The Start

With no swim, the beginning felt more like the start of a sportive than an Ironman.

Riders were released two at a time every eight seconds in race-number order.

After waiting so long, Adam was almost bored by the time his turn arrived. Then he saw Holly and the girls.

“My head switched instantly. The wandering thoughts disappeared and it was race mode.”

His mantra for the bike was deliberately simple: ride easy and enjoy the day.

The Bike: 180 km and Around 2,500 m of Climbing

Adam had heard so much about the difficulty of the Leeds bike course that he had built it up in his mind to be worse than it ultimately felt.

With roughly 2,500 metres of climbing, it was unquestionably demanding, but the terrain felt familiar after training on the roads of South Wales.

The difference was pacing.

Rather than attacking climbs, Adam sat down, selected an easy gear and controlled his effort, generally keeping power around 250 watts or below on the steeper sections.

The spectator support was superb. Several villages were packed with supporters, and climbs such as Black Hill featured DJs, crowds, music and even Mexican wrestlers at the roadside.

Adam saw Holly and the girls several times around the loop, which added to the atmosphere.

Roads, Traffic and Congestion

Road surfaces were typical of a British race: generally fine, but with occasional rough and gravelly sections.

Signage was excellent, particularly around technical descents and sharp turns. Traffic management was also very good, with most roads closed and the remaining traffic well controlled.

The first lap was particularly congested because there had been no swim to naturally spread the field.

On some descents Adam could not ride at full speed because of riders ahead. In hindsight, that may have worked in his favour by forcing him to remain conservative early.

A Pre-Race Mechanical Scare

During a short bike check on Saturday, Adam had snapped his chain.

It was replaced before the race, but the incident remained in the back of his mind during the opening lap.

He shifted carefully until completing the first loop without an issue. Once confidence returned, he rode more naturally through laps two and three.

Pacing the Bike

The target average power was around 175 watts.

Adam ultimately rode approximately 165 watts average with a weighted average close to 175 watts.

Early in the race, plenty of athletes overtook him.

He let them go.

By laps two and three, the pattern had reversed. Very few riders other than professionals were coming past, while Adam was catching many of those who had overtaken him earlier.

It was satisfying confirmation that the conservative pacing strategy was working.

Bike Nutrition

Nutrition went almost exactly to plan.

Adam targeted around 90 g of carbohydrate per hour, with approximately 50 g coming from drinks and another 40 g from food.

There were two aid stations per lap. He slowed or briefly stopped to collect water, stretch his legs, mix additional carbohydrate into his bottles and then continue.

Total stopped time was approximately ten minutes.

There were no stomach problems and no significant energy crash.

Highs and Lows on the Bike

Black Hill was the standout high point.

The rain made some sections slippery and Adam saw several crashes, including one rider missing a sharp turn and hitting a wall.

Thankfully, he had no crashes, near misses or mechanical issues himself.

The only real low was considerably less dramatic but increasingly uncomfortable: keeping boxer shorts underneath the cycling bibs to simplify the later clothing change.

By the end of the bike, the friction and burning were enough to ensure that experiment will not be repeated.

Arriving at T2

Halfway around the third loop, Adam began thinking seriously about the marathon.

His legs still felt strong, so he allowed himself to push a little more.

He reached T2 with aching feet from his cycling shoes, but aerobically and muscularly he felt excellent.

There was even a small part of him wondering whether he had underbiked.

For a first Ironman, arriving in T2 feeling as though you could potentially have ridden harder is rarely a bad sign.

T2 and the Marathon

Holly and the girls were waiting as Adam entered transition. They told him his bike time was around 7:10 — quicker than the 7:20–7:30 he had expected.

He walked through transition rather than running, completed a full change into running clothes, used the toilet, took a gel and headed out.

The Opening Kilometres

Adam’s legs felt surprisingly good.

The plan was to run continuously and walk briskly through each aid station, approximately every 2.2 km.

Outside the aid stations, the rule was simple: do not walk.

The target pace had been approximately 5:40/km, but the four-lap run course contained around 500 metres of elevation and was constantly rising and falling.

Looking back, Adam knows he ran the opening 10–12 km too hard because he felt so good.

That early enthusiasm would eventually come back to hurt.

The Nutrition Mistake

The biggest mistake of the marathon came from race nutrition.

Adam had trained using Maurten Gel 100 and planned to take approximately one gel every 20 minutes.

During the race, he picked up what he assumed were the same gels.

They were Maurten Gel 160s.

By the time he realised, he had taken considerably more carbohydrate than planned. His stomach began cramping badly and eventually the thought of another gel made him feel sick.

From around halfway, the nutrition plan largely collapsed.

A few jelly babies and small sips of water were manageable. Fizzy drinks were not. He continued taking salt and electrolyte tablets, but from a carbohydrate perspective, much of the second half became a case of surviving on what was already in the system.

A Brutal but Brilliant Run Course

The run course was demanding but the support was outstanding.

Athletes ran through town, past pubs and residential areas where people had come outside to support.

Some spectators had created their own aid stations with sweets. One supporter played heavy metal all day and sprayed runners with a hose as they passed.

For much of the day there was a genuine party atmosphere.

Later, however, the race changed.

As athletes finished and spectators went home, the final lap became considerably quieter. Adam normally runs with music, so suddenly hearing little more than his footsteps and his own thoughts made for a very different experience.

Into No-Man’s-Land

Pain became obvious at around 20 km.

By 30 km Adam’s feet were burning and he was beginning to wonder how much damage he was doing to them.

The blisters afterwards confirmed that the answer was: quite a lot.

From there, the race became increasingly mental.

Rather than thinking about the finish, he reduced everything to one instruction: get to the next aid station.

Walking through the aid station felt fantastic. Leaving it and forcing himself to run again was considerably harder.

But each time, he did.

Then came 34 km.

That number had been sitting in Adam’s mind throughout training because it represented the furthest he had ever run.

“This is beyond anything I have done now. We are in no-man’s-land. Just keep moving and see what happens.”

Nothing magical happened.

His stomach still hurt. His feet still burned. He was still exhausted.

He simply kept running.

The Finish

One particularly cruel feature of the run course was the junction where athletes turned left to begin another lap or right towards the finish.

Adam had passed the right turn repeatedly throughout the marathon.

On the final lap, being able to turn towards the red carpet produced an overwhelming realisation:

I have done it.

Almost instantly, the pain stopped mattering.

His feet still hurt and his body was exhausted, but none of it carried the same importance. He found another gear, increased the pace and ran towards the finish with a huge smile.

Adam crossed the line with his hands in the air and heard the words: “Adam, you are an Ironman.”

Then came the moment that defined the day.

His daughter Ruby was waiting at the finish to give him his medal.

She put it around his neck and said: “You’ve done it, Daddy.”

Adam hugged her and did not want to let go.

After months of training, uncertainty and one very long day, he was an Ironman.

Post-Race

The finish area had everything expected from an Ironman: red carpet, spectators, the bell, an announcer and plenty of noise.

In the athlete recovery area there was water, electrolytes and food including burgers and pasta.

Adam was theoretically starving but his stomach had other ideas. A few mouthfuls were enough to make him feel sick.

The family stayed for around another half an hour before collecting the bike and bags.

The hardest logistical challenge of the evening was arguably the walk back up the hill towards the parking area.

A McDonald’s followed on the way back to the Airbnb.

Once inside, Adam managed a Big Mac and chicken burger before curling up on the sofa with Ruby and watching television.

After months of preparation, suddenly there was nothing left to do.

During the second half of the marathon Adam had repeatedly told himself he would never do another Ironman.

By the time he was back at the Airbnb, he already knew that he would.

What Went Well?

The biggest success was discipline.

Adam stuck to the bike pacing plan even while riders were passing him on the opening lap. He trusted the strategy and reached the marathon with good legs.

Bike nutrition was executed almost perfectly.

On the run, despite stomach problems and increasing discomfort, he kept walking confined to the aid stations and continued running between them.

The result was a sub-4:30 marathon despite the hilly course and nutrition problems.

He was also pleasantly surprised by how well his body recovered in the days afterwards.

What Didn’t Go to Plan?

Two issues stand out.

The first was obviously the cancelled swim.

It did not remove Adam’s pride in the achievement, but it does leave what he describes as a small asterisk in his own mind because he did not complete the 3.8 km swim at Leeds.

The second issue was entirely avoidable: the marathon nutrition mistake.

Adam assumed the on-course gels were the same product and strength he had trained with rather than checking.

That mistake transformed the second half of the marathon.

What Would He Do Differently?

• Arrive on Friday rather than Saturday and register early.
• Give Saturday over to relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere rather than rushing between registration and transition.
• Verify the exact on-course nutrition products before using them.
• Consider relying more on simple foods such as jelly babies rather than gels alone.
• If a future Ironman swim were cancelled with sufficient warning, consider completing the 3.8 km separately for personal peace of mind.

Ironman Leeds Course and Logistics

Swim

The swim cannot fairly be reviewed because it did not take place.

Roundhay Park Lake looked like an excellent setting for the planned two-lap swim, which made the cancellation even more disappointing.

Bike

Traffic management, signage and marshalling were excellent.

The majority of the roads were closed, while technical descents and turns were clearly marked.

There were two aid stations per lap. The gap between them could be fairly long, but they were easy to plan around.

Volunteers were excellent at bottle handovers and stations offered water, electrolytes, Maurten products, bananas and standard race nutrition.

Run

The four-lap course was straightforward to navigate.

Each completed lap earned a different coloured band, making it easy to track progress.

Aid stations were frequent at approximately every 2.2 km, and congestion for nutrition was rarely an issue.

Toilet queues became more problematic later in the race, particularly when stopping made it difficult to get moving again.

Atmosphere

The volunteers were superb and the spectator support was one of the highlights of the event.

Future athletes should, however, expect the atmosphere to change late in the day.

As the crowds thin and more athletes finish, the final kilometres can feel considerably quieter and more solitary.

Adam’s Ironman Leeds Ratings

Would Adam Recommend Ironman Leeds?

Yes — with one important caveat.

Adam would want confidence that the lake issue had been resolved, or that a clearer contingency plan existed if the swim could not take place.

Remove that issue and his verdict on the course itself is extremely positive.

The bike and run courses were excellent, the volunteers were outstanding and spectator support was superb.

Leeds is particularly well suited to athletes who enjoy climbing and varied terrain.

If your ideal Ironman involves sitting in an aero position on a flat course for hours, Leeds probably is not the obvious choice.

If you like hills and a course with plenty of character, it is a very different story.

Adam’s Tips for Future Ironman Leeds Athletes

• Arrive on Friday. Register early, rack without rushing and enjoy Saturday.
• Train on hills. Leeds rewards athletes who are comfortable climbing and can control their effort when the gradient rises.
• Ignore the riders passing you early. Follow your own pacing plan and let the course come back to you.
• Check the exact race nutrition. Never assume the product or concentration is identical to what you used in training.
• Be calm at bottle handovers. Slow down, make eye contact with volunteers and communicate clearly.
• Be ready for a quieter final run lap. If you normally train with music, expect more time alone with your thoughts.
• Think about how you would handle a cancelled swim. If completing the full distance matters psychologically, decide beforehand what you would want to do if there were sufficient notice.

Final Verdict

Incredibly hard, incredibly rewarding, fantastic support and even better spectators.

Leeds did not give Adam exactly the first Ironman he had imagined because the swim never happened.

What it did give him was the confidence that he can handle the distance, the memory of Ruby putting the medal around his neck and the certainty — despite everything he told himself after 30 km of the marathon — that he wants to do it again.