Ironman Lanzarote: Past Performances and Kona Qualification
Ironman Lanzarote is next on the calendar, with the race taking place this Saturday. The island is a favourite training destination and home to my training camps, but the race has never treated me kindly. It’s a tough event – windy, hot and hilly – times are never fast by mainland European standards; go too hard early in the day and you will suffer later. I’ve 6 years of race results to look at starting with the top level finisher split distributions. For those interested in more detail, age group specific documents are provided at the end of this post.
It’s no surprise that when we compare split distributions from Ironman Lanzarote with those from last year’s European Ironman races we find that finish times are slower; neither is it much of a surprise that the major contributor is the bike. What may be a little more interesting is the swim which seems to come out a touch faster or the run which is more broadly spread and slower at the mid to back of the field.
Comparing the medians again places the slower Lanzarote times firmly on the bike. The professional splits highlight this – swim and run are similar, bike however is a good 30 minutes slower on average.
| Number of Athletes | Number of Slots | |
|---|---|---|
| F18-24 | 6 | 1 |
| F25-29 | 12 | 1 |
| F30-34 | 32 | 1 |
| F35-39 | 42 | 1 |
| F40-44 | 34 | 1 |
| F45-49 | 26 | 1 |
| F50-54 | 24 | 1 |
| F55-59 | 6 | 1 |
| F60-64 | 4 | 1 |
| M18-24 | 29 | 1 |
| M25-29 | 133 | 2 |
| M30-34 | 323 | 4 |
| M35-39 | 425 | 6 |
| M40-44 | 467 | 6 |
| M45-49 | 318 | 4 |
| M50-54 | 224 | 3 |
| M55-59 | 78 | 2 |
| M60-64 | 27 | 1 |
| M65-69 | 16 | 1 |
| M70-74 | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 2228 | 40 |
There are only 40 Kona slots available at Ironman Lanzarote, the above estimates are based on numbers in the start list available on Ironman.com and as always the actual allocation may vary. With so few slots there is never more than 1 available to any of the women’s age groups and only the large M35-39 and M40-44 divisions receive more than 5 slots.
While we often see qualifying times dipping into the low 9 hours or faster at many Ironman races, in Lanza few age groupers finish under 9:30. For the major male age groups you will need to break 10 hours for a shot and more realistically 9:45 to be confident. For the women, win your age group, there’s a lot of variation in winning times over the years which means it could be as low as 10 hours or as high as 12.
Finally for those who want more detail and to see information specific to their age group I’ve compiled the PDFs below. As well as more detailed versions of the above charts you’ll also find split breakdowns for Kona qualifiers over the last 6 years of racing in Lanzarote.
Detailed Age Group Statistics
Age group specific Ironman Lanzarote results analysis. More charts and more detailed timings and splits for top age grouper and Kona qualifiers.
Select an age group to view or download PDF
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With few slots available and good competition on a tough course I rarely recommend Ironman Lanzarote for those chasing qualification. However it’ss one of my favourite races and one I repeatedly recommend for the challenge and experience. If you’ve done the training and have the fitness to race at the sharp end there’s still every opportunity to qualify.
