Mallorca Ironman 70.3 2016: So who upset the jellyfish?

Mallorca Ironman 70.3 2016: So who upset the jellyfish?

My second time at Mallorca Ironman 70.3 after last years hugely enjoyable race here in 30 degrees, blue skies, ice cubes under the hat on the run, sunburn all over. This year, well everyone had been watching the weather forecast all week - a whole week of lovely blue skies was forecast to come abruptly to an end at pretty much the moment we arrived on the start line  - and alas it was true - torrential rain, 12 degrees and a grey bumpy choppy sea greeted so so many people doing their first 1/2 Ironman race. Credit and Kudos to all those newcomers who simply got stuck in - tough tough conditions for your first long course race, well done to you all - a lot of people chose the easier path and simply didn't turn up - out of 3,400 entrants around 700 didn't start. Today was never going to be a day for setting PB's, it was always going to be about getting round safe and home in one piece on a treacherous bike course - Mallorca in the rain is very very greasy, accidents a plenty. Lots of friends racing here, all of them got home safe and sound.

I helped out a couple of stranded cyclists earlier in the week, they wished me massive karma for the race and seemingly it was being delivered, I was having a really good swim, enjoying the rough and tumble, the elbows and kicks of swimming the racing line until bam, BAM, first one jellyfish gets me on the hand and another on the foot, the one on the foot was immediately really painful - I had heard some people comment previously about jellyfish in Mallorca but I'd never seen any in all my sea swims here - but here they were feasting on a bunch of triathletes - barely anyone escaped without at least one sting.

So onto the bike and its party time in the miserable weather - time to let my strongest discipline shine though and start blasting through the field like usual.... Tapering though is a key part of triathlon racing - you're not really meant to do a whole lot leading up to a race - certainly nothing that fatigues the body..... My tapering consisted of doing the Mallorca 312 a week before the Ironman, a 312km tough tough bike race across  Mallorca and hoping that my legs would recover in time for this weekends race - ha ha no chance, any attempt to put the power down was firmly met by my legs telling me that actually they'lld quite like another few days off hard work thankyou very much. My bike time was a huge 20 minutes slower than last year, around half of that was probably due to the conditions, every corner being taken with extreme care, the other half down to my bike race legs having a lie in. One of these days I will take this triathlon lark seriously and actually properly prepare for a race. Actually, that's a lie, tapering is soooo boring.

Throughout the bike my jellyfish sting on the foot was getting worse and worse, it was swelling up on the top of my foot and really irritating me - riding wasn't an issue but I was getting pretty worried that running was going to be tricky if it got any worse. So, well, I took the opportunity of needing what is called in pro bike racing a "natural break"  to "self medicate" the issue, directed a strong stream down the left leg and yes, I can confirm - it does work....

Off the bike and everything is sodden. I had packed a spare pair of socks in my run bag anticipating rain and wanting to change into dry socks for the run to prevent blisters. Yup that plan worked for about 30 metres of the 21km run when we were met with a lake across the run course... The bike time I was annoyed about but the run went perfectly. This year has been "project run" - doing a bit less cycling and trying to focus on getting on top of my running which in all previous races had been a real slog-fest - here, my first race since starting project run it was like "I CAN RUUUUUN". It actually felt like I was properly running, setting a constant pace, light(ish...) on my feet and keeping my heart rate under control - and doing so from the first km to the last km. Interesting the time was exactly the same as last years (two hours dead for a 1/2 marathon) but it felt so so much better, like I was just cruising round - and more importantly for the next race which is full  Ironman distance with a marathon run to finish - it felt like I could have kept cruising for at least another 10km or so which will be a massive improvement on last years two Ironman marathon "runs" each of 5hours+.

Broke the tape at a pretty mediocre 6hrs 22minutes, some 25 minutes slower than last year. A pang of annoyance on crossing the line, but only briefly, this was always a small step on this years path and the one thing I was hoping to achieve - a decent "feel good" racing run, was achieved - a race to remember for the hugely challenging conditions, the nasty nasty jellyfish and hopefully just hopefully the first signs of Project Run starting to pay off. A race to forget for my epically cruddy bike leg but hey ho, I wouldn't have done anything differently, doing the Mallorca 312 the week before was hugely challenging but a whole lot of fun - and if you aren't ever going to win a race then you gotta have fun haven't you.

Next stop Nottingham, The Outlaw full distance race.