Ironman UK - Bolton

After good results in Lanzarote the last two years, I was on the hunt to find the right race to try and qualify for Kona. With a fair amount of travels for my last races, this year’s long races were going to be on home soil, especially if I manage to qualify and have to finance a trip to the big island quickly! With this in mind Bolton was race 1, and IM Wales is going to be the “back-up” qualifying event.

My racking race prep went alright, with the only annoying thing being that the organisation stopped giving bike covers when I racked, because of the weather forecast and the wind announced for the night. This may well be one of the root cause of the problems I experienced on the bike on race day.

For the swim, I seeded myself somewhere mid-pack in the 1h - 1h10 pen (rolling start from this year on), based on what I believe I could achieve based on training progression: 1h05. But that time bracket was just stupidly big from the organisation: there are a lot of people who will come out of the water between 60 and 70min! The gun went, and things took some time to get moving. I really didn’t see where the timing mat was either, so I had no idea when my race actually started. I opted to go for a straight line out to the first Orange buoy as the yellow ones were not on a straight line so it was probably a bit shorter that way :-) But despite not making too many mistakes direction wise, turning bang on all buoys, and feeling really good and strong in the swim, that didn’t pay off at all and I exited the water in 1h09. The rain started to lash down on my second lap, we couldn’t see anything on the water anymore, so that may have played a role in my crap swim.

T1 was uneventful, bar a few slippages on the mud in bare feet, but I’m pleased with it and I’m definitely pleased I used my arm warmers. Even wet, they helped a lot. For the first time, I used the “donuts” technique, and that worked really, really well!!

I couldn’t see anything on the bike to start with, with my sunglasses being too dark under the dark clouds, and completely steamed up with the rain, so I removed them until I reach Chorley new road in Bolton! By that time, I already had time to realise my rear brake was rubbing, and my power meter wasn’t working. I tried everything with the brakes, but couldn’t release the cable more than it was, so I guess something’s banged the rear wheel in transition and whacked the wheel bearings. Looking at it now, my rear wheel is still true, but there’s a fair amount of play in the axle, which wasn’t there before the race.

My power meter was also completely on crack! It seems that I did the whole ride at 164W NP and 147W average!! I tried to zero and calibrate it mid ride, but to no avail. Since that was also working fine on Saturday, I now think the rain overnight didn’t help, and that’s why I’m not best pleased with rain covers not being given and being removed from the bikes overnight!

The ride itself was interesting, a bit more like swimming for an extra 2 hours. I was cold, and with much teeth rattling, I bit my tongue twice in the first hour. I SERIOUSLY thought about calling it a day when I was in Bolton on my way to the laps. The hotel was right there, on the right at the roundabout, and a hot shower was very tempting!

The rest of the ride was quite uneventful, really. Windy and rainy to start with, but having recced the route a few weeks before, there weren’t any surprises. I was keeping nutrition going in and concentrating on RPE and doing mathematics to judge my average speed. My HR was also pretty low, so I don’t think it was reliable either in the cold… It turned out I should / could have pushed more on the second lap as it was about 3min slower than on the first, while I was still feeling very good. Looking at HR and power now, I’m sure having those working alright would have helped identify that I was taking it a bit too easy as I was feeling really good after the sun came out.

Despite the course and the crap roads, it’s probably the first time I’ve been comfortable for pretty much the whole ride!

T2 was possibly a bit slow, but that allowed me to setup alright for the run. I didn’t even realise at the time, but I kept my arm warmers for the first 5K, and gave them to Ellen at the first special needs, 16Ks in!

I started the run very, very lonely! I’ve never been in that position before and it was quite strange to see no one in town and for the first 16Ks!

I was feeling good and not looking much at my watch and pace, especially with those nasty little climbs after the run along the river. In retrospect, I probably could have pushed a bit more on the first lap, but I didn’t know the course (big mistake!). Something clicked on the second lap, in the long descent towards town, and I felt like I could really open it up. That felt great! I’ve had to walk a couple of aid stations and once on the steep incline of Chorley Street, but I’m very pleased with that run overall. 3h19 on that course is a fantastic achievement and an IM PB by over 6 minutes. Obviously, not working as hard on the bike has helped a fair bit to set me up for that run!

However, with the start format, it was pretty much impossible to know who was ahead or behind, and I didn’t really realise I was that close to the pointy end either. Crossing the line in 10h06 didn’t surprise me too much, as I though I could get under 10 before the race, and if I had, I would have qualified, but it wasn’t to be.

It turns out that being 26th overall including all pros, I was still 9th in my age group, which turned out some ridiculously competitive times. I’d have qualified out-right in 25-29 or in 35-39, but in 30-24, slots rolled down only to 7th.

Obviously, I’m gutted I missed out on qualification, being so far up the race on the day, but it highlights again that my swim is poor. Again, something to work on in the summer, but I’ll remember that race as my best executed race to date.

Roll on Ironman Wales!