Ironman Lanzarote 2014

Race Report

Before this race I was confident of getting a good result as training had been going well and I was feeling good. However things don’t always go to plan and despite feeling good this race didn’t go as I had intended it to.

I got out the water just behind the chase pack; I found the swim really aggressive and really struggled with this as someone was constantly hitting me or swimming over. That kind of thing is part of what you expect in these races where 2000 plus people start together but it makes it very tiring and eventually I lost the pack.

Out on to the bike I just put my head down and got on with it. I was overtaking a lot of people and feeling pretty good. I overtook Craig Twigg after around 30 minutes of riding and we ended up riding together for the next 2.5 hours working our way up to 6th place by 85 kilometres into the bike. Things were looking good and a podium position was looking promising however after the climbs of Haria and Mirador I just completely blew, it was like a really bad hunger knock and I just didn’t have any energy at all. I was down to riding around 25 Kilometres an hour. After an hour of this I had to stop on the rough road past Nazaret for around 15 minutes. I felt very sick and just really terrible. Eventually I ended up getting back on my bike and managed to find Daz from Tri sports Lanzarote who ended up riding my bike back in motorbike stuff while I rode his moped back in cycling clothes, must have looked pretty odd to the people that saw us.

So that’s my Ironman Lanzarote. I really underestimated the island. It’s not just the hills which make it hard it’s the brutal winds you face as well throughout the bike leg. To be honest I also underestimated the Ironman distance and because I haven’t had a bad race I thought I was unbeatable and could push the bike as hard as I wanted and it wouldn’t matter but you can’t underestimate an Ironman as it certainly will come back to bite you. I’ve learnt my lesson now.

The one thing which really hurt me due to not finishing was just a massive sense of letting everyone down, I felt really embarrassed and just so annoyed. I had lots of friends which were following me online and I just feel as though I’ve let them all down. As well as my Friends I felt like I let my sponsors down, Pedal Revolution, Mail Big file, and F2 events, these guys have all helped me so much and I just felt embarrassed to talk to the and tell them how I got on. Tri Sports Lanzarote as well who sponsor me and let me stay at there villa when I’m in Lanzarot and who helped me so much by taking me to registration, and giving me time splits out on the course. Also Laura my girlfriend who came out to Lanzarote to watch me and was going to hand out bottles on the run course but never got to in the end.

If I could go back in time and race it again I would definitely have raced my own race on the bike and not got to carried away. I know I can hold around 280-290w and run well off the bike. Craig said we were averaging 310w after 3.5 hours, I don’t know what I would have been averaging as I don’t know how much he weighs but I caught him for 2 minutes on the bike as well so I was riding way above what I’m capable of.

It’s been a horrible lesson but it’s certainly going to motivate me for the rest of the season to train as well as possible but also to race smart as well. I’m now going to race Ionman UK and use Bala middle and Chelmondely half to build up to this race. Had I got a decent position at Lanzarote I would have gone for a fast time at Roth but as I didn’t I am now going to go to IMUK and attempt to better my 3rd position of last year.

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