2026 IRONMAN 70.3 Bolton

The IRONMAN 70.3 Bolton is the UK’s standout early-summer middle-distance triathlon, featuring a 1.2-mile lake swim, a 56-mile hilly bike ride, and a 13.1-mile town center run. The event has a legendary electric finish in the heart of Bolton on Victoria Square.

2026 IRONMAN 70.3 Bolton
2026 IRONMAN 70.3 Bolton

Event Profile

  • Date: Sunday, June 7
  • Format: Age-group and professional categories, featuring a self-seeded rolling swim start.
  • Energy Partner: Maurten Gels are available on-course for athlete fueling.

Course Breakdown

  • Swim (1.2 Miles / 1.9 km): A single-loop course at the calm, open-water Pennington Flash Nature Reserve in Wigan.
  • Bike (56 Miles / 90 km): A two-loop circuit around the surrounding regions before heading north into the Lancashire Moors. It is known to be a challenging, undulating ride with some technical sections.
  • Run (13.1 Miles / 21.1 km): A mostly flat, two-loop half marathon through Queens Park and the historic streets of Bolton.

Spectator Information & Logistics

  • Finish Line: The final stretch leads competitors down the Red Carpet toward the steps of the Bolton Town Hall.
  • Road Closures: Extensive road closures and bus diversions affect the area, with major impacts on roads and surrounding routes.
  • Local Amenities: Spectators and athletes have access to local hubs like the Albert Halls Bolton and the Bolton Museum, both located right near Victoria Square.

For more information, visit the official IRONMAN 70.3 Bolton portal.

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Author: Mark Whitfield

Welcome to my site! After graduating in Computing in 1990, I accepted a position as a programmer at a Runcorn based software house specialising in electronic banking software, namely sp/ARCHITECT-BANK on Tandem Computers (now HPE NonStop). This was before the internet became more prevalent and so the notion of enabling desktop access to company accounts for inter-account transfers and book keeping was still quite a cutting edge idea (and smartphones only ever hinted at in Space 1999). The company was called The Software Partnership (which was taken over by Deluxe Data in 1994). I spent 5 years in Runcorn developing code for SP/ARCHITECT for various banks like TSB, Bank of Scotland, Rabobank and Girofon (Denmark) to name but a few. I then moved onto a software house in Salford Quays for further bank facing projects. After a further 23 years in the IT industry and now a Senior IT Project Manager (both Agile and Waterfall delivery), I thought I would echo out my Career Profile in this corner of the internet for quick and easy access.

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