29th June 2025 - Bolton 70.3, Des Moines 70.3 and Capers Sprint Tri

I’m not sure what happened to all the warm weather over here in the UK, and was hoping it would be a little warmer for everyone racing the Bolton Ironman 70.3, but it was bloody freezing, wet and windy come race day – I was cold wrapped up just watching from the sidelines!

Barry – still on his come back from the Transcontinental bike race, managed a 45 minutes swim, a 3:32 bike and somehow dragged himself round the run in sub 3 hours finishing in 7 hours 30 minutes.

Pete was on fire with a 40 minute swim, a very speedy 2:49 bike and backed that speedy ride up with a sub 2 hour run finishing in 5 hours 43 minutes.

Liam was also on fire with a 42 minute swim, a 2:54 bike and a storming 1:45 run bringing him home close to breaking the 5:30 benchmark finishing in 5 hours 32 minutes.

Unfortunately, the cold wet weather got a tight hold of Julia on the bike and when we caught up to her after the bike, she was already wrapped up in a foil blanket. We tried to warm her with a few consolation hugs after she had made the tough but right decision to get herself warm and save her legs for another day and pull out of the race.

A lot further afield in Iowa in the U S of A, where the sun was still shining, Aaron raced his first ever Ironman 70.3 at Des Moines. Being half man, half fish, Arron came out of the water in 29 minutes – 19th fastest swim of the day out of 706 males! We’re still working on his bike strength and speed, but he managed a very respectable 3:14 and backed that up with a sub 2 hour run bringing him home in 5 hours 48 minutes – not bad for his first 70.3 and 2nd triathlon ever!

Back in the UK, Mike had a great race at the midweek Capers Sprint Triathlon managing to pull off a 49th place overall in a time of 1 hour 19 minutes.

Well done everyone.

Fingers crossed for some more sunshine, not too hot mind, and more racing.

If Team PTC sounds like something you’d like to be part of, then please get in touch – it’s never too late to jump aboard and see how speedy we can get you.

Coach Pat.