Iron Man competition
Mike Holt recently completed his first Iron Man competition.
IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire, on 12 June 2022.
This is his report of the day.
Considering this was my first Iron Man 70.3 and only my second triathlon I felt confident and ready. Preparation for this event was key, the training, nutrition and hydration plans were all part of my journey.
An early 3:30am start on race day, porridge and coffee were for breakfast. Once ready I headed off to be collected by the Ironman bus.
The bus dropped me on the outskirts of Chasewater Country Park. I had a long relaxed walk listening to my pre-race playlist to prepare for the day ahead.
The race consisted of a 1.2 mile swim to begin, which I completed in 40:30. Second was a 56 mile bike ride through Cannock Chase. This saw me climb just short of 3,500 ft in 3:13:56. The finale, a half marathon (13.1 mile) run from Stafford Town centre to Stafford Castle twice. Admittedly running is not my preferred triathlon discipline and it was my first ever half marathon, I was please to complete this in 2:27:10.
These times totalled with my transition times (the time it take to switch triathlon disciplines) resulted in a total time of 6:43:12 which I was very happy with.
I also decided to help raise money for the Sesame Bankhall Group and to help raise £20,000 to fund the creation of a counselling room in a brand-new St Ann’s Hospice. Only a third of St Ann’s Hospices’ funding comes from the NHS so, as a charity, they need to raise £20,000 every day to keep their doors open. In the end I doubled my target and raised £1000.
Objective A was to complete the event, objective B being to complete the event in under 7 hours.
I now set my sites to my next Ironman 70.3 in Swansea on my 40th birthday (7th August).
