I decided at the ripe age of 40 years old I wanted to set myself a challenge (or what you would call a midlife crisis)! I had recently gotten interested in Triathlons, I joined a local club - Aycliffe tri Club - and decided I wanted to take on a challenge. So I started looking into it more and decided one of the toughest would be an Ironman. Now if you don't know what that is, it's an event consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run. The one I fancied was based in Bolton - a gruelling hilly bike route in the countryside, all to be completed within 17 hours. So I mentioned it to my wife Sarah, thinking she's either going to laugh at me or try to talk me out of it, but the next thing I knew, she's only gone and entered me as a birthday present!! Well that was the challenge set...

I started training at the beginning of January coinciding with doing dry January. The prospect that it might not go ahead due to the Coronavirus Pandemic was looming, but I kept positive and kept training for the event. 

Training sessions were long and hard, sometimes they would have to be indoors on the treadmill and wattbike when the winter weather brought snow and ice. 

My nextdoor neighbour Dan,  who is the Aycliffe Tri Club Chairman and a club coach, would keep me company on some of the longer rides on the weekend. We would often hit the hills around Weardale and Teesdale to replicate the elevation gain of an extremely hilly Ironman Bolton Course.

As I have never completed an Ironman before, I was a bit baffled about nutrition and how to keep going for such a long event, so I asked some members of ATC who had previously competed in the events and gained plenty of useful advice.

Swimming is my weakest discipline so I knew that when the swimming pools opened after the lockdown that was something I really needed to work hard at to improve. I dedicated a lot of training time to my swimming and it definitely paid off. 

Overall my training went extremely well and I was pleased that I didn't suffer any injuries and could head into the race knowing I had done what was needed. 

On the morning of 4th Jul 2021, I stood at Pennington Flash awaiting the swim start, the sound of Thunderstruck, AC/DC blasting out got my hairs stood on end and I felt I was ready! The swim went as I expected, slow and steady. I finished the swim about 920th place. 

I mounted my bike and started the ride, this went better than I expected, during the second lap of the route the heavens opened and the rain was relentless, the roads became quite dangerous and there were a few accidents on the course that day, thankfully I managed to complete the bike course in one piece. 

Next came the run. I started off well but after just 15 mins I started to struggle, there was a section of the run which had a couple of hills that would instantly sap your energy. Halfway through the run I hit a wall, i arrived at the next feed station where i stuffed my face with a banana and crisps and guzzled some red bull and full fat coke, food i would never normally eat during running but it did the trick and gave me the energy boost I needed to carry on. With 5km to go on the run I checked my watch and realised if I could pick up my pace I could still get under the 12 hours I was aiming for. I just had to treat it like a 5km park run and go for it. The commentator on the red carpet shouted over the microphone for me to take my time and enjoy the moment. Not a chance!!! I was chasing that sub-12 hour finish time!

After the event I was absolutely over the moon with my finish time, and words of congratulations came in from my fellow club members, family and friends. Then 2 days later I received an email from Ironman informing me that I had qualified for KONA, the Ironman World Championships held in Hawaii.  I had to read it a few times before it sank in! I then had 72 hours to make the decision to accept it. A hard decision to make, as much as I wanted to go I had to consider the financial cost, the entry fee alone was over £1000, as well as missing out on more family time due to the amount of training needed. So I asked them, and they were so supportive! So I decided to go for it - I pressed the big 'yes' button and now have a place on the start line. 

I am extremely grateful to Aycliffe Tri Club for all their support in my journey so far, what a cracking club they are to train with. They've even put £200 towards the entry fee for me. I am also grateful for all the ongoing support I'm receiving from the coaches and club members too. 

Kona will throw up different challenges to Bolton. For a start, it's a sea swim without a wetsuit, which I have never done before and feels a bit daunting. It'll also be around 35 degrees during the race - really hot! But I'm up for the challenge and can't wait to start training. I'm going to Kona!!