In 2018 I completed the Mallorca Ironman 70.3 at the tender age of 61. Six years later I had another go to see how things had changed. In 2018 I almost had a magnificent time. Two weeks earlier I had done the first Marbella Ironman 70.3 and I was looking forward to the Barcelona IM 70.3 the weekend after Mallorca. This was some holiday!
Unfortunately I had such a good time on the Mallorca 90km bike section that I totally forgot to eat and drink (if you have ever done the Mallorca bike you might understand why). I realised this just as the bike was ending – all my energy bars were still there. I tried to compensate on the 21km run but that didn’t work. I finished the run, collected my medal, then on the way to collect my bike I passed out. I spent the next 3 days in the Alcudia hospital being rehydrated. Penny, my wife, was not impressed and, of course, I was banned (by Penny, Ironman and everyone else) from starting the Barcelona IM 70.3 the following weekend.
So, as you can imagine, it was with some trepidation that Penny agreed to the 2024 IM 70.3 in Mallorca. Had I learnt my lesson? Could I remember to eat on the bike? Could I even still do it at 67 (it was almost 2 years since my last IM 70.3 – Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendee in France) ? This would be my 26th Ironman start and my 16th Ironman 70.3 start.
The Ironman 70.3 is a long distance triathlon requiring a 1.9km swim followed by a 90km bike and ending with a 21km run. Technically it is a Half Ironman as the distances are half of a full one but we don’t call it that anymore!
We arrived by ferry in the port town of Alcudia, Mallorca a few days before the race and setup camp in a rented villa near the start and on the run course. Even more importantly it is in easy walking distance of Lloyds Fish and Chips, the greatest Chippie in the world – in my opinion.
The first few days included a drive around the 90km bike circuit (as best we could as it was not marked out), wet suit swim tests (not used since 2022), IM registration, then a trip down to Palma to collect our friends, David and Maureen, from the UK. They didn’t know it at the time but I was planing to try have them film me for a possible YouTube (see the end of this post).
My bike went into the massive bike park the day before the race (which unusually was a Saturday and not a Sunday). There were over 3,800 bikes (see video below). Later Maureen made some excellent pasta for us and we all had an early night (the previous night had been Fish and Chips at Lloyds).
On race day we were up at the crack of dawn and I headed into the bike park to pump my tyres and load my fuel. Normally it is then a trip to the beach to sit around and wait for my time slot to go. This time I just came home (2 minutes away from the swim start) and waited in comfort. Eventually I put on my wet suit and we all wandered over to the beach to watch the start and absorb the atmosphere. Our guests were goggle eyed. They had never seen an Ironman before, in fact I guess they didn’t even know what an IM was a few weeks earlier.
The swim is a Dribble Start with six people going every five seconds ordered by predicted finish time. This means everyone is surrounded by swimmers of a similar pace rather than the big free for all of the old days where everyone went at the same time. In 2018 my 1.9km swim took me 50 minutes so I figured it would be about the same this time. Idyllic is the only way to describe the course. It consists of an out and back in a sheltered bay and near millpond water conditions. We took some photos and videos then I was off into the water. It took me 53 minutes which is OK. Not stressing.
Once out of the water it was a 200m bare foot run across the beach and into the bike park. Off comes the wetsuit, on goes the sun screen (it was a baking hot blue sky day) and all my bike stuff. It must have been a 400m jog to the bike (luckily everyone else was gone by then so it was easy to spot) then another 200m to the mount line. End to end the transition had taken me 13m40 (compared to 12m34 last time). As I set off along the road I scanned for my film crew. “You were too quick” were the only words I heard when I sped past them as they fumbled for cameras. That was confusing as, in my world, “too quick” was not really a concept. It turned out that my exit from the water had not been picked by the Ironman Live App they were using. In fact they were beginning to worry as App wise I was still swimming. My exit from the bike park was actually picked up by the App and updated their phones just a few seconds before I passed them – too quick indeed.
What can I say about the bike course? Well let’s start with “Heaven On Wheels” and go from there. It is 90km long with 855m of climbing and all closed off just for us. No cars, buses or anything. Imagine a world where every junction has Police holding back the traffic and waving you through. Sort of Heaven+. It even starts off very flat and fast. At 15km a gentle hill starts. At 23km the incline increases into more of a serious challenge. At 32km it’s mostly over. By now we are 600m up from our sea level start and beginning 6km of up and down Roller Coaster road. At 38km the descent starts – and lasts till about 73km. . . . . . Did I mention how much fun this was? The final 17km back to town is simply flat.
I still find it easy to understand how, in 2018, I forgot to eat. This year Penny was quite forceful in her determination for me to not repeat it. I was under strict instructions to stop at all of the services (about one every 20km) eat an energy bar and drink properly. I tried. Honestly I tried. As my swim is so slow I usually spend all the bike catching and overtaking people. This race was no exception. I had passed 5 by the first services and 20 by the top of the main hill. What really surprised me was that I overtook a further 20 on the downhill and another 20 by the end. In reality it was a little more confusing than that as while stopped at the services some passed me back. The drinking went well. I started with a full bottle and drank one more between each services. Unfortunately I messed up a bit with the Energy Bars. I ate some segments (pre race I cut each one into 4) at each stop but I didn’t manage full bars. I finished the bike section in 4 hours 2 minutes exactly 20 minutes slower than last time.
I think at least 10 minutes of this was sorting out the food and drink at the stops. So optimistically I think I have lost about 10 minutes of real time in the last 6 years. I was sort of surprised by this. I was expecting more as after 3 hours the muscles in my neck were driving me nuts. This is a problem I acquired during the enforced Covid break when I was doing loads of indoor bike training during which I think my neck muscles went to sleep. I saw my film crew at the end but they sort of missed me as the last App check point was 15km earlier. Luckily Penny saw me at the dismount line so photos were taken.
Once back in the massive Bike Park I found my slot, parked, then ran to the changing bags to morph into a runner for the 21km final section. This year’s Bike to Run transition took me 7m05 which was just 5 seconds slower than 2018.
Once out on the course I stopped at the first run services (every 2.5km) drank and ate two Energy Gels. Moments later I passed by my film crew at our house. The run was 3 laps of 7km so each time I passed home I saw my crew as well as by the beach on the return leg. My first 2 laps were a nice gentle jog, the first was 50 minutes and the second 55. Some walking was involved in the final lap which took me about 1 hour. My total run time was 2 hours 44 mins which was only 4 minutes slower than my “about to pass out” run in 2018. This gave me a complete course time of 8 hours 1 minute, 28 minutes slower than 2018. I was Super Happy 🙂
I was so happy I made a Youtube video of the event:
A massive Thank You to my wife, Penny, and our friends David and Maureen for their work filming my little adventure.