The Lanzarote Ironman is legendary for its toughness – wind, heat and hills adding up to a test that most agree is the toughest on the official Ironman circuit.
Matt travelled to the Canary Islands with high hopes coming off a good early season which included great results in Abu Dhabi, Eilat and Lanzarote in the Volcano triathlon.
The main goal though was to the bigger prize of Kona qualification, on paper wll within his grasp.
The swim and bike went perfectly to plan and Matt jumped off the bike in second place in his age group, an average run and he would be home and dry with no fuss. Unfortunately, early on in the run Matt realised it was going to be anything but comfortable – dizziness and a higher than normal heart rate meant that Matt spent a considerable amount of the run course walking. Things started to get very tight and a 3.38 run split meant that Matt crossed the line in 9th place in the 40-44 age group. Not at all what he had envisaged in the days leading up to the race.
Anyway, back to the medical tent – blood tests, IV drips, 2 ham/cheese rolls/red bull and 70 minutes later I’m ready to face the world. Although I was still a bit disoriented, confirmation that West Ham had been promoted gave me a lift.
The luck of the Irish held firm the next day at the roll down and Matt picked up his slot for the World Championships and could consign the race to the ‘learning experience’ filing cabinet in his brain.
When all is said and done a time of 10:09:30 is very solid in Lanzarote and the main goal was achieved. Job done, congratulations Matt.
Matt’s full race report is on his Tritalk blog.
Full results of the race can be found here.
Many thanks to James Mitchell/Compressport for the photographs from the race.
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