Peter Slijkhuis Blog: Diary Of A Kona Qualifier (05/06)

By Peter Slijkhuis
It was less then a year that I had gotten the Ironman bug at Ironman Switzerland and after surprising myself in Switzerland with a time of 9hr 8min I knew I had something to prove here in Lanzarote.

First of all I wanted to prove that my performance in Switzerland wasn’t just a one off, I didn’t get lucky and that maybe this actually was something I wasn’t too bad at. Secondly, having passed on the opportunity of racing in the Worlds in Hawaii last year, surely if I was able to qualify the first time round, this was possible again in my 2nd ever Ironman?

As expected the start of an Ironman is always mayhem with 1500-2000 swimmers full of adrenaline jumping in the water at virtually the same time to start their race. The fact that the first turning buoy was only 160 meters away wasn’t going to help much here either. But after the first buoy things quickly settled down and by sticking a little to the outside of the main pack I was able to find my way and get into a nice rhythm. Exiting the first lap in just over 27 minutes the noise of the spectators was fantastic and I knew I was on track for an okay time if I kept this pace going. With only some maintenance swims over recent months I was actually quite chuffed when I got to transition 1 in just less than 56 minutes. Despite a long transition I jumped on my bike in just under the hour mark and I knew this was a good start to hopefully an even better day!

The bike leg in Lanzarote is renowned for its toughness, with very strong winds most days and a total of 2551 meters of climbing it is considered the toughest Ironman bike course in the world. I suppose most people on the day were pleased to see that at least the wind was going to take it easy on us, as there was relatively little wind compared to other years. There was still no escaping the climbs and long uphill drags though and without these strong winds we wouldn’t get any massively strong tail winds pushing us along either, so all in all it would be a long day in the saddle. I managed to get my personal feedbag (containing 2 800ml bottles of Go electrolyte at 8% with added SuperHydro) just after half way and combined with the 9 Go gels, 2 mini Go bars, 1 Smart1 gel and 3 bottles of Go Electrolyte I had carried with me from the start of the bike, I knew this should get me around the bike course just fine. After 5hrs and 22min and an average of about 33.5 km/hr I came back to the transition again and despite a slightly sore back I was actually feeling quite fresh and ready to take on the final 42kms to the finish line.

There is no two ways about it, from riding an aero bike for almost 5,5 hours to running within a matter of minutes is going to hurt and of course that’s exactly what it did. Sore back, the legs not quite in running mode yet and trying to consume some more Go electrolyte and a Smart1 as well as fitting a marathon belt with 5 more gels, made that the first kilometer or so was a bit awkward. Before I realized I had gotten into a comfortable pace however and off I went. Like last year in Switzerland I had my wife Conia and my brother Jochem (who competed in Switzerland last year, but was a supporter this time around) there not just for moral support but also to hand me my gels and Go Electrolyte every time I had finished another lap of the course. In addition I had asked them to make some little ice bags that I could pick up and cool myself down with a bit as it was due to be hot during the run. This worked fantastically and despite probably a slightly too enthusiastic start of the marathon (first half went in just under 1hr30min) I managed to hang in there for a 3.15 marathon time. This gave me a finishing time of 9hrs42min and more surprisingly it gave me a 24th spot overall with only 8 age groupers crossing the finish in front of me. I came 3rd in my age group, which obviously meant that once again I managed to qualify for Hawaii.

The difference was that this time I knew I would actually take the slot and I would be travelling to the origins of triathlon to race the race of all races later this year.

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