Ironman Lanzarote 2017 – Ciat Joyce
SCORCHIO!! – The journey of how the boy in the striped pyjamas went from being a Lanzarote Gobshite to a Lanzarote Legend.
I would like to thank all the people who made this journey possible but especially my wife Linda who went above and beyond making it so much easier to train for it. It really was “all about me” but without her I couldn’t have done it. Thank You.
A lump started forming in my throat and I was fighting back the feeling of wanting to cry. I had underestimated what this feat had meant and was doing to me. People talk about the wall they hit in the marathon, I hadn’t expected it to be a tidal wave of emotion. I sometimes come across as being emotionless, a cold hearted bastard. Well this journey which was soon going to culminate in me crossing the finish line of Ironman Lanzarote was nearly over and my thoughts of running down the finisher’s chute seeing my wife and family members and club mates really got to me. “Jesus Ciat, no time to get emotional now, you’ve still 2km to go”. Just then there was a couple of lads spinning tunes on the side of the road, I did a little dance with them and picked up the pace, time to finish this thing I thought.
The journey had begun nearly two years previous and I had a certain Matt Bird to thank (some would say blame) for planting the idea of doing an Ironman in the first place. I won’t bore you with all the details but here’s a little race report of my experience in the lead up to and being part of the 26th edition of the Club LaSanta Ironman Lanzarote.
After seeing the 2015 Dublin Ironman 70.3 in the Phoenix Park I got to talking to Matt in the changing room in Westpark Fitness. I had taken a sabbatical from Triathlon in 2015 but had recently decided to get myself in shape again on returning from a memorable holiday in South Africa. We discussed our future plans and I said I wanted to do the Dublin 70.3 the following year and he mentioned he would do a half iron man abroad and then do Ironman Lanzarote for his 50th birthday. “When’s that” I asked. “May 2017” was his reply. Before I could stop myself I said I’d do it to because my birthday was in May too. Without knowing it my journey had well and truly got underway.
I finished off my 2016 season with a 5hr 10min 70.3 in Dublin despite suffering with IT Band Syndrome. I had to miss out on doing the Dublin marathon last year due to this injury which was going to make doing Lanzarote even more special as it meant it would mean I’d be doing not only my 1st iron man race but my 1st marathon too.
My priority going into 2017 was making it to the start line of Lanzarote so I had to make sure I got my body in the best shape to do it. Strength & conditioning became a foundation to my training all thanks to Owen Tyrell (previous trainer in Westpark Fitness). I had seen massive gains from it in my results all year. I got talking to Ger Minihan (PT Express personal trainer) and Colin Cassidy (The Movement Clinic) who both worked with me so that I could set about making the start line of Ironman Lanzarote. Ger introduced me to the Feldenkrais method and FMS (Functional Movement Screen) which highlighted weaknesses & imbalances in my body and set about correcting them. Colin worked hard on physio and rehab and I am a happy man despite all the dry needling that was done. Before I parted with my €600 entry fee I wanted to make sure that I was able to complete a 10km run by Christmas and have a few 80-90km cycles under my belt. Luckily everything was falling into place. On the 20th December I made the plunge and signed up.
A lot of people were intrigued as to why I would choose Lanzarote as my 1st Ironman. Well, I didn’t exactly choose it. I had committed to it blindly and later found out it was deemed one of the hardest in the world but I don’t shy away from a challenge. I was delighted to find out that I would share the journey with some fellow Pulsers, Paul Cunningham (red head who couldn‘t think of a better climate to race in, Kevin Doyle (didn’t love his first experience of Ironman, Alan Carolan (self admittedly “off his head” for signing up). I also heard that Joanna Butler had entered as well as John Gilbert and of course birthday boy himself Matt Bird, so we were well represented abroad.
At the beginning of January I made the trip to the barbers to get my head shaved. The barber stalled when I asked for a 2 all over. “Are you sure” he said. “Yes” was my reply, “just do it and stop sounding like my wife”. Soon after I got this hair-cut, my training buddies christened me “the boy in the striped pyjamas”. If you haven’t already guessed it, I looked like I could do with a good dinner. I didn’t mind, no hair care during the winter months was great. Try it, you’ll thank me for it, your significant other might not be so kind.
On the 16th of January 2017 my 18 week plan started. My first day involved having a day off. Brilliant, I thought, I like this plan already. I soon found out that Derek McCabe had used this plan twice before in his preparations for Lanzarote in 2013 & 2016. Derek McCabe couldn’t help himself when he heard who had signed up and after getting the green light from his wife Leila (thanks for the loan of your husband, he was a great coach!) he joined our band of what he soon termed “The Lanzarote Gobshites”. My plan which Derek was also using, consisted of the following:
Monday – Day Off; Tuesday – Kevin’s Spin Class AM, Swim Session PM; Wednesday – S&C AM, Run PM; Thursday – Swim AM, Bike PM(99% indoor); Friday – Swim AM, Run PM; Saturday – Long Bike or Brick; Sunday – Long Run & S&C
I could feel myself getting fitter and stronger and never more so than after a recovery week when I once had my resting Heart Rate at 40bpm. Initially it was hard getting used to training at a low intensity but I gradually saw its benefits. My fitness was very good on the bike and I was hitting good number in Kevin’s Spin class where I done my FTP test and managed to hold 300 watts for 20mins. This would stand to me on the climbs in Lanzarote although a 20min test is nothing compared to a 180km bike ride.
Originally I had feared I would have to do a lot of training on my own but I was able to juggle things in work and found that I could get a lot of long bikes and runs in with fellow Pulsers. A big shout out goes to Mieszko Stradomski who accompanied me for 21km of a 30km Sunday morning run at 5.30am so that I could be back to let my wife Linda head off to the airport to go watch Manchester United play Chelsea on Easter Sunday. Mieszko along with all the other people I trained with were brilliant and it made training so much easier.
There were some highs and lows during the 18 weeks. Swimming wise I could not have asked for a better partner than Derek as he really pushed me outside my comfort zone in terms of speed. I made a huge error of running too fast on the track one evening at a 3km TT (in hindsight I shouldn’t have done this on tired legs while training for an iron man) which resulted in an injury to my tibialis anterior (outside of shin/calf). Luckily Colin at the Movement Clinic worked with me in getting it right with plenty of rehab and physio. We lost a “Lanzarote Gobshite” to injury when Kevin Doyle had a very bad fall from his bike up in Sally Gap 5 weeks out from the race and it was a scary time for all those out that day. The biggest highlight was cycling with Matt Bird, Miriam Staunton, Derek McCabe & Mark Dunne to Bunclody and back where I covered 185km and was able to follow it up with a 6km run. 4 weeks out from Lanzarote I knew I was ready.
After a 3 week taper it was finally time to head off to Lanzarote. After my morning run and a sad trip to Michaela Gonda’s funeral I went to the airport and decided that a mandatory holiday pint was in order before boarding the plane. I was really looking forward to going to Lanzarote as I had never been. I bumped into 3 of the lads that night where we arranged an early morning swim of the course for Thursday to be followed by a short bike.
I rose early on Thursday to put my bike together before breakfast and made my way to the beach. This was my 1st open water swim of the year and it was worth waiting for. The water was a lovely 18/19 degrees and the course was laid out. We decided to do 1 loop of 1.9km, we would have to do it twice on race day. We changed and went out on the bikes and I was blown away (literally) by the wind in Lanzarote. I have never been more fearful of handling my bike with such crazy cross winds. I had to lean into the wind and cycle at what felt like a 30 degree angle to stop from being blown off the bike. I had been given a loan of a set of Carbon Rims by David O’Brien and I thought that maybe it had been a waste of time bringing them but there were lads out that day on full discs. We prayed that the wind would die for the race and everybody on the island said it would ease by Saturday. We managed 20km in 1 hour and 5 mins. We were just thankful to get off them in one piece After returning the bikes to our apartments, myself, Alan, Derek, Matt & Paul went on a car journey to register in Club LaSanta on the other side of the island and then drive some of the bike course. It was a real eye opener to what we would be facing but I’m glad Derek had taken the time to do it. It put the shits up some of us given the conditions we had experienced on the bike that morning.
Friday saw some of us do an easy 20min run and then all we had to worry about was getting our bikes and equipment into Transition that afternoon. The gang of us had decided to meet up for dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant that night to “Carb up”. It was a great evening to calm any pre-race nerves, and it was great to catch up with all the supporters who were over for the race.
That night I got about 4 hours sleep because I stupidly drank 2 cokes with my dinner. I don’t drink caffeine so I would have been better to drink a couple of beers.
I awoke at 4.15, I showered, got Linda to put factor 50 on me, I put chamois cream in places that would need it, ate a couple of small bowls of porridge and downed a banana and a nutri-grain breakfast bar. Off we went to get to transition which was 15 minutes from where we were staying. It was soon time to put the wetsuit on and head to the swim pen on the beach where I patiently waited with Matt Bird who was of similar pace. At 7am the hooter went off and it was time to hit the water.
I had hoped to do between a 1.10 and 1.20 swim based on my training and if I had a brilliant swim, I would have done better. I decided to stay wide on the 1st lap and it worked to my advantage where I had a trouble free 1st lap. I emerged from the water in 36mins. I decided I’d try hug the rope after the 1st buoy on the 2nd lap but it quickly transpired that there were still way too many people wanting to do the same so I moved out and it made it easier without all the bodies vying for position. I kept the pace calm and consistent and with about 700m to go I got really excited thinking that I was soon going to complete my longest open water swim and move on to my favourite discipline of the bike. I emerged from the water with 1hr13min on the clock. I ran up the beach to T1 and fell over trying to pick my dropped swim hat (wanted to keep it as a memento). Somebody helped me up and I slapped them on the arse and said “Good Man”. Turned out to be Spanish senorita!!
I grabbed my bike bag and went into the tent on the beach to change. About 1 minute later I heard my name being shouted. It was Matt Bird, I shouted his name in reply. He was delighted to be hitting the bike at the same time. We changed into our shoes and helmets and made our way to the bike racks. Bikes mounted and off we went. Matt sang his head off as we headed down the main strip and out of town. I saw my first bike casualty of the day and thought that I better not end up in that camp because of a mechanical. I overtook some other riders exiting town and when I looked behind I had lost Matt. I hoped he wasn’t having a problem. Soon after when he hadn’t reappeared I thought that maybe I was going too hard and that he was sticking to a HR. I looked at mine and realised it was higher than I had planned but then again we were already hitting some inclines so I allowed for it. After about 10km I passed a competitor in a hand propelled bike and another who was cycling his bike with 1 leg. Obviously strong swimmers but my main thought was that I was finishing this race no matter what if these guys were out here doing this Ironman.
The bike course in Lanzarote is known to be hard so I was conscious of controlling my heart rate and not going hard on the bike. The wind had died compared to Thursday’s madness but there was still a strong headwind to contend with but I wasn’t going to let it upset me. Control the controllable things was all I could do. I had decided to set reminders to eat and drink regularly and there were plenty of aid stations every 20km to top up on drinks when needed. My bike nutrition consisted of a couple of Strawberry/Banana Powerbar gels mixed with Nutrigrain Raisin Bakes and Oatmeal Raisin Clif Bars. I used water and Powerbar Isoactive (the flavour was a surprise on each station when I required a top up to my tri-bar bottle.
The magical thing about cycling in Lanzarote is the feeling that you are cycling on a different planet. The landscape changes from cycling through lava fields, to cycling through Timanfaya which looks like the red deserts of Mars to hitting spectacular views of the ocean on the peak of Mirador Del Rio.
I felt comfortable for most of the bike once I got into my stride. I passed John Gilbert after Timanfaya which was about 55km in to the cycle. It was good to see a fellow club member as I wasn’t going to see many on the one loop course. I had decided prior to the race that I would pee while on the bike and the race was going to be my first practice at it. All I had to do was wait for some downhill parts. I got some nice surprises from our supporters and spotted Linda after about 65km on the bike. Derek’s wife Leila had hired a car and took Linda and Lauren & Shane (Matt’s Kids) with her. From all accounts they had a fun day out chasing us around the bike course trying to find suitable spots to spectate.
It’s funny that no matter what distance you do, you always seem to do battle with the same triathletes were you constantly pass each other out on the bike course unless you are on fire that day. I had a couple of people that I regularly saw on the bike course. One memorable man was a Spanish soldier who was also doing Lanzarote for the first time and after the early cloud cover had cleared from the morning the temperature started creeping up and I could feel it as we were out in the open.
I got chatting to him as we cycled alongside each other on one occasion. I remarked that it was getting “Scorchio” and he looked at me and said “Que”? I thought my Spanish was pretty up to scratch and said “It’s mucho mucho scorchio”! When I realised that he couldn’t understand my Dublin accent I said it was very hot. He repeated this in Spanish after he realised what I was talking about. It turns out that my makey-up Spanish from “The Fast Show” (please You Tube “The fast show Scorchio”) wasn’t very good. You’ll realise why we pissed ourselves laughing after the race when I told the lads.
I climbed the 1st major climb at Haria quite comfortably and was really looking forward to my food at the special needs food station. I had been told it was well worth stopping for a bit of real grub so I looked forward to my ham & cheese sandwiches and slice of Madeira cake. It also gave me a chance to stretch out my right foot as the arch was annoying me. We had driven this part of the course on Thursday so I knew that we were straight into switchbacks after this stop so I got back on the bike and looked forward to peeing all the way down. Soon after the descents we hit the town of Haria and we were on our way on to the next big climb of Mirador Del Rio. The best part of this was the descents on the far side which made up for the steep inclines we had to endure first. I saw my first walker here but couldn’t understand how anybody had underestimated their hill training. Piece of piss I thought! I realised that I had made the right choice in bringing the Scott Foil Aero Road bike for Lanzarote as it had given me an edge on the descents passing people on Tri bikes that didn’t have the same control in the cross-winds.
The only part of the bike I didn’t enjoy too much was the long drag from the bottom of Mirador Del Rio along the motor way for 20km where it felt I couldn’t hit any speed at all. Then we hit an aid station at 140km and were presented with the worst road surface of the race. We had to endure about 4km of the road surface that you experience at the top of Sally Gap on the way to Laragh, only twice as bad. People were losing bottles everywhere on this and I had to do my best to avoid one or two of them.
I spotted some more friendly faces along this stretch and I knew at this stage that the worst was behind us and save a few more small inclines we would nearly be home. I enjoyed a couple more descents and with about 20km to go and I passed John Gilbert again because he hadn’t stopped at the feed station and I came across my friend “Scorchio”.
I met Derek McCabe in T2 who was giving the volunteers a great laugh by using his trigger point roller on his lower back. Derek had problems last year and didn’t want the same thing happening again. Derek waited on me momentarily as a volunteer put factor 50 on my exposed arms and legs and we ran out of T2 together. I had begun my 1st marathon and I was delighted to be starting it with a club-mate and training partner (Derek says coach but I’m still not paying him a cent). We ran for about 2km together before he had to nip to the loo so I ran on. John & Scorchio didn’t hang around and went off like rockets on the run, never to be caught.
The run course was a big loop of just over 30km, so 15km out to the capital Arrecife and back to the finish line and then a smaller 12km loop of 6km back to the edge of the airport perimeter and then back to the finish line. I knew what my heart rate should stay at so I kept it between 144 -147bpm. The pace was comfortable given the temperature of what was reported to be 34 degrees at times on the run. I had wanted to run my first marathon without walking and the only time I allowed this was through the aid stations. I got to 8km before I realised that I hadn’t taken a gel since the T2 tent. I survived most of the run on orange slices, and bits of banana as I had wanted to limit the gels for fear of having stomach problems. I took a couple of blackcurrant gels (never trained with them) after about 25km and then switched to coke and red bull as my energy source for the last 10km. This had been recommended to me by several athletes and it seemed to work. I could feel the sun burning me and I eventually pulled over in Arrecife Marina to ask a couple at an outdoor bar for some sun cream and they duly obliged wisome factor 50 which I was very grateful for. I soon saw Derek again on the run after the turnabout and eventually saw all the other Pulsers had made the run. Knowing that everybody had made it off the bike was special because I knew they all had it in them to finish the marathon.
To know I was running back into Puerto Del Carmen gave me a lift as there would be plenty of supporters to cheer me on. Arrecife had been pretty void of this experience. It was also good knowing that once I turned at the finish line to go back out, it was a case of running a 12km loop so mentally it felt easier.
As I’ve mentioned before I had never run a marathon so I was awaiting the dreaded wall. With about 10km to go I could feel the pace getting slower as the quads were getting heavy. I felt a twinge on the outside of my left quad and then soon after the same on my right. I started getting worried my IT Band was going to give me grief. This is where the mind starts playing at you. I just kept running. The twinges disappeared. I got to the 6km turnaround and high fived the two volunteers manning it and soon after met Derek at the final 5km point where we high-tenned each other, hugged and he said “now take it home”. That was a special moment and meant a lot. It was the start of my roller coaster on my final leg home. There were some great supporters along the way and I was surprised to see the former Irish Rugby international Donnacha O’Callaghan cheer me on. At the 2nd last aid station I took on more sponges and some coke and made my way towards Puerto Del Carmen and the home straight.
That was the point where the lumps started to form in my throat and the emotion was getting to me. I had left enough in the tank to go a bit faster and it was a welcome relief to see the Pulse support crew of Richard Mills, Eithne Connolly, Jen Shorten, Pamela Doyle, Eoin Byrne, Siobhan Quain. They made so much noise and I could hear them before I could see them. I had to fight back the urge to cry when I knew they were coming into view. Before I knew it I was running the last kilometre and was greeted by Kevin & Michelle Doyle and as I passed the last aid station I was unexpectedly cheered by my Dad and his wife Loretta & Linda and several other Pulse supporters. I had expected them closer to the finish line. It meant there would be no tears as I had imagined there would be. Linda passed me the Tri-Colour and I knew it was time to raise the flag above me and run down that finisher chute. I heard my name over the loud speaker and I knew then that I was an IRONMAN.
I won’t bore you with the post-race activities but one worthy of note was the breakout of the song “Can’t take my eyes from you” by Andy Williams in the massage tent between myself Matt Bird & Derek McCabe. The whole tent erupted into laughter. It was a fitting finish to a journey which had been filled with laughs along the way even if we had to suffer some pain to get to the end. It was all worth it. Would I do it all again? I’ll be making a call in a few years to get the band back together, you in?
For those of you interested, I was asked what time I expected to do my 1st Ironman in and I kept saying I just wanted to finish but if I was to put a time on it I reckoned I could do it in about 12hours. Here are my official results which wasn’t a bad prediction!
Swim: 1:14:02, Bike: 6:27:31, Run: 4:09:55, Total Time: 12:06:15, Rank: 423 (out of 1606 Athletes).