The Mallorca Ironman was my ninth Ironman of a tradition that I have practiced since 2008. I did my best mark the previous during the Barcelona Ironman with 10 hours and 5 minutes but this year 2016 I knew that it would be difficult to beat that record because Mallorca has been a more complicated and much harder route.
The day of the race I got up very early and, after breakfast, I made sure that everything would be fine before starting the race: the bike, the helmet, the bib number, the bike shoes in the bag that you must leave in the area transition shoes in the swim and bike area and also the running shoes in the transition from bike to marathon.
As I have told you before, swimming is not my forte and, in other marathons, I usually recover by getting on the bike. This time I swallowed salt water, which gave me a lot of stomach pain and starting the race that way made me lose a lot of energy. This year, instead of recovering, I lost time.
Unlike Barcelona, where the bike section had only 700 meters of accumulated difference in altitude, in Mallorca it was double: 1400 meters. Very steep ascents and descents because it was a pass where you had to go up very steeply and go down very steeply. I knew that it would not be easy to complete it because as if that were not enough, it started to rain. Going up was hard and going down very dangerous.
Something that helped me on the bike section were the paleo energy bars that I prepared myself at home. During the journey I ate five of them and verified that they dissolve very well in the mouth with water or isotonic. I was delighted with the result and, as they contain coconut oil, they gave me a lot of energy to complete the bike section and the rest of the race.
The strong point of the route for me has been the marathon that I completed in 3 hours and 29 minutes. In that time I am proud to say that I did not feel like giving up at any point, something that often happens among marathoners and I must say that this is thanks to the paleo diet. That day I had five boiled eggs for breakfast, undercooked, which I then ate with butter. I also had Greek yogurt with my paleo muesli, a peach, and water. Throughout the marathon I did not consume any food but isotonic gels that are distributed every five kilometers. These are not paleo but during the race you need sugar and you need to be practical. To make it totally paleo, there would have to be an alternative as convenient as this one and you have to be realistic about it.
In short, it wasn’t so bad. My final mark was 10 hours and 47 minutes and since I couldn’t beat my mark I wasn’t completely satisfied. However, it has been another year of learning and I can prepare much better for the tenth. As it will be a celebration to maintain a tradition like this for a decade.