Ironman Lanzarote 2013 (3rd weekend in May?)

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  • Aw cheers guys, I think I was just lucky it wasn't PMT week!

  • Thanks to everyone for an excellent week in, almost sunny, Lanzarote. Great to catch up with familiar faces and to meet some new ones. I thoroughly enjoyed the company and was very appreciative of the support both on and off the course.

    Saturday was mostly enjoyable, apart from the usual grumpy hour on the run, and much improved by the level of support always engendered by the pirates with a special mention for COLT who also seemed to have a large supporting group that also gave very vocal support to the pirates.

    Overall performance was a bit slower than I hoped for, not helped by some truely lesiurely transitions, but probably reflected how difficult I found the wind on the bike. Although I had one of the slower pirate swims it is always a relief to get out of the water safely and I enjoyed this one more than most.

    So, thanks again to all the pirates, competing and supporting who made this such a good week. 

  • Unflappable Pingu - that is one cool penguin image

    If you think you can or you think you can't you're probably right.
  • F.oggyF.oggy ✭✭✭

    As Dermot has already said, great to catch up with everyone and share a beer.

    A hearty congratulations to all the Pirates who were there. To get round that course is not easy. Slag just needed a bit more time and he would have finished too. Thanks to our supporters were as usual awesome!

    I will post two thirds of a race report in due course.

  • Great report Pingu, I couldn't believe how calm you were when I bumped into you in transition and you told me you'd just racked a rental bike! Seriously impressed with how you didnt let it phase you on the day. Well done! image

  • don't take too lon foggy.........we need those reports to fuel our training......

    Pingu..............amazing report...still can't believe you did it on a borrowed bike..........

  • Extravalanza 2013  diary of a DNF

    Pre Race

    had anticipated there being a few other iron folk on the flight out , but not quite so many .  Real feel of excitement and nervous anticipation in the departures lounge. The plane basically split into three distinc sets of people ironfolk , fake tat wearing chavvys , and old folk heading for the sun to ease their aches and pains. Boarding begins with the wheelchair procession and the rest of us soon follow along. Sat in the window seat just above the hold door i got to see the delicate loading operation of 40 plus bike boxes. Was grateful that the handlers couldnt get much air time when launching my super heavy DHB bag onto the conveyor so a fairly gentle onboarding experience for betty ribble,  some of the lighter boxes took a bit of a biffing. Lovely flight over, hassle free exit at other end, transfer bus ready and waiting, all is good.
    Pirate HQ looks lovely , nice room, not too many steps, bar, pool.   Instructions on where to find other pirates had been left at the bar and so off for the first of several very nice meals with very nice people at the Tropicana (named in the 80's ?? ). Thursday morning swim with OC , Shufflebunny, Cool hand Pingu and Pingu Jnr.   Swim course alrealdy marked out and plenty of people practicing. Stunning array of sealife and some pretty decent sized fishies. OC kindly runs a few of us to CLS to register and shows some of the course on the way .. eeesh .. those are some loooong hills. Back to base and join Mouse for a few miles of bike shake down.. fortunately no issues.  Highlight of pre race has to be Barlos and the ten minute challenge .. to unpack, assemble and ride his bike in 10 mins or less. Would have been funny enough anyway , but when he opened the bike box OMG i cried with laughing ..wrapped (and i use that term very very loosely) in what appeared to be toilet paper and streamers .  Carl starts ripping the mummified frame from its bindings and assembly commences . To his credit he did get it built in 10 , and rode it , and didnt quite end up in the pool. 
    I'm rambling .. so to wrap up this bit.. Pams bike broke, stays cool as a cucumber and just rents one. Had nice food , good night at Route 66, only spoilt by a dozen or so hot women on a hen party coming and standing next to us, how very dare theyimage. Checked all the bits n pieces into transition on Friday and early to bed for a sleepless night.         

  • Race day
    Lovely COLT ladies lend me a track pump.. load 2 kilos of nutrition into bento box .. into the wetsuit and have a warm up swim ..

    Swim
    Started most of the way toward the back of the pen.. usual reasons , stay away from the worst of the biffing etc. With the narrow start this meant probably a two or three min wait before i got in the water and started swimming , but once in it was lovely. Flat calm sea, crystal clear , and mesmorising fish to look at between breaths. Did get a little annoyed by the amount of breast strokers , and i think if i ever try this one again i'll move further up the start pen to hopefully avoid some of these.

    T1
    It is a bit of a trot up from the beach to the bags and change tent. A little faffage trying to extract my oversize self from undersize wetsuit and then a moment of indecision about shoes on here , or nearer the bike (more beach to cross and was considering the sand in shoes implications) .. opted for nearer the bike , then decided i needed a wee (god only knows why i couldnt have managed that in the sea). The 25km run from the old man section of the bike racks to the timing mat might have taken a few minutes , although it was ironically the fastest i ran all day. I must have also read the first few chapters of lord of the rings as it seems i spent 18mins in T1  (i have subsequently thrashed myself with nettles for this) 

  • Bike
    As has become the fashion with my IM races there was slim pickings left in the bike racks by the time i got there so no huge problem finding mine. Nice smooth ride out of town and out into the open roads. fairly uneventful first few miles, had the occasional twat hat wearing cyclist pass me and embracing the language I muttered quietly "mierda nadador" image . On past the first feed station and into the loop towards el golfo .. A mahoosive pack of cyclists coming the other way at the end of the loop had me thinking that perhaps the el golfo loop was shorter than it had appeared ... but no .. they really were all 20 km or so in front of me. It was somewhere around here that Foggy passed me, we exchanged a few words of encouragement and established that his quick release wetsuit had "gone off" somewhat prematurely and he had effectively towed a neoprene bag full of sea with him for about 3k of the swim. The very long uphill straight towards fire mountain , is very long , very straight , very uphill and very bloomin windy ... When OC kindly drove us to CLS to register we went along this bit and were told "and then theres a nice downhill but you just have to watch the cross winds" , well i dont know about anyone else but it seems to me that the winds were a little crosser than anticipated and so began the first of many downhill climbs .Its difficult to remember much from there on in as i got a bit tired and emotional ..Of the bits that did stick in my mind.. Mirador ... now thats a lovely way to spend an hour folded over the bars at 6mph .. and just when you think you have cracked it .. nooooo it goes up again.. finally hit the top and see a bottle drop sign .. dump the half full water and high 5 leaving only my superstrength electrolyte mix , turn the corner expecting to see tables full of bottles only to be greeted by the special needs bags .. arse .. hadnt put one of those in and now have 20k with just salty water (adds note to read the course instructions properly next time) . Loved the downhill switchbacks but they were done in a couple of minutes and seemed small reward for the time spent climbing.  Couple of short but painful climbs through villages , and then up another biggy. Stop briefly to check on a cyclist sat on the side, bike on floor, establish that he was largely ok , nothing that i could help with , just nothing left and waiting for the doc to collect him, walk for a bit thinking thats not such a bad plan , but get back on and spin the little gear for another hour or so... this ones kind of worth it though because the view from the top was just incredible. (its the back drop to a lot of the finisherpix shots) . Finally a feed station and no more salty water image. somewhere along here we turned onto the strech of road that they had been using for land mine tests, then onto a bit more climbing , more wind , more climbing , more wind , more water , more wind , then finally .. finally the long awaited final 10K  Downhill to PDC .. and it was fanbloodytastic.. someone turned the wind off for a few minutes , the hills were pointing down , the road actually had a surface .. hit just shy of 50mph at one point , and overtook a moped and a ratty old van (concerned about the 35m drafting rule behind motor vehicles obviously) .. wish i could have seen the faces. Tiny little bit into the wind and then its the coast road through the town and the end of the hardest bike ride i have ever known. 

  • Well done Pingu - great report.

    Will be plenty of COLT supporters there again next year - we've 14 people signed up to race already.

  • T2
    Bike handed off to a helpful volunteer, bag recoverred from hook, into the change tent ,and i have a complaint here , sun loungers.. whos idea was that !! once you are sat that low down its bloody hard work getting back up again.   Anyhow .. bike top off , monaco on , bike shorts off and replaced (somewhat laughably i guess) with running ones , sock change , shoe change
    (note ..if i could do T2 over it would have been a shoe change and straight out , dont know wtf i was thinking with the change of top ,shorts, socks etc  with so little time to play with)   

    Ralk
    out onto the course intending to walk to first feed and get the legs back a bit , then run walk starting with 8 to 2 and dropping the big number as needed... epic fail.. run element started at about 4 mins and dropped to about 30 seconds before i hit 5k .. from here on in it was more a death march than a marathon and whilst i tried to keep speed up at every KM marker i ran the math and the propects of a postive outcome got slimmer and slimmer . with a couple of k left on lap 2 it became an impossibility.
    I was joined briefly by a German couple offering words of encouragement and on asking the tiny blonde lady if she had been spectating all day it was established that she had actually raced and already finished .. wow well done , how did you get on ? .. to be told she was the winning lady  #humbled that Kristin took the time to chat to me on her way back in to town "to party" .   The trouble with heading towards the finish arch and turnaround point the wrong side of 23:00 is that everyone assumes you are about to finish, kinda hard to keep smiling and thanking people when you know its game over , but you try to as its not their fault and you have to applaud the passion and enthusiasm of their support. Down the red carpet and have to indicate to the excited flag waving marshalls that i actually need to turn right and not go through good bit image .. explained the situation to band lady and although she said i could carry on if i wanted there was no way in hell that i could be back before midnight.   It may seem stupid to some, but to me its a 17 hour cut off .. thats the rules .. and the fact that Lanza allow a little grace on that is nice for those that want that moment and for whom its just about doing the distance , but i need to know i did it within the right time, i'll take the shirt and the medal when ive earnt it.. so time to hand the chip in and collect my bags, theres always another year.    


  • Despite my dissapointment at not finishing the weekend was fantastic. Staying in Oceanos with the Pirate posse was great fun .
    Raf , mate what a race to choose for your first IM , so pleased that you not only finished but did it in an awesome time.
    Pingu .. the official queen of calm , who half an hour before bike check in still didnt have a functional bike.  Now thats true Iron Lady stuff.. hardest IM course in the world (probably )on a borrowed bike you'd never riden.. respect.
    Pirate support was as always top notch . Schmunks popping up on the bike course , Mrs F and Shuffle leading the cheers on the Run.  
    Bad luck that the leg gave up on you Foggy , But to the rest of my pirate pals congratulations on a job well done .. Pirates doing Lanzarote .. who'd have thought 

    I enterred to answer the debate in my mind as to which is harder Wales or Lanza .. guess i got my answer.    So i am back to the easier one in September image , and will ponder Lanza for another year... i do realy want that medal now .

  • Great report Slag - I'm sure that you'll get your medal with the determination and attitude that you have.

  • Great reporting Slag, out of interest ... what was your bike time difference between Wales and Lanza

  • i havent seen my actual times IP , but as a rough guess i think Lanza took about 30 or 40 mins longer than wales 2011

  • Ohhh Slag, what a lovely report! Well done and commiserations for not hitting the cut off. Sounds like you enjoyed it though. You'll get that medal... I've no doubt of that image

  • HappychapHappychap ✭✭✭

    Great report Slag.  image Gutted you didn't make it.

    Slagiatt wrote (see)

    The 25km run from the old man section of the bike racks to the timing mat might have taken a few minutes , although it was ironically the fastest i ran all day. I must have also read the first few chapters of lord of the rings as it seems i spent 18mins in T1  (i have subsequently thrashed myself with nettles for this) 

    I now have tea all over the screen...

  • Slagiatt wrote (see)

    i havent seen my actual times IP , but as a rough guess i think Lanza took about 30 or 40 mins longer than wales 2011

     

    I think they're difficult to compare as they're difficult in different ways....

    Well done though, bloody good effort and tough to have to pull out after getting so far ... but a good excuse to go back image

  • Slagiatt wrote (see)

     

    I enterred to answer the debate in my mind as to which is harder Wales or Lanza .. guess i got my answer.    So i am back to the easier one in September image , and will ponder Lanza for another year... i do realy want that medal now .

     

     

    So you know why I've entered.

    Great report mate, written as always with your humorous take on everything, chapeau sir

     

     

  • great report Slag.its not a nice feeling but you will be stronger next time

  • Nice report slag.

    You got some sportives lined up before wales...?

  • /members/images/643495/gallery/barlos_2_0.JPG

    /members/images/643495/gallery/barlos_1_0.JPG

     for my co conspiritors in Lanza .. this will rekindle images of the funniest 10 minutes of the weekend

     

     

  • OC .. no not yet .. need to have a look and find a couple to do .. any recomendations ?

  • M..o.useM..o.use ✭✭✭

    Well done, Slagiatt.  I am sure that you will conquer Lanza next time.

  • To further embarass Barlos, there is photographic evidence of him gazing lovingly at a muffin as he rode out of T1, to the extent where he was oblivious to the Pirate Support shouting a combination of 'Coach, Barlos, Barley'



    To pile on even more shame, there is an 'official' version on his set of finisher piccies
  • Quite by coincidence, this was Support Point One on the bike leg

    /members/images/200439/Gallery/Museo.gif

  • F.oggyF.oggy ✭✭✭

    Not much I can say really, only managed about half a mile of the run.

    Training started after Christmas and despite the hard winter had managed to build up to a couple of 85 mile rides by end of February and running had been going ok with runs up to 15 miles. I was thinking that come march when it should get warmer I should be able to make good progress and been in fine fettle come May 18th.

    Well march was no warmer and I suffered a niggly knee injury due to me neglecting my strength training which really I should know better, so had 4 weeks of swimming and strength work  which seemed to fix things and started running and cycling again towards end of March. I then had a good 4 to 5 week period when everything seemed to fall into place.

  • F.oggyF.oggy ✭✭✭

    April 28th I did a club race and managed  a pb on bike and run and swim was ok too.

    I thought things were going ok and managed a long run and long bike a few days later and felt really good. Next morning went out for a steady 4 miles before work and bang, pain in calf.....bugger another injury, about 3 weeks before race day. I found I could swim and bike ok but running hurt, saw physio, told me to rest till race day and stretch and ice and look look after calf and it might be ok for race. So did no running for 3 weeks before hand and kept fingers crossed

  • F.oggyF.oggy ✭✭✭

    So off to Lanza we went, had a couple of nice swims and went out on bike, bloody windy but I felt ok on bike so was not worried.

    Race day dawned, had my brekkie, didn't feel too nervous, just was worried about the run. I though I could swim sub 70 mins and bike sub 7 hours, then a 4.40 marathon would see me home under 13 hours.

    Racked bike in the rain, got wetsuit on, down the beach hoping to get a nice position towards right but a fair way forward. Wrong I could get anywhere near front as it was just jammed. So I just stood there and pissed myself in the rain. literally.

  • F.oggyF.oggy ✭✭✭

    Gun went off, went slowly forward and probably was a minute or so before got in water, loads of people about but not too much contact, bloody goggles leaked, then had horrid taste of diesel in water bit apart from that it was fine, good visibility and steady progress made, not really fast but was at half way in around 34 minutes. next time I must start further forward as I think I am capable of swimming 64-65 mins here.

    Second lap pretty much the same, leaky goggles etc, got out the water in 1.08.

    I didn't want to run up beach and bugger leg before bike so took a leisurely walk into transition , got my clobber on, sunscreen etc, had a drink of water and went in the loo for a leak. On the bike and away, in the bloody rain!!

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