World number 91 Ian Burns recently came through a gruelling challenge which involved conquering phobias and taking his fitness to new heights. The Preston potter completed a Half Ironman at the Bolton 70.3 on Sunday and he believes it has brought huge benefits to his performances on the World Snooker Tour. We caught up with him to find out about his experience...
Ian, first of all well done on completing the Iron Man. What was the experience like for you?
“Leading up to it I was very nervous. It was very much like when you are waiting to go out before a snooker match. Once you get there and you are stood at the swim start, waiting to go, it is nerve wracking. After you settle into the swim, you are alright and can enjoy the day. The swim was 1.2 miles in Pennington. After that you get your wetsuit off and run to the transition, where you start cycling and do a couple of laps of Bolton, which is 56 miles, and then get your trainers on and run around Bolton town centre for 13 miles and finish in front of the town hall.
“When you get later on in the run, you start to feel it in the legs, but I know I am a good runner so that wasn’t too much of a problem. If I was fearing anything, it was the bike. It has only really been in the last eight months that I bought a bike and started properly cycling. You can tell that people who have cycled all of their lives, their legs are better conditioned to cycling. Looking at the results afterwards, my swim was a decent time and so was my run. My bike was still pretty good but compared to others that is where they saved most of their time."
What motivated you to take on the Ironman?
“I’ve always really struggled with swimming. I couldn’t even put my face in the water. After taking my daughter swimming, I decided that I should have swimming lessons myself. I slowly learned to swim, got better and better at it and then I saw an advert for the Ironman. I decided to go for it, took the plunge and worked away hard at training for it.
“I couldn’t breathe properly or put my face in the water. The anxiety was too much and I’ve never been able to do it. When I went for a swimming lesson it was the most basic thing at first. I was literally putting my face in, blowing bubbles and coming back up. That was where I started, so to go from that to doing this, I am really proud of myself. Now I can swim in open water with no problems. I never thought I would be able to do anything like that. In school I was athletic at pretty much any sport, but swimming was the one I never wanted to do. I was scared of going underwater basically. I’m sure a lot of people have the same phobia. I’m glad I got over that.”
Have you started thinking about what your next challenge will be?
“I have! I’m already considering a marathon or a distance swim in the Lake District. I certainly think that having that focus on training has helped my snooker. My physical health and mental health have been boosted and having that goal of something to aim for has been really enjoyable. If I had nothing in the pipeline, it would be easy to not train as much. You have a few days off and it is so hard to get back into it. I’m looking for something as we speak."
“To have something to do at tournaments has been massive. A lot of the time you have nothing to do between matches. I found it has given me the opportunity to switch off. You aren’t constantly thinking about your match."
On the table, how would you assess your start to the season at the Championship League, where you had a win and two draws?
“I played well in the Championship League. It was a good warm up. We knew we were getting three games to get the season going. When these next qualifiers start then the season really begins to ramp up.
“The second half of last season was some of the best stuff I’ve played. Not necessarily with the results I wanted. I really think that is down to having the different focus of the Ironman. That is why I’m looking for other things to do. I believe it helps me massively.
“With this being my second year, I need to be as close to the top 64 in the world rankings as I can. I’m pretty positive on the start I have made and how I played at the back end of last season.”
