In its final year, Barry (previous Ironman finisher), John (Ironman first timer) and Sam (previous Ironman finisher) all finished Ironman Bolton – one of the toughest Ironman races on the calendar made even tougher this year with the strong headwind that seemed to follow the athletes around on the bike course no matter what direction they were riding in.
Here’s a few words from each of the athletes about their experience on the day:
Barry: “The week before the race I felt drained and tired but having a good rest in the few days before sorted that and I started feeling refreshed and strong. The swim was good, felt strong, sighting could have been better, but I’m blaming the wind blowing me off course! Transitions seemed to be ok, nothing memorable there. First 30 miles on the bike was great. Legs felt good, hills felt easy. Started to feel the effect of the wind towards the end of lap 1. The fast sections turned out to be the dangerous sections due to gusts, so I couldn’t make the progress (or recovery) that I was planning there. Other than that, the execution seemed ok. Nothing went wrong, the bike behaved, everything I’d planned to do I’d managed to do with nutrition, fluids etc. I wasn’t looking forward to the run, but once I got going it was ok, I felt alright, stronger than normal. I stuck to walking the feed stations only until after 15 miles (which is far better than normal), but then needed a few more extra walks. The wheels fell off a bit on the last lap, but I was still able to jog the downhills. To be honest I thought I’d be faster, as it seemed to be the strongest I’d felt on the run. But maybe the bike took the wind out of my sails a bit. That aside, a great day, everything went to plan. I’d hoped to beat last years time and felt like I could, but by the end of lap 2 on the bike I readjusted my goals to just making that cutoff and finishing.”
John: “Just trying to analyse yesterday and although my run fell apart, I was still pretty happy with myself! Overall, it wasn’t fast and it wasn’t pretty, but I won the same prize money as the guy that came first. I stuck at it and I know that I would have quit on that last year! People were pulling out all over the place! I’m telling anyone that asks all about it and it’s rare I’m not in any Ironman merch now!”
Sam: “Well, the first half of the swim was great – super relaxed and on for sub 70 minutes, but then I started being sick in the water. On to the bike and kept being sick, food in and food out. Struggled in the wind big time, lost 15 minutes easily being overly tentative. Hit a wall at 80 miles, think I was fairly depleted. Refuelled well in the last 15/20 miles and came onto the run flying. First lap great, second lap sick and had to make a toilet stop. Third lap great, fourth lap is what it is. Disappointed but happy with the perseverance and still got a good overall result.”
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