Its my 6th time on this magic island of Lanzarote which has been always a very lucky place for me. Its race were I won my first Ironman on 2005 and I never finished out of top 5 on this race either. My preparation for Lanzarote has been near perfect as I had great chance to spend up to 10 weeks of good quality training over the winter on this island. Together with my coach Jimmy Riccitello we have approached the race differently then previous years. It worked well and felt myself completely ready for the race.
This year I had my lovely wife Evelin helping me out with www.puhajarvetriatlon.ee both at Ironman Expo and it was great having her around before and during the race as well. Its important for me having my supporters around me when I race and she is my greatest supporter.
Race morning was calm and nice and it looked to be another great day in Ironman Lanzarote history. It was the greatest field ever started at 7.00 AM on Puerto del Carmen beach.
My swim went great, I was swimming comfortably and moving good for my standards. I came out of the ocean with 55.57 and that but me well on race just 5.30 behind the lead. Transition went smooth and I was on my bike to have the greatest bike ride ever. First hour on the bike felt sluggish but soon as I reached the top of Fire mountain I started feel better as my extra power paid of slight down hills. I made my way up on race field and by km 90 I was on second position just 1 min behind current leader. Now the series of hills started again and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t go too hard on the hills and will still stay my goal 350 avg. watts.
On top of Mirador del Rio I was 45 sec behind lead and happy that I was still right on my planned wattage. I grabbed two new bottles from the aid station and turned back to south which means tail wind in Lanzarote. Straight after aid station the greatest down hill section started and because of the tail wind it was very fast. In couple hundred meters my speed was over 80 km/h and on one of the very few parts of bad road my water bottles got lose form the cage and I lost them both. On this speed there is no point to stop and go back so I was hoping to reach next aid station ASAP. On the decent I overtook the lead and I was feeling good to first time in the lead on IM Lanzarote bike leg ever. Unfortunately next aid station was in Nazaret 45 min away and just a little too far to be with out any liquid on hot Lanzarote. 3 km before the aid station I had to slow down to do muscle cramps and I know its going to be very hard marathon if I m cramping already.
I finished the bike days best 4.52.51 and was happy to be still in the lead when I headed to T2. I had good transition and I managed to get even my compression sock on amazingly quick.
My plan was to run 2.55 – 3.00 marathon and I started out 4 loop course with 42 min loop what was exactly what I wanted. I lost my leading position on km 7 and didn’t let it bother me too much. At the end of first lap I started to feel pain on my right hip which after later analysis was to do bad right tow what forced me do changes my running stride. As normally my feet are looking 5 degrees out when I m running but now I started to twist my right feet more inside to save my bad tow. That resulted movement on my hip and one very little muscle, what hold hip in the right place and right angle, got tired and resulted the hip ligament pain. I stopped for a while and tried to loosen up this little muscle. After little while I managed to start running again and even managed to get back on my desired speed for 7 km and then my tanks just started run out of fuel as earlier nutritional problems took a toll.
My goal was to win this race, but now I had to refocus my goals to get the much needed qualifying slot for Kona. Last kilometers were quit hard as I had some very fast runners closing up with me, but I managed to run fast enough to finish 7th overall which secured me a slot to Kona.
I was happy to finish the hard race with smiling face and I was proud about myself not giving up when it was very hard and painful. I lost the battle but thats not yet the end!
I want to thank all the nice people on the course who cheered my up and made me feel like racing at home. Lanzarote has a very special place in my hart and no matter how I m doing on the race this feeling stays the same. Also I would thank all my supporters who are giving me the chance to make difference in this world.
Some facts from my performance
Swim: 50:57
T1: 3:46
Bike: 4:52:51 329 avg. watts
T2: 3:47
Run: 3:08:55
Finish: 9:05:13
hi ain-alar
well done on your race,please come back to lanzarote you can win here again!!
maybe i,ll see you training over there soon good luck for rest of the year especially hawaii.
cheers carl