Originally written in German. Translated to English by AI — please excuse any awkward phrasing.
Before the actual race report I want to briefly explain how I ended up at Ironman Lanzarote — since I got asked about it a lot and the answer usually drew raised eyebrows. As if Ironman races weren’t already hard enough…
The decision came almost two years ago, after I’d again missed Hawaii qualification in Frankfurt by just a few seconds. The following year (2013) was supposed to have no Ironman on the schedule — a new qualification attempt was planned for the new age group in 2014. Instead, I only wanted to do Roth in 2013, and for 2014 I was looking for an Ironman with tough conditions and a hard course — figuring I’d have better chances there.
With those criteria I went searching — Nice, Wales and Lanzarote were in the final shortlist. Nice was ruled out due to the too-easy run course; Wales would have been the perfect choice but since I’d already raced there, it ended up being Lanzarote.
That was the theory… practice turned out differently, as usual.
In 2013 I spontaneously and unplanned ended up in Hawaii and got to live out a big dream. After that adventure with 3 Ironmans in 90 days, topped off with 4 jetlags in 4 weeks (2×9h, 2×3h), I was completely done and more than exhausted. And yes, I’d do it exactly the same way again. Despite everything, despite 1.5 months of rest and complete emptiness — mentally and physically.
Direct race preparation began in early January, significantly later than originally planned. In February I was already here for two weeks with Gerhard for a cycling training camp, and further preparation continued from home. Many thanks again to the weather gods, who handled this year’s “winter” magnificently!
Well prepared, we traveled on Tuesday before the race and stayed in Puerto del Carmen, close to the start. The few days before the race went by very quickly — we had a lot of fun and also managed to fit in some training.
On Wednesday we took care of the formalities, Friday was check-in day.
Race day — the alarm went off around 3:45am, followed immediately by breakfast and a walk to the start. After the last prep on the bike and the usual 20 bag checks (same contents every time, I really hadn’t forgotten anything…) we headed to the start around 6:45am. I positioned myself in the 60-70-minute swimmer zone — the corridor was about 5m wide. Just before the start the Spanish inflatable archway over the start area completely collapsed, landing on the waiting athletes. Some could be re-inflated in time, others not…
So we headed into the water with a short delay, and the usual melee followed immediately and lasted quite a while. At first it didn’t bother me much, but after about 10 minutes panic set in — even though nothing had actually changed from the previous minutes. I somehow lost my composure, couldn’t catch my breath and needed to get out of the situation. Easier said than done — eventually I managed to breaststroke across the current to get behind the marking rope that delineated the course. There I could regroup and calm down, then continued outside the official course parallel to the marking line. At the second buoy I rejoined the official course — from there it was relatively pleasant and I finished the swim in 1:04:11h (overall position 354). Not the time I’d wanted or was capable of swimming, but given the problems I’m satisfied with it.
The first transition went satisfactorily and was relatively quick.
On the bike I was able to make up positions from the start, picking off the field from behind in my usual way. Conditions for Lanzarote standards were excellent — virtually no wind to start and only getting windier as the day progressed. “No wind” in Lanzarote terms means about 4-6 m/s — for German standards that’s already a stiff breeze. The first few kilometers were relatively flat with plenty of crosswind — I was just flying past all the competition. From El Golfo things got more demanding with the hills. I tried to stay in aero position as much as possible, which worked very well. Onward toward Timanfaya, then La Santa and further on to Famara. On the gentle descent there I caught up with the eventual women’s winner — unfortunately shortly after I had a technical problem with my gears and had to let the group go. Shifting up to the big chainring, the chain flew over it and jammed so badly between the crank and chainring that it took me nearly 2 minutes to pull it free and keep riding. Very frustrating…
Over Mirador del Rio we headed back toward the start — the worst was behind me. The descent was great to ride — local knowledge helped me make up more positions easily. The subsequent flat section back to Tahiche suited me well and went reasonably smoothly, though after Mirador I couldn’t quite push the wattage I wanted. In hindsight, the first 2 hours on the bike were probably a bit too fast — that cost me later in the run.
After Tahiche there was a roughly 2km section with a gentle incline and brutal headwind — the hardest stretch in the whole race. Then followed an equally long section with Paris-Roubaix vibes — I’ve rarely seen or felt worse road surface — more useful as a material testing track, a torture even by car. After that section the cycling was essentially done, just gently rolling and finally a long descent back to transition.
With 5:24:24h for the bike I have to be satisfied — I’d moved up to overall position 65. But without the chain issue and slightly better pacing there would have been significantly more on offer.
In transition I got my running shoes on relatively quickly and got sunscreen applied — still managed to get pretty burned though…
The first 16km run lap went very very well — I felt good and was able to run the planned pace relatively comfortably. The route ran along the promenade 8km toward Playa Honda, with some gentle climbs and what felt like 20% grades whenever there was headwind.
In the second lap the man with the hammer showed up — and he came fast and hard. On the way to the second turnaround, with full headwind and a slight incline, I was basically standing still. Nothing was working. I had to drop the pace and hope for improvement. The usual questions about why you’re doing all this when you could be lying on the beach five meters away were very present at that point — this time even accompanied by thoughts of retirement… Should I be worried about that? It had never gone that far before…
Thankfully, a few kilometers later I felt better again and could run a somewhat reasonable pace again.
The final 10km lap was back in order and ran fairly smoothly, so that the marathon ended up at 3:06:43h.
With that I improved another 33 positions. So the marathon can’t have been that bad — though it could have been much better.
I crossed the finish line in 9:42:21h, in 6th place in my age group and 32nd overall.
As a reward, a Hawaii slot was waiting for me at the slot allocation.
Summary:
A solid race with a few minor issues and some room for further improvement.
All goals achieved — and the cherry on top is obviously qualifying for the World Championship in Hawaii.
See you in Kona, Hawaii, October 11, 2014.
