began many months ago when completed Ironman Dubai and got my first result in the February of 2019. I then picked up an Ironman Kazakhstan flyer at Ironman 70.3 Turkey in November 2019 and stuck it to my fridge. Of course such a fast and flat course would be perfect for achieving a new PB of 4 hours 40-something minutes and I was curious about a country I knew very little about, so I signed up for the next race in 2020!
I then completed my final race of 2019 in Bahrain in December and got my current PB of 5 hours 7 minutes.
Below is an official summary of those last three races I competed in:
I trained hard throughout 2019 and my times came down accordingly. Thanks to these three results in 2019 I came in the top 5% of all athletes in my age group and was awarded ‘All World Athlete’ (AWA) status for the following year (2020) as per the below:
AWA status is awarded to Athletes on a points based system where your three best results in a race year count toward your final score in that same year. You are then ranked worldwide against this score and I came in the top 5% of all athletes in my age group. Those who are within the top 1% get Gold status, those within the top 5% are awarded Silver status and those in the top 10% get Bronze status. Being AWA status gets you certain privileges like priority entry to new races, fast lane check in at events and special swim caps, not to mention the kudos 😉
You can find more information via the following links:
https://www.ironman.com/all-world-athlete
https://www.ironman.com/all-world-athlete-agr
Things were looking good until the Covid-19 pandemic started to really affect all of us. I hadn’t even considered how the events industry would be so badly affected. An early warning sign of how much things would be impacted was when the All World Athlete Welcome Packs were delayed.
The race in Kazakhstan was supposed to take place on the 23rd August 2020 but as our communities became more heavily impacted by COVID, halthcare was overloaded and travel practically nonexistent so the race was deferred by a whole 12 months to 15th August 2021.
In some ways this was fortuitous as whilst training hard in anticipation of the event, I had a bicycle accident that ultimately required hospitalisation and significantly affected my ability to train as I actually had to convalesce for a time.
Thankfully, Ironman acknowledged all this disruption by kindly extending my AWA status by another year to the end of 2021.
I have to recognise and thank the Kazakhstan Ironman Organisation team, as they did almost made it happen for me in 2021!
The team really did a sterling job of trying to accommodate me. I had a visa, I had a hotel, I had a flight and irrespective of the travel restrictions, up until only a few weeks before the event was to take place, all bets remained on and the race was still happening.
Then my flight was cancelled.
I was not able to take part.
As luck would have it, and thanks to the extension of my All World Athlete status to the end of 2021, in mid-June 2021 I was offered priority entry to the ‘One Year Only’ Bolton Ironman 70.3 in September; only a few months after Kazakhstan was scheduled for!
I saw this as something of an insurance policy in case Kazakhstan did not go ahead and I’m really really glad now that I took the opportunity to compete!
Further, my place at Kazakhstan has been deferred to 2022 so I don’t feel like I lost out and am looking forward to eventually racing in Kazakhstan then!
“After the success of IRONMAN UK in July, Bolton is ready to welcome you once again for a one year only, 70.3 distance race. Feel the incredible atmosphere created by the supporters, volunteers and fellow athletes as you pass the incredible scenery before arriving at the impressive finish line in the heart of the town centre.”
Check out the overview below:
…and so this really answers the question as to why this race could well be my best race ever. Not because I will get a PB, nor is it because I will fulfil my 40s 4 40 aspirations. It is simply because through a series of seemingly unrelated events beyond my control and against the odds, I get the opportunity to race my favourite distance on my home turf, set against the most incredible scenery on one of the most challenging and unique courses possible, with family and friends supporting me and with all the benefits of Silver All World Athlete Status!
For sure this is going to be a memorable race, no matter what the result!
Mindful I was aiming to complete the distance in 4 hours 40 minutes, I should probably concede that I’ll be content with more like 5 hours and 40 minutes on a course like this but as the saying goes: ‘Anything is Possible….’.
I will update this blog with the results from the race, my Garmin data and anything else worthy of note in due course.
I’m bib number 149 for anyone who is interested.
You can download the Ironman Athlete Tracker and follow my progress during the event from the following link:
https://www.ironman.com/im703-bolton-supporters
I made a video of my unpacking and assembling my Fuji Norcom Straight 2.1 Time Trial bike and talk about some of how I have set it up specifically for this 70.3:
The original Bolton Ironman event is renown for being challenging and this type of bike could prove difficult on such hilly terrain.
The bike has an ISM seat, Continental Grand Prix 5000 2020 Tour de France Limited Edition tyres, Shimano Ultegra chain set and carbon pedals and numerous other personalised minor modifications.
I chose to use wheels with an aluminium rim and fitted sutable brake pads to provide decent stopping power in all conditions on this challenging course. The wheels have a shallower dish than my others and this is intended to mitigate the effects of crosswinds over the high and exposed parts of the route whilst still proving some aerodynamic benefit.
I also changed the rear cassette to one with a wide range of gears suitable for high speed on the flat and on the descents whilst also enabling me to climb the many hills (11-28).
I took my bike for a ‘shakedown’ test ride on the local roads and they were so rough at speed that my BBB C02 holder fractured off! I’m glad it happened in enough time to order a new one from Barbiri next day delivery from Planet X. I am reliant upon this to carry the C02 canisters that I would use to reinflate my tyres in the event of a puncture.
Pennington Flash
I’ll be wearing a wetsuit for the swim as it will be around 17 degrees Celsius and I note some previous complaints regarding the water quality at Pennington Flash and whist it has been named as one of Lancashire’s best open water swimming venues there can be problems with blue-green algae (a seasonal growth on the water surface which is toxic to humans).
With this mind, I was initially somewhat perturbed by an email sent two days before the event that said the practice swim was cancelled due to ‘natural aquatic material’ that needing cleaning up:
Despite my fears that it was a build up of duck waste or something such, it was in fact a dense mat of Aquatic Weed and a guy was down there the day before dredging it out (you can see his amphibious tractor operating in the middle-right of the below picture).
The day before:
I went for a slow and steady run a day before the event and my Garmin updated my V02 Max statistics to 53 or ‘Superior’ – this was welcome reassurance that I had made progress during my training.
The swim to bike transition was at Pennington Flash but the Bike to Run transition was in the centre of Bolton and we had to leave the necessary stuff in the respectful bags and places the day before. I cannot thank my Mother enough for helping sort this out with me.
I felt torn leaving my bike to sit out all night in the cold but she was rubbing shoulders with royalty and I would check on her in the morning before the start of the race.
I went to bed hoping I had included everything I needed to in the right bags!
Race Report:
The Swim:
All the swim training I had been doing had been either in well maintained pools or in the Red Sea that are crystal clear and between 24 and 30 degrees Celsius. I realise how much of a first world problem this is but just to set the record straight, ‘the Flash’ is a fundamentally different beast.
I had been taking cold showers as one of the 40s 4 40 challenges (see future blog) and this definitely helped me to anticipation the shock of the temperature difference.
The Flash was 17.4 degrees Celsius on the day and despite the IRONMAN team’s efforts remained absolutely full of pond weed! Visibility was about half a metre and it was really easy to touch weed and get it wrapped around your ankles.
I wore my heavier wetsuit and honestly, the temperature wasn’t that bad. Sure, my hands, feet and head started to get cold toward the end of the swim but in the heat of the moment, there wasn’t time to get too cold.
It wasn’t my best swim ever because I fell off the end of the pontoon and effectively tombstoned my entry, got caught up in loads of pond weed and then kept breathing to the right and therefore pulling to the right. Not being used to swimming in a lake without lines to follow made it challenging to swim straight and this meant I spent a lot of time almost off course wide of the pack and not benefitting from any draft. You can see from the below diagram how much time I spent not swimming straight!
The swim was 1.9 kilometres but Garmin reckons I swam 2 kilometres so irrespective of the above, I’m really happy with my official time of 33 minutes 36 seconds. Had I kept it on track, this could have been my fastest swim in a 70.3 yet so I was feeling strong!
The Bike:
There is only one word to describe the bike course, and that’s ‘Brutal’. You can see from the below green elevation profile how undulating it was, with around 952 metres of climbing on the bike alone.
You may note a significant gap about a third of the way in on both the blue speed and red heart rate graphs, immediately after one of the fastest sections.
At this point, I was travelling downhill at approximately 68 kilometres per hour in the process of overtaking another guy to my left. The road surface was extremely rough before the decent began but seemed to have smoothed out further down the hill until we both hit a narrow section of the road that upon closer inspection latterly, appeared to have been resurfaced a number of times.
Clearly when going downhill on a narrow road at almost 70 kilometres per hour, one of the last things you need is any significant changes in road surface and this particular change was difficult to allow for as it was not marked in any way and initially appeared to be flush.
However, flush it was not and we both took off, taking a real kick in the rear as the rear tyre bounced off the bumpy road surface. The jolt was so severe that it caused the water bottle mounted behind my seat to fly out and start skidding down the road behind me. The other guy lost his hydration system and tool kit – it was like a slow-motion in-flight incident with items flying all over the place. We both slowed down to stop and retrieve our items and I lay my bike down in a bush at the right side of the road before making my way back up the hill on foot to see if I could find my bottle.
I could not believe how many bottles and bits and repair kits and all sorts of bike gear was strewn all over the road, clearly this had happened to a lot more people than just us!
It took me a few minutes of running up and down that section of the hill looking in the bushes to find my bottle – it had skidded a long way and I had not been able to look exactly where it went as I was braking hard and tying to stay on!
I checked the other guys was OK, cleared the road bit and then headed back to my bike. By this time a lot of cyclists had passed us and I’m grateful they asked if I was OK. Crossing that narrow road again back to my bike with others racing past at over 50 kilometres per hour was crazy!
The route itself was beautiful and wild and incredible to ride. Technically challenging and a really stimulating in all senses. People were out on the street all along the route cheering us along and this included Family and Friends and Tri Preston supporters which was truly amazing to see – thank you all!
Yes, the road surface was not good and at times I’d probably call it dangerous but this added to the challenge. It was not as easy as simply putting your head down and working away for a couple of hours, this took some technical skill and bike handing skills just to get round!
You can see some data below including notable statistics like my maximum speed of 69.5 kilometres per hour, my average heart rate of 150 beats per minute, over 2,000 calories burnt and total ascent of over 950 metres.
The Run:
The run was one of four quarters for me. The course was made up on 2.5 laps so it was easy to know what point on the race you were at. There were supporters all over the course and Bolton Town Centre looked brilliant with events and tunes and banners and people celebrating.
It normally takes me a couple of kilometres to feel OK running after a long cycle. Long cycles and especially running immediately after them is definitely something I did not do enough of in my training and I blame the summer months in Riyadh for giving me an excuse not to spend hours on the bike.
It would be ridiculous to suggest I had not completed any long rides after I cycled for 40 hours back in June 2021 but really that was an exceptional event and not part of any structured (or useful!) training plan. Most of my rides have been an hour or two maximum. As a result, I found the first 5km of the run tough, I struggled to get going, my legs were sore and despite revelling in running around Le Mans Crescent, the route was predominantly uphill (the route through the park was practically vertical followed by a long drag up Chorley New Road and on to the turn point) and I was flagging.
However, once I had turned and started to run back into Bolton, my legs got going and as this part was downhill, I perked up in the second quarter. Once I had run through town and seen where the Finish line was, I knew I was on my second lap with about 10km left to go and I started feeling a lot better and started working harder. I powered myself back up to the turn point and then made a point of running as fast as I could for the final five kilometres and last quarter of the run.
You can see in the blue pace graph below that my pace drops significantly occasionally – this was me walking through the food stations taking a swill of water, a cup of Gatorade and one time, a banana (that I ate half of).
My best pace was 3 minutes 30 seconds per kilometre and this was surely as I was running downhill at some point. Nonetheless, I was running less than 5 minute per kilometres for the final four or five kilometres. I wish I had been able to keep this up for longer but I understand why I did not feel able to earlier in the run and I am confident that my run performance has improved. In fact, this is my fastest half marathon as part of a 70.3 and to achieve that on a challenging course full of undulations is great!
The Finish:
So the tile of this post is IRONMAN 70.3 in 4 hours 40 minutes and for all the reasons and excuses listed above, it was extremely unlikely that I would achieve that time on this Bolton course.
Nonetheless, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE and I was absolutely made up so find that irrespective of my actual finish time, the board did actually appear to read #40s440 as I crossed the line – this magic was made even more apparent by simply adding a post-edit zero!
Clicking the below picture of link will take you to a minute of film that goes some way to show how incredible the support was throughout Ironman 70.3 Bolton.
It’s a compilation of videos and live photos with special thanks to Craig and Lucinda for their contributions:
Conclusion:
I came 313th overall out of 1,154 so top 27% and I’m confident that did not have anything more to give on the day. My swim was representative and I didn’t freak out in the cold, I used all 22 gears on the bike and got a respectable top speed, had my best 70.3 run yet and miraculously managed to see 40s440 on the finish line timing board at the end of this unique event – I am thrilled to bits with the whole experience!
Coincidentally, I also came 44th out of 169 in the age 40 to 44 category (again, top 27%) which is interesting – it must be true that things come to you, just not always quite how you anticipate they will #40s440!
Thanks for all the support; feel free to ask any questions.
