This Sunday 28th June, a record 1950 entries will descend on Exmoor in South West England for IRONMAN 70.3 UK, as the event celebrates its 10th year since its inception as the first ever IRONMAN 70.3.
A decade on and there are now over 70 IRONMAN 70.3 races around the world, with the demand to complete this 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile challenge continuing to grow.
Whilst IRONMAN 70.3 UK is arguably ‘the toughest race on the European Tour calendar’, the organisers note that the appeal for taking part has never been higher and entry statistics are proving that female athletes are also embracing the challenge. Female participation in previous years has consistently been 13-15% but 2015 has seen a record 20% of the 1950 registered athletes being female.
The challenging course also hasn’t deterred novice entrants – an impressive 53% are first timers to IRONMAN. Whilst IRONMAN 70.3 UK has attracted the youngest average across all five IRONMAN UK events at 37.2 years old, the event continues to see all ages of athlete racing, from 18 to 72, willing to tackle the challenging terrain Exmoor never fails to deliver.
For the first time, the event will no longer form part of the IRONMAN 70.3 Pro calendar, so an age group athlete will have the opportunity to cross the finish line as overall winner. Whilst the seasoned athletes will be battling it out to the finish line in the hope of securing a qualifying place to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, many of the athletes taking part are rising to the challenge whilst raising valuable funds for Official Charities Scope, Macmillan Cancer Support and Rotary.
The weekend’s racing will commence with an IRONKIDS run for over 250 children aged 3-14 on Saturday 27 June from 10:00 BST. The kids race offers a range of distances from 500m to 2K according to age, but all cross the line under the iconic IRONMAN 70.3 finish arch.
Both athletes and spectators are in for a rare treat with warm and sunny conditions set to stay for the weekend. The lake temperature is 16.9C degrees and still rising, which will be a welcome start at 07:00 for the athletes’ 1.2 mile open water swim before they embark on a two lap 56 mile bike course, which entails an eye watering 52 hills and 1190m of climbing.
And the hills don’t end there as the athletes will then set off on a 13.1 half marathon over mixed terrain, each of the three laps with its very own gruelling hill climb, all within the 8.5 hour time limit.
Kevin Stewart, Managing Director of IRONMAN UK said, “We are really looking forward to a fantastic weekend of racing and welcoming all athletes from the age of 3 to 72 to the stunning setting of Wimbleball and Exmoor’s National Park. The athletes thrive on the spectator support to spur them on and we would love to see as many people as possible cheering them on.”
www.ironmanuk.com
www.ironman.com
