Ironman 70.3 UK
28th June
2015

Home : Race Results : Runners Pages
 

 

Official Results

  1.2m Swim 56m Cycle 13.1 Run Total  
Nora Haggart 37.45 3.31.40 1.52.50 6.10.34 1st in Age Category
Richard Piron 37.12 3.29.28 2.07.39 6.24.15  

Race Report 
 
Nora wins  gold (again)!!
 
Nora and I (for some strange  reason!) decided we should revisit this 'toughest 70.3 in Europe' rather than go for the new Staffordshire 70.3.  held 2 weeks ago.  We arrived Saturday morning and the weather was superb.  ...but during the night raindrops started to fall on our tents.  By 6am the surrounding hills were shrouded in mist and the rain had set in.  By 7.15am, our race start , we knew we were in for a wet day.  For me the swim was superb - and this is normally the discipline I least like.  Although busy there was space and even navigating around the buoys was straightforward,  I emerged over 2 mins quicker than 2014,  up the hill to transition onto the  bike and there just ahead of me was Nora.  The first 3 or 4 miles is all uphill and I passed Nora but she was obviously 'on a mission' and passed me on the next flat stretch.  The rain was lashing down by now an I took in gingerly on the descents. Having just recovered from cracked/bruised ribs sustained in a fall in Derbyshire at the end of April.  Nora on the other hand held had no fear.  We spent the rest of the cycle route passing each other until I finally put 2 mins between us on the last climbs.  The run for me was torture.  I knew from T2 that it was going to be  painful - and it was.  I had nothing left.  Nora passed me just before the end of lap 1 of 3 and that was the last I saw of her.    For me it was a huge relief to finish, even though the run course is a favourite of mine -interesting,  picturesque and hilly!.   It had felt more like a full Ironman rather half.  That 'never again' feeling, 'I'm too old for all this!' hit me and looking around at many other finishers - I think they were having maybe the same thoughts.
 
Nora was obviously euphoric -  I knew she'd won gold and I think she had an inkling too.  After a  couple of hours wait it was confirmed.  Next stop Zel Am See Austria for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships!  who knows we could have another multiple World/European Champion in the Harriers...