Ironman UK 2015

Race Report

This is what it took me to make the podium at Ironman UK. After a poor swim I had a lot to do and gave it my best effort unfortunately for me it wasn't enough and I came up short. It wasn't for lack of effort though, sometimes you have to admit that the guys in front of you on that particular day were better!

The elevation on the bike data isn't accurate due to the weather affecting the Garmin I think. My power was good with an average of 288 and normalised of 302w for nearly 5 hours. I rode the whole thing by myself and it was very hard, I didn't feel like I was on one of them days where everything feels easy and it felt like I was working the whole way. I went through a rollercoaster of emotions it felt like, one minute I felt good then next I felt tired. I could see the power was good and kept in good spirits and just aimed to give it my all.

I went for it at the start of the run knowing that David was only 5 minutes down the road an Fraser a further 3m 30. I was confident once I got off the bike of catching them if I was on a good day. When I raced Long course worlds in Sweden I managed to run 5.49s off the bike for 30km which included a lot of off road running so tis gave me good confidence and I knew I was running well. It started off alright but then after 10 miles it was as if the lights went out and I just blew. I don't know what happened, well I guess if I started off slow it wouldn't have happened but then I would have had no chance of winning!

I like to think I got stuck in and gave the win a good go. I can't tell you how much I wanted to win this race! I would swap all of my results this year for a win at Ironman UK!

One thing thats for sure is that this result won't get me down, I'll use this as good motivation going forward! I'll come back stronger and faster. Going forward I'm currently in 21st place on the Kona rankings for the world championships with 40 making the first cut next week, I'm already looking forward to getting stuck in to the next Ironman despite barely being able to walk up and down the stairs still!

One last thing I would like to say again is thanks to all my friends and family that came up to support me in Bolton for the Ironman, and who followed me online and to all the people on course that were cheering me on and giving me support. This helped no end and every time you're going through a bad patch it really does give you a boost!