Well done, mate. Enjoy some beers.
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Excellent effort all. Amazing from @Mr-me.
Chapeau @Adam - no way I’m remotely in a position to have done anything like the training for an IM after a newborn, let alone with other children to manage too(!), so just getting around is insane in my book!
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Fantastic work, well done everyone 
Great effort all with such challenging conditions. 
Are you from Yorkshire 
Nice work 
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I was inspired by Mungo
I was just getting round, didn’t care about time etc!
My sub4 marathon target went sideways early doors
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So that’s about 3 gels then!
Well done all!
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Incredible days work from all in challenging conditions.
Awesome racing all round. Sounds like a tough day with the wind!
Enjoy a well deserved beer and recovery
Triathlon Mockery tactics there!
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great racing everyone, it was a nice break from filling a skip to keep tracking you all
I’ve got about 15 
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It’s been tough with the little one.
Pangs of guilt when I’ve managed to get out for a long ride etc. I’m always conscious to get stuff in around the family but getting out for 100 mile rides is always tough
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Bless
Great to see you if fleetingly. You had a big smile, not sure it was still there on lap 4!
My “ fast “ mate
Not the best swimmer but some good tri results previously went 1:01 in the swim ( breakthrough for sure)
Then 6:01 bike, on for 10:50 Everytime I checked fell to pieces at mile 11 and 4:30 marathon ! 11:40 ish
It’s full distance it happens
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Top racing lads on what sounds like a tough day. Can’t imagine how hard it is just to keep the bike moving forward in some of those winds after so much racing already done.
Great job team TT.
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Great work everyone - rest and recover well
Well done guys!
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Thank all for following along and for the encouraging comments.
What a day!
This is the brief version – there may be a longer version at some point.
Pre race
Was it just me or did the atmosphere in Transition in the morning seem a bit subdued? Not much going on over the PA not much music. With only 1200 on the start line the transition area definitely seemed smaller.
Swim – I was nervous about this on account of the ribs. I’d done a few laps in the hotel pool on the Saturday night which felt a lot better than my swim the previous Monday but I was still having to breath to the wrong side.
The moment I got in the flash I knew I’d have to breathe to the usual side. The combination of the chop and swimming around others meant I just couldn’t coordinate breathing to the wrong side.
It was uncomfortable but not painful. Anyone who has seen my gps file on Strava will see how abysmal my sighting was. I’m guessing that the injury is doing something to my stroke making me swim in anything but a straight line!
The discomfort definitely got worse during the second lap but it was manageable and I felt I was swimming better than I’d expected.
T1
A volunteer pull me out of the water which brought on a massive chest cramp around the bad ribs. Had to walk it into T1 but by the time I was getting my bag it was easing off. I had some Ibuprofen on my bike which I knew I’d definitely need to be taking
@gingerbongo mentioned something about @Adam and I coming out holding hands and we weren’t far off and got ready for the bike net to one another. Adam told me we’d done a 1.05 which came as a nice surprise and I started to feel ‘it’s on!’
Had a wee before setting off setting (also had a wee in T2 which meant for the first time I can remember I didn’t urinate on myself even once!
Bike
Fuck me that bike! So glad I never got to do a recce or I might never have turned up to race. Horrendous road surfaces (often on the corners and the descents).Feel like every bolt on my bike is going to need replacing after all the bumping and rattling
As Adam said, I had to stop twice for dropped bottles in the first 10miles.
Constant grinding uphill, terrifying in the wind coming down. Propper bleak up on the tops which seemed to be exacerbated by sight the (bored out of their minds) teenage marshals trying to hide from the wind, on their phones paying absolutely zero attention to what they were meant to be doing.
People always say a rear disc is just as stable but I’m not so sure and I was regretting making that choice fairly early on.
More of an upper body work out and psychological challenge than a bike ride. I was losing the battle on the second lap but managed to talk myself around by the third.
So relieved that it never started raining in earnest – it would have been carnage on that course.
@Mungo2 – I saw your mate on his Quintana Roo on he out and back section of the first lap and allowed myself a little smile when I passed him on the third.
In 2019 I rode 6.05 and yesterday it was 5.57 for similar power. I reckon you could carry more of the speed at the bottom of the downhills on the ride yesterday but there’s no question that overall yesterday was harder and less enjoyable than 2019. Weather probably also plays a part in that though.
I couldn’t have ridden that course a minute faster even if I was doing it as a stand alone so I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage the run
Run
Just started plugging away. In the past I’ve flown out of T1 but not yesterday.7.30 (ish) miling from the start.
Despite having done this for years my wife did a terrible job of giving me splits (she said later that she wasn’t sure I’d want to know!). I’d come into T2 with another guy in my ag. At that point I guessed he and I were in 4/5 place respectively.
The run was more of a known quantity in that I know to expect the gruelling climb up through the park but the headwind all the way up Chorley New Road was other lovely addition to an already hard day.
I finally got a split on la 3 of 4 and was told was wining the ag by about 10mins. This came as a massive surprise and gave me a real (albeit brief) boost.
Just kept chugging along - x2 gels per lap and for the first time ever I ran the whole thing and didn’t walk the aid stations.
Allowed myself to cruise a bit on the final descent into town by which time I knew I had about a 20 min lead. You’ve all been very gracious in not mentioning the fact that I was beaten by 10 seconds by the guy in M50-54. If I’d known that I might not have taken my foot off the gas!
Delighted and a bit bewildered when I finished. I really hadn’t seen that as a possibility yesterday
@TROSaracen hopefully see you at the awards.No WC for me. I’ve got Copenhagen in about 6 weeks!
Feel really pleased with the performance but the weather and road conditions meant that it was a brutally hard (and not always enjoyable) day. Personally, I’m not sure that bike course should have been given the ok.
Bolton gets a bad rap but I’ve always been a big supporter. I’m hoping the rumours that Mungo has heard aren’t true but I did have the feeling a few times today that this is an event that has passed its sell by date and if it does continue something has to change.
Thanks again all
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Harder than 2019?
Sacrilege !!
That wind was bad in-the town centre I dread to think what it was like in the open countryside.
Unlucky getting old manned but a great race with an injury.
I hope it continues too.
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Great write up and well done again!