Ironman Lanzarote Race Report

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When the sun comes out, I melt like an ice lolly, and I would probably be quicker to get off and walk the bike up hills, so therefore for my third Ironman you would think that I would choose a nice flat course with shaded run .....

Of course, my brain doesn't work like that so I chose Lanzarote - famed as a difficult course with loads of climbing and a seafront marathon ! This is how I got on.......   

Pre-race

Booked a two week break in Puerto Del Carmen and stayed at the Club Oceano (where nothing was free - I mean 15 euro a week for terrestrial TV ?!?) but did have the advantage of being less than 400m from the start line. Spent the first week exploring the Island by car and visiting the Club La Santa complex where registration was held, and the cheesy but brilliant parade of nations took place on the Thursday. The Pasta party was worth attending, and I piled my plate like a proper fat boy ! No beer for a fortnight before the race meant early nights and no holiday bloating. By the end of the first week I was climbing the walls with boredom and just wanted to get on with it. 

On the morning of the race, it was an early alarm at 3.45 and a battle to wake up enough to make and eat a couple of porridge pots. Then it was a case of waiting around before making our way down to the start area to load the bike with drinks and snacks for the rolling buffet and pump the tyres back up. It started to rain at this point and was still raining as I lined up on the beach with 1800 others waiting for the 7am swim start.

Swim 

All of my swim training has been pool based back in the UK as the lakes are too cold to swim in (unless you're a mutant) and the furthest was a 2,500m effort in April. Usually, I would have gotten my ass down to Whisby Lake sometime in around June and done at least the full distance for confidence. This swim was a sea swim and a two lap affair of 1.9km each with a quick hop out half way round to round a cone on the beach. I started toward the rear of the field and to the right to avoid any congestion around the first turn. At 7.00 we were set on our way and 1,800 people decided to rush into the water at the same time and all I could think was wow ! The washing machine was in full effect and I managed to pick a gap to jump into and swam as quickly as I could to the first bouy in the busiest swim I've ever been in ! On the second leg, the field thinned out a little and I was able to start relaxing a little and breathing bi-laterally every third stroke. On the return back to the beach I could see that it was still raining as there was a rainbow in the sky and luckily the end of it hovered around that start which made sighting very easy. It was very busy again and I was having to fight to keep my position in the water. I took a couple of blows to the side of the head, but nothing life threatening before exiting the water in just over 40 minutes. The second lap was a much nicer affair, with less biff and the same rainbow to guide me home. First part of the race navigated and a 6 minute swim PB for the 2.4 mile swim. I was very happy with that and those were six extra minutes that I hadn't bargained for.... 

T1

I know, I'll take those six minutes and use them in transition one ! FFS - a 12 minute transition - what was I doing - again !!!! OK, so it was a run up the beach, a carnage change tent, and a long run to the bike and to the mount line, but all that being said, I should have been way quicker than that !

Bike 

Really liked the first section of the bike as it was pissing it down and it was levelling the field in favour of the cold British guys who are used to a shower or two. The only problem being that I got wet socks very quickly and although not a problem at the time would come back to bite me on the arse a little later on ! We rode away from PDC toward Yaiza and then tackled the El Golfo loop which was fast on the way in and a slow steady climb on the way out. Average speed was good and even into a 20mph headwind and I felt OK when we took a left into the first long climb of the day as we edged our way through Timanfaya National Park and though the lava field as we climbed Fire Mountain. I was being entertained by sweaty nose lad all the way up as he would battle to get past me, blow up, and then try and go past me again, all the while with a bead of sweat hanging from his nose. As we reached the summit, sweaty nose had completely tailed off meaning that I had a humourless but exciting descent which lasted most of the way to La Santa ! At Famara we enjoyed a turn away from the wind as we were blown almost back to Teguise and then it was time for the real hard climbing to begin...... an ascent of Mirador del Haria and then almost immediately a long drag up and over Mirdaor Del Rio. Being a poor climber, I lost a lot of time here as I found myself inching up some of the climbs. Nothing is too steep though, just constant and monotonous with a few sharp short ramps. Haria seemed never ending , but eventually I ground my way too the top and then was rewarded with a breathtaking descent down the other side with long drawn out switchbacks which had me in mind of the opening scenes of the film 'Italian Job' (I was singing 'on days like these' on the way down in fact !). 

What goes down, must surely go back up and unfortunately this was the case as the climb to Del Rio started pretty much from the picturesque village of Haria, and this was a painful experience along the way. 

Now, people have lots of coping mechanism in times of stress, and unluckily I found myself riding with 'whinging boy' on the sharpest of the ramps up Del Rio, and he just moaned and moaned his way up beginning with why did I enter and continuing with a list of all the reasons why he was struggling. Rather than concentrating on how far the summit was, I found myself wanting to just get as far away from him as quick as possible and this probably meant that I was a lot faster at that point than I would have been. Along the way I managed to fall off when the chain slipped off and all I had to break the fall was my forearm and a rock wall, but other than that bit of excitement, I got to the top OK and only had 60km or so left to do. The sun had been out for the majority of the bike ride and the first half of the course had been into a headwind which also cooled me. Once I got to the top of Del Rio there was a back wind for extra speed but no breeze at all which meant that I slowly cooked in the heat under my aero helmet. This long backwind section should have been where I made up lots of time and took back lots of places, but I never really felt comfortable, either with the aero position with my now bruised forearm from the fall, or the heat which was baking. I lost a few places and was a couple of miles an hour off my game the whole way back. There is an excellent twisty back road descent back toward PDC which needs full attention and is a real highlight, and after negotiating that I was happy to be back in T2 in 7.24, which for 112 miles with 7000 ft of climbing was not a bad time in my book. Just the marathon to go then..

Run 

After a six minute T2 in which a local doused me with suncream, I made my way out onto the marathon along the promenade to begin the first 12 mile lap of the run course to Playa Honda and back.It was immediately apparent that I'd picked up a couple of strategically placed blisters on both feet and running was painful. I had hoped that there would be plenty of cloud cover on the run, but alas there was very little and I was pleased to have a strong breeze to cool me down on the first 6 miles to the turnaround point. However, once I'd made the turn and lost that cooling breeze I again started to melt and my run speed which already wasn't close to my practice run speed dropped even further. Once back in PDC there was some great support all the way through to the first 12 mile turnaround point which I think I made in around 2.10 -not the sub 2 I had banked on ! - and decided that if I could run the next two 7 mile loops in 1.20 each then I would get home in a new target of sub 14 hours.

This new strategy lasted, oh.... half a mile if that, and then some serious stretches of walking started as I suffered in the sun. I found it harder and harder to get going again and my feet were really getting to me. When I got to Matagorda on the second lap, I saw the marker for the airport run in the distance and I somehow managed to give up on sub 14 at that point and walked my longest walk stretch of the race - it was like I had talked myself out of even trying to run. I pulled myself together at the next aid station and started to get going again, managing a slow but consistent jog. I was happy to get back to PDC at the end of  lap two knowing that I was now going to finish and planning a better final lap to make sure that got in below 14.30. The sun was now going in and the temperature had dropped which made life easier for me. Once I got to the airport final turn I had just 3.5 miles to negotiate of the marathon to finish. There was a DJ at Matagorda giving shout outs and he got a big thumbs up for playing Highway to Hell and name checking me !

As I arrived back in PDC, it was dusk, and holidaymakers were filling the bars and making a lot of noise which was awesome. I ran most of the last mile taking in the atmosphere and finally entered the finishing chute for a relieved finishing time of 14.26 - outside of expectations, but within an hour so no real complaints.


A fantastic day and the best event I've done so far.....

Next up
After resting up for a week in bars around PDC, I feel the best post Ironman than of any of the others, so I've decided to have a crack at the Beaver Middle Distance Tri on June 8th before my ret'iron'ment at The Outlaw on July 7th.