News
6 June 2013UK Greg Whyte to tackle Ironman UK
For his first triathlon experience, Greg will not only be tackling the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run but added to this is looking to take on and beat dedicated Ironman athletes in his bid to qualify for the 2013 Ironman World Championships in Kona Hawaii in November.
Greg’s decision to take up such a challenge stems from previous long distance events. Whilst having never competed in an Ironman triathlon before, he has competed in other ultra endurance events such as Race Across America and swimming the English Channel.
Greg commented: “Ironman is the blue riband of triathlon events; requires incredible ability in three very different disciplines and a huge amount of training and commitment. It’s one of the toughest one-day races on the planet and I’m looking forward to experiencing the pain that I invariably inflict on others.”
David Walliams, who Greg successfully coached to swim the English Channel, added: "I wasn't surprised when Greg told me that he'd signed up to do an Iron Man. It's the kind of crazy thing he'd do just for fun and it's going to be fun seeing him suffer instead of me!"
Greg will join a sell out 1,800 athletes at the 9th annual Ironman UK, which sees participants swim in Pennington Flash, cycle through the spectacular Lancashire countryside, before finishing with a looped marathon course cheered on by the thousands of spectators in and around Bolton town centre.
With Greg’s ambition to gain one of the five qualifying places for the Ironman World Championship in his 45-49 age group, he will need to complete this remarkable feat in under 11 hours.
While the Pro athletes will complete the race within 8 1/2 hours for the men and 9 1/2 hours for the women, there will be many first timers, from the age of 18 to 70 simply looking to cross the finish line within the 17 hour time limit to gain the Ironman badge of glory as well as a tremendous sense of achievement.
Kevin Stewart, Managing Director of Ironman UK said: "We are very much looking forward to welcoming Greg to this year's Ironman UK. It is great to see him taking up such a challenge having had so much success in helping other non-athletes achieve their goals. Greg knows what it takes to achieve world class performance and his preparation will need to be at that level if he is to become one of the athletes on the start line at the Hawaii World Championships this year."
For further information on Ironman UK please visit: www.ironmanuk.com