Thanks to Brendan and Ciaran for the report and photos. Again well done on a fanatic achievement! Hope the recovery is going well for you both. The first buoy on the swim looks rough and scary! Thanks to Brendan and Ciaran for the report and photos. Again well done on a fanatic achievement! Hope the recovery is going well for you both. The first buoy on the swim looks rough and scary!
Lanzarote Ironman Report 19 May 2007
Imagine the voice of Billy Connolly… “see Lanzarote, bloody hell, its hot man, bloody hot, and the hills, … and not just the heat and the hills, if they don’t get you the wind will, oh man ………..Lanzarote - forget it !”
On the morning - a bit like waking up excited on Christmas morning - up at 4am for breakfast of porridge, Ensure, bagel, bananas and coffee and down to bike area for final bike-fiddling at 5.30am.
For the first time since the race started in 1992 the number of entries passed the 1000 mark: 1076 entrants lined up on the beach for the race this year of whom just six were Irish. After some parting words of abuse to Ciaran to snap him out of his Hawaiin daydreams, we were off.
The sea was fairly choppy and there was a reasonable current at the beach which meant it felt effortless the going out leg and a bit sticky on the return leg. Ciaran emerged from the water in 1hr 9. I followed 8 minutes later. 
In some races the transition is right there and you simply run to your bike with all the gear beside it and off you go, but it is a bit more elaborate in Lanzarote - run up the beach, under the showers (get out of my way mad euro man taking his morning shower !), run to the Bike Bag Area, pick up numbered bag, run to changing tent (no streaking in transition allowed – boo), whip off wetsuit, bike gear on, swim gear back in bike bag, hand bag to volunteer, pause to avail of blonde Scandanavian sun-cream-lubing ladies, - “come here often ??”....to bike, and away…. T1 time of 9:51 - Ciaran must have skipped the lubing – T1 time of 6:13. 
The Bike is one 180km loop of the island over fantastic scenery and is billed as one of the toughest on the Ironman circuit – 2600 m of climbing and wind. It really helped that we had been over to Lanzarote in January for a training week so we were familiar with the bike course. Having knowledge of the course meant I never felt daunted by the distance, the hills or the wind. As it is a complete loop a headwind in one part will be a tailwind somewhere else. The main mission on the bike was to try and keep it steady on the hills, and get as much benefit from the downhills as possible. It was fairly windy on the day of the race, the first two hours were into the wind, the middle stretch was with the wind and then back into the headwind for the last two hours.
The bike course was altered slightly this year from previous years and cut out the big downhill to Club La Santa and a long uphill out of it, and was replaced with a detour around the centre of the island before joining the traditional course again. I don’t think it made much difference. (The route around the island for the afficionados was Puerto del Carmen – Puerto Calero – Yaiza – El Golfo – Montanas del Feugo – Mancha Blanca – Tiagua – Tinguaton – Monumento al Campesino – Teguise – Los Valles – Haria – Mirador del Rio – Arrieta – Tahiche – Nazaret - Monumento al Campesino – Conil – Tias – Puerto del Carmen.) It really is a great course. 90% of it is on newly tarmacadamed smooth-as-a-baby’s-bottom roads. There are frequent volunteer aid stations with water, powerbars, bananas and energy drink. I really got stuck into the bike buffet and aimed to eat every twenty minutes. There was some banter on the bike with other competitors but most were reluctant to chat probably because of the over-zealous marshals patrolling on motorbikes and warning people for drafting in a side by side scenario. I consumed a delicious menu of Powerbars, energy drink, bananas, Nutrigrain Elevenses…and repeat… right up to the end of the bike to try and get ahead of the game for the run to follow. Ciaran finished the bike in a great time of 5hr 54. I was delighted to get 6hr 52. 
T2 was a similar routine of following route to bag area, change area and then onto run. Ciaran seems to have missed the blonde ladies again, having a T2 of 5:06; I emerged in 7:16. 
As the marathon course is a 4 lap 10.5km course along the sea front in Puerto del Carmen, many people took the trouble of looking up from their pints along the sea front to gawp at the weirdos in leotards running up and down the road. Sky Sports was blasting the FA Cup final from the bars along the front; how can they possibly be interested in that when there is a real event going on outside, I mused in my deranged state. The first time I spotted Ciaran on the run he was chatting to some runner along side him and looking like it was all just a little too easy, the number of coloured arm bands on his wrist showing he was a lap ahead of me.
The first lap my legs felt like this running lark was a brand new sport, I tried to keep it steady the middle two laps, walking in aid stations to get the water/delicious Cola in. The wind got up in the afternoon, making each 5 km return to the finish line a slog. Feeling cramp, I took dioralyte and kept taking the gels, telling myself to be patient on the run, not to stop or I would never get going again - even Ciaran was no longer smiling by that stage. Last lap, legs were killing me, but I wanted to get under 13 hrs: “Go On!” say high-fiving intoxicated strangers at road side, my last time up incline (now a serious hill) before going down into finish area – Yes! I was going to make it!
4hr21 marathon, under 13 hours, I was over the moon! Ciaran did a brilliant 4 hr 9 marathon for an amazing 11 hr 24 overall. He was also reasonably pleased.
| |
Place in Age Group | Overall Place | Swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run | Overall |
| Ciaran Lewis | 52 | 240 | 1 hr 09 | 6:13 | 5 hr 54 | 5:06 | 4 hr 09 | 11hr 24 |
| Brendan Smyth | 138 | 553 | 1 hr 17 | 9:51 | 6 hr 52 | 7:16 | 4 hr 21 | 12hr 48 |
PiranhaTri
http://www.piranhatri.com/article.php/20070601150308222