GK Runderings

Ironman Lanzarote part 4 - the run Back out of the bike shorts under the same rather open circumstances as I’d changed into them, and I cared even less. More suncream on, although it was now 6pm and the need was somewhat less than for the earlier runners. I did briefly consider that at least one reward for slow riding was not needing to do the run in the heat of the day. For us back of the pack athletes, a percentage of the ironman run is always going to be walked. The usual maths is that you have at least seven hours to do it from bike cutoff to the end, and its usually possible to do some sort of run/walk/shuffle that will get you through the distance in the time. That was my comfort blanket as I shuffled off up the coast towards the airport on the first 13 mile out and back loop - there were three loops, one long and two short, along pretty much the same out and back route, turning round next to the finish line each time. It wasn’t until I had been going for several miles when the m...

 Ironman Lanzarote part 3 - the bike I had realised I was going to to be on the bike for a long time, and planned to change to proper padded bike shorts in the tent. I then realised that being a continental race they hadn’t heard of the concept of single-sex changing areas, decided I had more things to worry about, and got on with it. Although I’d carefully applied waterproof suntan oil in my room, I was happy to take a top-up from the marshals who were applying cream like Artex to people’s shoulders - I’ll take any assistance I can get. Onto the bike, and off we go. There was a huge volume of noise from the supporters all the way down the main drag, which was a really good start. OK, I’ve made it through the swim - its time for phase 2. One problem I knew I didn’t have was with the roads. The road condition was generally good, and all the roads on the route were closed for the event - the only moving vehicles were supporting the race. Traffic on the island pretty much shuts down...

 Ironman Lanzarote part 2 - the swim Pre-race pizza on the Friday night. Nerve-settling beer I’d sworn that I wouldn’t have on the Friday evening, along with another pirate who’d come to the same conclusion. Alarm set for 5:30. This was happening. I’ve done the setup-in-the-dark for an iron race before, so that bit wasn’t too unusual. I decided against topping my tyres off in the morning - with the heat, I really didn’t want anything to go bang while I was swimming. Nutrition box and bottles onto the bike. Then it was wetsuit on, and head down to the start. The swim start at Lanzarote is famous - as far as I am aware, its the last of the Ironman races that does a mass swim start. You pick your spot in the crowd according to your expected swim finish time - I headed to the back - and when the hooter goes, that’s it, we’re all off together. I’m sure its great to watch - it was the usual spin drier when you were in it, even from my position behind everyone else. OK, head down, fol...

Note: I'm going to use this blog as a place to store my previous race reports - some of these went out on social media and may well be lost or unfindable, so having them in a central place that I can point people at is useful. Ironman Lanzarote race report part 1 5:30am the alarm went off, and I think my biggest thought was “Why am I here?”. I’d been out in Lanzarote since Tuesday, and it still wasn’t real - I’d never raced abroad before, and never a race with this reputation. There’s always a “I’m not ready for this” before an iron distance race, but this was a “I’ll never be ready for this”. This was Ironman Lanzarote. Lanzarote seemed to have a mythical reputation amongst those I knew or had read about who had done it. Its the same Ironman distance - 2.6 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a marathon run to finish. I’d been told that the swim was flat apart from the waves, the bike wasn’t, and that the run could be a bit warm. I’d never done a proper sea swim in my life other than spl...

Its now a year on from "The Isles", and I was looking back through the daily reports from last year when I realised I hadn't written any sort of conclusion to it. Obviously, for us, the event was dominated by Andy's accident, and it would have been a very different week if it had gone as planned. But, that being said, I still got a multi-day event and a chance to try out what worked and what didn't under some fairly heavy conditions. So, what worked? The navigation via watch was excellent, in one of the more difficult navigational ultras I've done. Subject to the limits of getting an accurate GPX file in the first place, there were no problems. Had I had a little more time, I should have run the GPX files onto the Ordnance Survey app on a bigger tablet or monitor sized screen and checked them - and if I'd done that, I'd have spotted the problem with the GPX for day 5 and corrected it before we used it. Equipment all generally worked. The conclusion for...