Lynn and I chose this race because it was in the UK and there was no travelling involved – meaning we didn’t have to put our dog in kennels again! The build up to the race was low key, and it almost seemed like a non-event, something that I was doing but no big deal. I suppose this was in comparison to Lake Placid (2010) and Switzerland (2009), which were both big events that we had to prepare for (travel, accommodation, holiday), but Bolton was 20+ miles up the road!
Training through the year had gone well, very consistent. No injury breaks or disruptions. I had been hitting PB’s all year with my running (half marathon, 10k, 5k and 3k) and just weeks before had taken 7 minutes off my Olympic Distance triathlon best. To supplement the training, three weeks before IMUK I had cycled Lands End to John O’Groats in 8 days with other Mersey Tri athletes (taper involved lots of massages to help my legs recover!). With all that under my belt, I was feeling confident.
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| All the gear, no idea?! |
Just a week before the race, my new race bike arrived. Nothing like a last minute change of plan! I spent the week before the race trying to sort out an aerodynamic, yet comfortable position on the bike. What was comfortable for a 20k steady ride might not be for 180k on race day – but it was a nice bike so I took a chance!
Registration for the race was on Friday. It was my first chance to check out Pennington Flash and see where swim start, exit and transition was going to be. Excitement and nerves started but the expo did it’s best to quash the enthusiasm. It was a very poor show, with the racks of previous years kit for sale (jumble sale) and no 2011 memorabilia! Credit card returned home unused!
Saturday involved a hearty breakfast in the morning with Alvin, Connie and family visiting us. More talk of racing, pacing and strategy filled the morning. Afternoon consisted of racking bike and bags in the various transition spots and then having a picnic on the grass outside of T2. With the race briefing at the Reebok stadium finally finishing at 7pm we made our way home for more pasta, before being tucked up in bed for 8.30pm!
Race Day
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| Are you ready to Rumble? |
Have you ever set your wake up alarm for 3am? Well I have. Quick shower then granola, banana and milk for breakfast, suncream and race kit on, filled up water bottles, then made our way to Pennington Flash for the swim start. I continued to eat en route (hot cross bun and sipping energy drink) whilst filling up my bike gel bottle with 14 gels before getting to a dark Pennington Flash at 4.15am. Calm and composed in transition area going through my routine – inflate tyres, put bottles on bike, set up Garmin, check bike was in right gear, off to get bodymarked, gentle stretches, wetsuit on, give in dry clothes bag and track pump, kiss Lynn and join the queue for getting into the water.
Swim
As per previous races, I was one of the last to get into the water – mainly to save the amount of time I would be bobbing about in the cold water. My warm up consisted of swimming 200m through the reeds to the wide swim start line. I manoeuvred my way to the front row, way over to the right hand side where there were fewer swimmers.
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| Mersey Tri cap on - green cap in hand |
All of a sudden, we were off. I set off quickly, controlling my pace, with a good leg kick. To my left were a couple of other good swimmers and we swam hard together for the first 500m or so. With them being on my left it made it difficult for me to make my way over to a bunch of other swimmers up ahead and to the left. Bravery took over, the fear of getting bashed diminished and I made it to the main group.
The first turn buoy came up quickly. Sighting around the turn buoy, in between hits to the head, I could see a small group of swimmers in the distance and then nothing. It appeared that I was in the second main group of swimmers – result! I continued swimming strongly for the remainder of the lap, overtaking swimmers whenever possible to get onto some quicker feet ahead of me.
At the end of lap 1, I had overtaken everybody in my group with the exception of a female pro (the bright pink cap gave her away). I didn’t want to take the lead and be leading our group, as it was a waste of energy and I had no hope of catching the lead group, so I tucked in behind her and started my energy saving plan. I stayed like this for the next half lap. Only towards the end of the swim did some of the people I had overtaken start to come close and swim through. Our pack then broke up and there was suddenly no feet to follow. I dug in and began pulling a little harder to pick up my pace a little. It was still controlled effort, as I didn’t want to undo all of the good pacing work I’d done so far. At this point we were also overtaking quite a few of the weaker swimmers who were still on their first lap!
The swim into the finish was memorable for two reasons, cramp in my left calf and swimming through lots and lots of reeds. Onto the ramp I was pulled out of the water by one of the helpers. Calves on both legs were now starting to cramp. I looked at the guy who came out of the water with me and he only had one full leg. I could hardly complain about a bit of cramp now could I?
I knew I had had a good swim. Pacing was solid all of the way around, with no lazy moments. I was expecting a good time but when I spotted the clock on the swim exit and it said 50 minutes, I was delighted! This race had started well!
Swim: 50:40, 17th place, 16th male, 3rd in 35-39 age group
Transition 1
I ran through the cramp to Transition, stripping as I went. I grabbed my bag from the rack and ran over to a chair. Sat down. Oops, still wearing my wetsuit. Stood up, tried to get wetsuit off. Sat down, tried to get wetsuit off. Eventually got wetsuit off!
Helmet, glasses, socks, shoes, racebelt, stuffed extra inner tube and three ‘emergency’ gels in pocket and off I went. Ran past one rack of bikes, two rack of bikes and turn left at the third rack. My bike should be mid way along. Yep. Found my bike straight away. Off I ran towards the bike mount. Lynn was there cheering away, reminding me what a great swim I’d had. Amazingly, despite my tardy transition, I was still in 17th place.
T1: 4:00, still in 17th place, 119th fastest transition, still 3rd in age group
Bike
Before I had got out of Pennington Flash I was delighted to spot Alvin and Dani in full Mersey Tri kit cheering at the corner. This was 7am on Sunday morning and they had cycled from Liverpool to get there. It was fantastic to know that they had got out of bed and an unearthly hour to cheer me on.
My plan on the bike was to take it steady, leaving energy in the tank for a decent run. I had read lots about the importance of taking the first third of the race very easy, conserving energy for later in the day. I had to keep my discipline (despite wanting to test out my new bike!). My heart rate was high and wasn’t coming down. I was going very easy, letting people overtake me and move ahead, yet my HR was still 160+. It was great to see Tony Fowler, a fellow MerseyTri clubmate, marshalling on the early stages of the bike course. Quick wave and shout to Tony before I settled in to the aerobars.
I reached my first hill, changed into the little ring on the bike and the chain fell off! Stopped, fixed chain, and got going again. Must keep focus! Only a small hiccup in the big scheme of things. Onto the laps. The big hill at Sheephouse Lane came quickly. Very few spectators as I made my way up (this would change later in the day). Pro triathlete Philip Graves was sitting on the side of road, cheering me on! I put the bike in the easiest gear and spun up the hill, overtaking a few people as the climb got steeper. Over the top of the hill and onto the quick pot-holed descent. Safely negotiated, I made the extremely tight left hand turn at the bottom onto the next section of the course.
This next section of the course was fantastic, and very difficult to hold back on. It was mostly a gradual downhill section – with a tailwind! I held back on this to try and get my HR down, which was still in the 160’s, and freewheeled for large sections. After the next feed station the course comprised a lot of twists and turns and generally went uphill – albeit gradually. This slowed my pace overall, and I could see the average speed dropping through this section.
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| Showboating for the masses! |
The second time up Sheephouse Lane and the crowds were out in force. Once again, I spun up the hill, this time passing a lot of people who were ascending it for the first time. Early into the second lap I found myself behind a few athletes who were generally going at the same pace I was. I had read Chris McCormack’s book recently and he talks a lot about pace lines, as opposed to drafting, which makes the bike leg easier. The theory being that you stay well behind other athletes – certainly out of the draft zone – and then use other people to pace you, thereby saving effort thinking about your pace, accelerating and decelerating. I tried this approach on the second lap, following a couple of the pro women and other men. I was very conscious not to draft and stayed well back but kept these athletes in my sights. This seemed to work as it is here that my HR finally dropped a little.
It was at this point, about 4 hours into the bike when I realised that I had yet to go to the toilet. I shouldn’t be dehydrated as I had drank a bottle of water from each aid station, about 4 at this point. I tried to pee on the bike, but I couldn’t, instead I had a burning sensation! That wasn’t good! I stopped trying and just got on with the rest of the bike leg.
Third time up Sheephouse Lane and the crowds were massive! People were zig-zagging across the road all the way up the climb. I gave it a bit more effort on the downhill section of the bike, passing lots of people, and reaching in excess of 65kph. The bike course was getting quite busy now, so I was passing lots of people all of the time. Reaching the penultimate drinks station and I was amazed to find out that they had run out of water bottles! I had to stop at the station, give my bottle to one of the volunteers, who then went back to the table and filled up my bottle! This was nuts! Two feed stations on the bike course, one of them really shouldn’t run out of water bottles. The last 25k of the bike was quite quick, yet my HR was still coming down (mid 140’s). I was hoping this was a good sign.
Overall, the bike section went to plan. I was coming off the bike with energy still in my legs. I had finished it in just over 6 hours (6:03). Ideally my bike time would have been closer to 5.45 but judging by last years times and the course record only being 5 hours, I knew that was a little ambitious. Anyway, with a 50 minute swim and a 6 hour bike I knew my sub-11 hour Ironman was still on track. Now for a sub 4 hour marathon ...
Bike 6 hours and three minutes, 156th fastest bike, dropping 85 places to 102nd place in the race.
Transition 2
Transition 2 was fast. Two minutes exactly. The 64th fastest transition of the day and I made up four places, starting the run in 98th position.
Run
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| Zooming out of transition! |
Onto the run and I spotted my spectators immediately. Well you couldn’t avoid them! Noisy lot. Tried hard to hold back the pace to close to 5 minute kilometres, but my legs wanted to run at 4.30k pace. I really had to concentrate to hold the pace. Every time my mind wandered, my pace would increase! Stopped at 3k to go to the toilet. Although forcing myself to have a wee was sore, I immediately felt better – and lighter! I knew I had to drink lots on the run leg as this was a pretty clear sign that I was dehydrated!
The first 10k or so were pretty lonely, with few athletes ahead or behind, very little crowd support on the main road and none for the 3k stretch on the canal path. However, after a couple of nasty little hills I hit the looped section. Wow. What a difference. People. Noise. Other athletes. The first thing I noticed though, was that I was running downhill – which was great – but I would have to run back up this on each loop. The downhill section kept on going. All of the way into town. So it looked like I would be doing 3 laps of 5k downhill followed by 5k uphill. Oh my legs were going to love me!
Once again, I spotted supporters. Or rather they spotted me. And the noise they made was awesome! I couldn’t help but be energised (on the first lap anyway!).
My nutrition plan for the run was loose. I walked through the feed stations, grabbing a coke and a cup of water from each one, drinking them and then running straight away. I repeated this throughout the run (only missing the very last aid station before I finished). I also had a couple of zipvit gels (with caffeine) during the run. My stomach seemed to tolerate this so I guess it worked?
The run loop meandered into Bolton town centre, where the crowds were awesome! I spotted Liam & Karen (my brother and his wife) there enjoying themselves and making a fair bit of noise - that was fantastic!
Pacing was good. I was on 5 minute k pace for most of the run. Towards the end, when things got a little tough (!), my pace slowed to 5.15k pace. I was not being passed on the run, but instead overtaking people. Tremendous!
I passed through the final turnaround point and picked up my third and final wristband. The volunteers shouted ‘3 miles to go’. Brilliant! Three downhill miles! I was almost there!
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| Hi Five! |
I reached the twisting town centre course and I could see the finish line and the clock ... 10.28 it said. Instantly a little voice appeared in my head ‘come on Bryan, pick up the pace, you can break 10.30 here!’. My pace quickened and I made my way through a couple more spectator-filled twists and turns before turning the final corner to see more people I knew cheering me on! A couple of high fives to the crowd – well you’ve got to milk the moment haven’t you? – and then I was passing underneath the finish clock which read 10.29.59!!
Post Race
A 50 minute PB was a super result! More than that, I had hit my dream goal. I had three levels of goals coming into the race. Achievable goal - to do a PB. Aspirational goal - to go under 11 hours. Dream goal - to go under 10.30.
In hitting this goal I need to acknowledge others. Lynn, as ever, has been so fantastic and so supportive to allow me to indulge myself and throw myself headlong into this sport. I think it might even have been her idea for me to get my new TT bike!! Her strength has inspired me.
I also need to acknowledge Mersey Tri. What a club! The people who I train with and race against are just awesome. Such a happy, supportive and friendly club. My training and racing would be a poorer place without it and them. Long Sunday rides, weekly running sessions, the duathlon series, the aquathon series, the Ireland training camp, our Lands End to John O’Groats mission, the list goes on ...I might have initially thought the event was low key – but that was before the start gun went off. As soon as the race started it was just as good – if not better – than the other Ironman races I’ve done. The run course in particular was excellent – so much support out there. I’ve already entered Roth next year – but if I hadn’t I might have been tempted to return to Bolton.
Results
Time | Position | AG Position | Overall Rank % | |
Swim | 50.41 | 17 / 1112 | 3 / 182 | 1.5% |
T1 | 4.00 | 119 / 1112 | 20 / 182 | 10.7% |
Bike | 6.03.58 | 156 / 1112 | 27 / 182 | 14% |
T2 | 2.00 | 64 / 1112 | 12 / 182 | 5.8% |
Run | 3.29.22 | 148 / 1112 | 29 / 182 | 13.3% |
Overall | 10.29.59 | 92 / 1112 | 16 / 182 | 8.3% |
Comparisons
IM Lake Placid 2010 | IM Switzerland 2009 | |||||
Age Group | Male | Overall | Age Group | Male | Overall | |
Position | 91 | 400 | 448 | 308 | 1266 | 1389 |
Out of | 355 | 1897 | 2611 | 404 | 1748 | 1979 |
% | 26% | 21% | 17% | 76% | 72% | 70% |
IM UK 2011 | |||
Age Group | Male | Overall | |
Position | 16 | 85 | 92 |
Out of | 182 | 992 | 120 |
% | 8.8% | 8.6% | 8.3% |
IMUK 2011 | IM Lake Placid 2010 | IM Switzerland 2009 | |
Swim | 50.41 | 55.25 | 1.00.19 |
Bike | 6.03.58 | 5.58.18 | 6.34.00 |
Run | 3.29.22 | 4.14.42 | 4.34.00 |
Total | 10.29.59 | 11.19.04 | 12.19.00 |
