The Lanzarote Ironman is considered one of the toughest sporting events in the world. This is confirmed by experts in this sport and also by athletes who have participated in several Ironmans, inside and outside the island, such as Miguel Prados and Tessa Kortekaas. The question is: why?
From the organization they explain that the temperatures typical of the month of May, and especially the wind that exists in Lanzarote, justify that the test is one of the most difficult in the world. In addition, several forums specialized in triathlons, such as planetriatlon.com and triatlonnoticias.com, ensure that the Lanzarote Ironman is the most similar to the Hawaii one, which is the most famous and is where the test was created in 1978.
Miguel Prados emphasizes not only the strength of the wind on the island, but also how changeable it is, and considers it to be the main “handicap” suffered by athletes. Prados provides a fact that demonstrates the hardness of the Lanzarote Ironman, with the times they mark in different tests around the world: “In 2016 I ran the Barcelona Ironman in 09:29, and the same year I did it here in Lanzarote and I did it in 10:31. In Lanzarote it takes an hour longer than anywhere else,” he says.
“Sometimes it's windier, sometimes less, or instead of being from the northeast as usual, it's from the south, and that's the worst,” explains Miguel Prados. The wind mainly affects the cycling event, and especially in the part where the athletes reach the Mirador del Río, around kilometer 90 of the 180 that make up the bike competition.
“That mentally changes you, because where you thought you were going to be in favor, it goes against you depending on how you have trained. In the end, they are automatisms that are created in the six, seven or eight months that you prepare for the test,” adds the athlete.
The triathlete has also competed in different Ironmans in other places such as South Africa, Barcelona, Valencia or Utah, where he competed this month in the Ironman World Championship. In addition to being an athlete, he also attended the competition as a coach for the Dutch Tessa Kortekaas, who has been living in Lanzarote for some years. In this case, Tessa has a professional license, and has competed in other Ironmans around the world, in places like Malaysia, Ireland, the Netherlands or, the jewel in the crown of Ironmans, in Hawaii.
“I have done 4 Lanzarote Ironmans, but I have only finished the last three. The first one, my debut, I reached a point where my head exploded when I had barely run 15 kilometers,” says Tessa Kortekaas. And emotional stability and “knowing where the limits are”, as Miguel Prados defines it, are fundamental elements to be able to carry out the test.
“Choosing Lanzarote to debut in an Ironman is complicated. It is already difficult to do any of them, but Lanzarote has some details that complicate it,” says Miguel Prados. “Doing an Ironman is like having stones thrown on your back little by little, and when you realize it, you're stiff”, he adds.
“I thought Lanzarote was the hardest, until we went to Utah”
Both athletes and Ironman fans agree that the test in Lanzarote is one of the toughest in the world. However, Miguel Prados says that he considered it to be even “the hardest”, until he competed in the World Championship in Utah.
“The race was very hard, I couldn't run as I wanted, but I saw all the professional athletes who were suffering just like me and I just thought about the time passing,” says Tessa Kortekaas about her experience in the American country. It was even harder for Miguel Prados, who says that he was unable to adapt to the altitude of 1,000 meters at which the test was held.
“Most athletes were training 3 or 5 weeks before, and we were only there seven days before,” explains Prados, who in addition to competing, also went as coach of the Dutch woman, whom he says “you can't ask for more” and considers that she did “a great race”.
Lanzarote, an essential event for athletes
The Lanzarote Ironman kicked off the event in 1992. As the years have passed, the test has been increasing the number of participants and, in parallel, the interest of fans and professionals of the test.
“Lanzarote has always been mythical”, says Miguel Prados. However, he recognizes that the “fashion” of Ironman has led to the appearance of other venues in Spain, such as Valencia or Mallorca, and that this may negatively affect the number of registered participants.
In addition, he values the importance of the sport of triathlon not only in Ironman, but in the rest of the modalities. “We are used to it being the breeding ground for the island, it seems that if you don't do Ironman you don't do triathlon and that's not the case,” he says.
Both Miguel Prados and Tessa Kortekaas have participated in 4 Lanzarote Ironmans, but they are clear that it will not be the last for either of them. “We will surely compete again. We have a dream of trying to scratch something here, at home, but there are many factors that come together to be able to achieve it,” they conclude.
