The last Ironman Bolton
All good things must come to an end and so it is with Ironman UK, or as it’s more fondly known Ironman Bolton. It has just been announced that from 2024 the event will half in distance and become 70.3 Bolton. For those of us local it marks the end of one story and the start of a new exciting chapter for the town. We are excited about this change and believe that the 70.3 event is likely to be popular among experienced athletes and those who want to dip their toes in the waters of the longer events, without the time commitment of completing a full Ironman. One implication for ourselves is that our annual Ironman Training Weekend will now focus on the 70.3 distance.
This year, Peak XV Tri Coaching worked with over 20 triathletes supporting them in their journey to the start line at Pennington Flash. These athletes came from across our different coaching offers and included athletes coached by us, athletes who attend our regular swim sessions and those triathletes who attended our Ironman Training weekend. So let’s take a look at how the day played out for those athletes and find out a bit more about the event itself starting with some pictures taken from the day.
IMUK Swim Course
This year’s swim course had a couple of small changes. In previous years the athletes swam in an anti-clockwise direction and had the fun of a crowd-pleasing Oz-style exit at the end of lap one. This year saw the introduction of a “floating timing tunnel” which required the athletes to navigate their way through and under to register their lap split time.
Pre-race fears that the unusually choppy waters of Pennington would produce slower swim times proved unfounded and all of our swimmers recorded Personal Bests, a tribute to the hard work that they had all put in during the months leading up to race day.
Success Story 1
Even after years of coaching, we are still surprised and delighted to witness the remarkable progress that an athlete can make in a relatively short space of time. This year, we were privileged to see such progress from one of our coached athletes – Brandon. When Brandon attended his first swim session he struggled to swim one length of the pool often having to grab the pool wall along the way. To say that the lifeguard looked nervous is an understatement! A few months later he ended up smashing the Ironman swim in an amazing time of 1hr 30min.
So, how did we turn this complete novice into a swimmer capable of swimming 90 minutes on race day? Firstly we observed and analysed his technique (or lack of it) and then used the Swimsmooth Hierarchy of Swim Improvement to work on the various aspect that Brandon needed to address one step at a time. As with most novice swimmers Brandon needed to initially work on his breathing, head position and generally slowing everything down. Once we had corrected this we then moved on to working on a great streamlined body and an efficient catch and pull. Great coaching can only go so far and most of the credit for this improvement must go to Brandon who committed to the program and reaped his just deserves. He went on to complete the full Ironman in a creditable 13:29:51.
If you would like to get find out more about how we can help you improve your swim please get in contact on our home page here
Ironman UK Bike course
Ironman organisers kept up their tradition of keeping athletes guessing and the wheels of social media spinning by once again changing the bike course a few weeks before race day. It is jaw-dropping and head-scratching how often the bike route has changed over the years, in fact, a number of us struggled to recall two years when the bike course had been the same!
Despite those various social media rumours the 2023 bike route remained a three-lap course. The main changes were the inclusion of some pretty nasty short climbs meaning that any athlete already worried about making the bike cut-off time was seriously up against it. Those athletes who had sleepless nights trying to calculate the various mathematical permutations athletes needed perfect race day conditions to keep the broom wagon at bay. Unfortunately, the weather gods were not playing ball and athletes woke to ferocious winds which coupled with the hills and poor road surfaces made it very challenging for all but the strongest of cyclists to complete the bike course within the time allowed.
The impact of the difficult conditions was felt by two of our coached athletes who, despite a real commitment to their training and fantastic swim times were beaten and broken by the bike course and failed to make the cut-off times. They were not alone as around 30% of the field was unable to finish.
Success story 2
Success can be measured in many different ways so we would like to share the success of one of our athletes Kat. Kat would be the first to tell you that she is not a naturally gifted athlete. She is however a determined and gutsy woman who refused to quit. over the past 6 months, we have coached Kat and have seen her get fitter, stronger and faster to the point that she PBs every time she went out training. On race day the Tri Gods had no sympathy and made it just a little too tough for her. She fought the conditions on the bike mile after mile and beat the 2-lap cut-off. Unfortunately, on the 3rd loop was Kat caught by the dreaded broom wagon and her race was done!
Despite not completing the race we feel that Kats’s story is a success story on most other courses on most other days, Kat would have smashed it. With the progress she made during her training Kat would have been more than capable of experiencing the amazing feeling of running down that red Curtain at many of Europe’s Ironman races. The old saying “there is no deadline for success” springs to mind and Kat will be back
Ironman UK run course
The Bolton run course is probably the highlight of the race and in 2023 the race retained its traditional run through the crowded streets of Bolton town centre, passing the iconic town hall, and then climbing through Queens Park and onto a long straight out and back. During the run, coloured wristbands are handed out after every lap leading to a common Ironman phenomenon wristband envy.
All our athletes that managed to get onto the run, ran well and finished. It’s the nature of the Bolton course that by far the biggest challenge of the day is to better the 10.5hr bike cut-off. If you manage that then you have 6.5hrs to finish. Quite generous by comparison.
The ultimate success story
Of all the success stories that unfolded on the day, it would be hard to beat the achievement of one of our athletes, John Heywood. Four years ago John was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and a Sarcoma in his ankle and he was told early on that he might never be able to run again.
During his treatment and recovery, John set up GMPs Cancer Support Network and as part of this, he decided to raise funds through a number of different physical challenges including cycling from lands end to John O’ G and in doing so raised over £4000.
For 2023 John wanted a different challenge In his own words ” I wanted to run a marathon, but a lot of people do that and so I wanted a bigger challenge to raise as much money as possible. In the past, I have done a sprint triathlon but nothing really prepares you for a full amount. I did a lot of training I am a strong cyclist, but I have never done all three together before the weekend. It’s a bit like a jigsaw and I hope it comes together on the day. Fateful words as the day brought the unexpected when John was hit by a car during the bike section luckily John had both the tools and the knowledge to carry out some repairs on his bike and was able to not only complete the bike section but also finish the whole event in a superb time just over 13 hours.
Bolton Ironman 70.3
The now discontinued full Ironman event has now been replaced by The Bolton Ironman 70.3. This will take place on 30th June 2024.
Many of our athletes have shown an interest and we are keen to put out a large team and fly the Peak XV Tri Coaching flag.
If you are thinking about taking on the challenge of Bolton 70.3 or indeed any other event and would like to arrange a time to book a free Coaching Consultation please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact form at the foot of our home page found here It won’t cost you a penny but could well transform the way you train and help you become our next success story!
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