Comments on: Ironman Fortaleza 2016: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 13:20:00 +0000

Thanks Russell,
Yeah the wind always blows and the swim is always non wetsuit. It’s the closest conditions I’ve experienced to Kona outside of Hawaii. While it might be a couple of degrees cooler and the run is flatter the heat, constant strong winds and very hard sea swim make it much tougher than you would expect from the profile.
The other thing to note is that it’s not run by Ironman, rather it’s done under licence. This is my first experience of this. All of the races I’ve done so far have been run directly by WTC. It sort of felt a little more old school and a little less slick and corporate but no less enjoyable as a result.
Rob

By: Russell Cox

Russell Cox — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 07:49:00 +0000

In reply to Rob.

Well done to the both of you. Especially while on your Honeymoon!

Thanks for the info, I don’t hear much about this race usually. Sounds like a tough one, conditions like some of the other central and south American races have seen and ones that push times down. If they’re typical for Fortaleza, might help explain the low race numbers.

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 20:35:00 +0000

I was one of the two Irish athletes on your list, my wife was the other. We were honeymooning and thought we’d sneak in a late season Ironman. I thought the qualification times looked relatively achievable based on the course profile and previous times but conditions made it a much tougher tough day than I’d anticaped. The swim was the roughest I’ve done anywhere in the world (I’m not a terribly strong swimmer but am normally out somewhere between 60-68 minutes) this race saw me do my slowest swim ever in 1hr27
The bike has huge headwinds on the way back and temperatures were somewhere in the low to mid thirties for both the bike and run.
Overall a much harder race than the profile might lead you to believe.
There was only one slot that rolled down at the ceremony and almost all the athletes who qualified wore Kona kit and were known to the race race director which I took to mean they’d qualified before.
A good but hard race.
Keep up the good work.
Rob