News
Lanzarote Update #1
Posted May 16, 2007 08:44 AM
See Lanzarote photos in the gallery.
It's now 3 days before race day - Wednesday, May 16. Christiane and I have been in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, since Sunday afternoon after travelling from Victoria via Calgary, Frankfurt and Madrid. We overnighted in Madrid on Saturday and then carried onto Lanzarote the next day.
Lanzarote is a very unique island. It's not a lush, tropical island at all. Lanzarote is one of the 7 Canary Islands (the most northerly about 150kms off the north west coast of Africa) and is mainly made up of lava. It's quite austere, though it does have some lovely beaches. It's also very mountainous. The population is under 100,000 and there are only 4 or 5 main cities on the island with lots of little towns scattered throughout.
We are staying in an apartment very close to the beach where the race start will take place. This is going to be a real bonus, as many of the racers who have arrived for the event are staying at the race resort, Club La Santa, which is about 30kms away and they are bussed back and forth for their swim practices etc. They will have to get up very early on race morning to be bussed to the 7am start. While we have a rental car and have to travel back and forth to the resort for registration, race briefing, pasta party etc., on race morning we will just have to get out of bed and head down the hill to the beach - only about a 2 min walk!!
We have driven the bike route and cycled portions of it - downhill in windy conditions. The wind is what is going to make or break this race (that and the heat - though the forecast right now isn't for a super hot day thankfully). I brought borrowed Zipp 404 race wheels with me in the bike box, together with my regular front wheel. I switched out the front wheel yesterday after my first downhill ride on Monday. I was being buffeted around too much by the crosswinds and was frankly terrified of crashing. A second cycle down the same route yesterday afternoon went better, thank goodness.
We have practiced swimming in the ocean each morning. The swells haven't been too bad though the current can be very strong when returning to shore. Took a great, unintentional, gulp of water this morning which was horrible! Each day when I swim in the ocean I have the music from the IMLanzarote DVD playing in my head. There's a lovely portion of the DVD where filming was done under the water looking up at the swimmers above with a layer of shimmering, silvery minnowlike fishes swimming in between. It's a magical sight and I can't believe I'm actually swimming in the exact same spot after having watched the DVD so many times since it arrived last September.
We picked up our race packets this morning. Very lowkey process which took about 2 minutes. Christiane's race # is 112 and mine is 113. There are 97 women registered for the race and 972 males - a 1 in 10 ratio. I am anticipating that the swim start will be chaos with such a high testosterone level and plan to start far wide of the main mass of swimmers to avoid being hit in the start melee. Apparently last year more than 20 swimmers had their races cut short by broken noses etc after being pummelled in the swim start. Not a very comforting thought!
Apparently the week before we arrived the temperature was 43 degrees celsius. Thankfully temperatures have dropped back to the high 20's and low 30's. The most surprising thing so far has been how cool it can be in the evenings once the sun is down and the wind continues to blow. Also, the first swim in the ocean was a shock as the water is cold! Probably only 17 or 18 degrees. Definately the wetsuit will come in handy. I actually wished that I had a neoprene bathing cap with me to keep my ears warm that first day. Am beginning to toughen up now though!!
Will try to send another update before the race. Internet connections can be really dicey here so hopefully I will be able to send off another note before Saturday.
