Tim qualifies in Utah

Tim headed out to Utah for an early season attempt at qualifying for Kona at Ironman St George. This is his story from a tougher than expected day.

“So Ironman St George was an interesting experience today.

What had been a light breeze at the gun, turned into a howling gale by the time we turned back towards the finish of the swim, presenting us with 1800m of swimming directly into 3 foot breaking waves. I didn’t deal with it very well to be honest, but was relieved to emerge from the water at all, even with my worst ever swim time of 76 mins and a belly full of lake water.

All bets for the day were off after that – no idea how far down I was in my age group and unable to stomach anything but fluids on the bike while battling into a fierce headwind on the uphill section. I have never spent so much time doing 5 mph on a bike and actually started to worry about the cut off times at one point.

Anyway, it was probably my toughest day out ever and I can’t say I enjoyed it, so I really hope my 4th place will be good enough for a Kona slot. All will be revealed at 7 a.m. Utah time tomorrow. I have never seen so many people crossing the finish line at the 16 hour point – an indication of how tough things were out there today and I know there was a massive drop out rate. I hope everyone is ok as I gather the safety boats weren’t even able to rescue people as it was too rough.”

4th place did prove to be good enough for Tim and he has booked his ticket to Kona after all and celebrated with some canyoning in Utah National Park! Congratulations Tim!

Full results are here.