This weekend saw the 26th Ironman Lanzarote take place on the island. It maintained its reputation as a tough course with age group times slow-to-average for the race. There were 40 Kona slots on offer at the event, qualifying times appear to fall much closer to course averages. While the race might be a touch slower than usual, the competition up front remained sharp.
Comparing this year’s distributions with the previous 9 years shows slower distributions for the 2017 race. That said, it’s mostly at the median rather than the front of the race. The difference for the 5th percentile is much smaller than at the 50th percentile (median). None of the difference are that large over the timespan of the race, but they do suggest it was slightly slower than average.
| Listed Athletes | Swim Finish | Swim DNS/DNF | Bike Finish | Bike DNF | Run Finish | Run DNF | Overall DNS/DNF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1242 | 1201 | 3.3% | 1175 | 2.2% | 1115 | 5.1% | 10.1% |
| 2009 | 1349 | 1226 | 9.1% | 1210 | 1.3% | 1147 | 5.2% | 14.8% |
| 2010 | 1571 | 1383 | 12% | 1348 | 2.5% | 1285 | 4.7% | 18.1% |
| 2011 | 1469 | 1281 | 12.8% | 1254 | 2.1% | 1199 | 4.4% | 18.3% |
| 2012 | 1554 | 1540 | 0.9% | 1510 | 1.9% | 1445 | 4.3% | 6.9% |
| 2013 | 1916 | 1759 | 8.2% | 1708 | 2.9% | 1646 | 3.6% | 14.1% |
| 2014 | 2258 | 2092 | 7.4% | 2031 | 2.9% | 1906 | 6.2% | 15.6% |
| 2015 | 1786 | 1614 | 9.6% | 1524 | 5.6% | 1462 | 4.1% | 18.1% |
| 2016 | 1888 | 1755 | 7% | 1724 | 1.8% | 1642 | 4.8% | 13% |
| 2017 | 1510 | 1413 | 6.4% | 1388 | 1.8% | 1315 | 5.3% | 12.8% |
DNF and DNS data points to a typical race with DNF rates falling somewhere in the middle of the 10 years of race data. There’s nothing here to suggest anything exceptional about the 2017 race.
Separating out medians gives an insight into individual age groups. For male age groups the medians are quite consistent in being slower than the historical data, for the smaller female age groups the difference is more variable. Going with the numbers this supports the idea of a slower race. We should still bear in mind that the difference at the median was larger than at the front of the race.
| Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 509 | 31.8 |
| United Kingdom | 304 | 19 |
| Germany | 116 | 7.2 |
| France | 107 | 6.7 |
| Italy | 94 | 5.9 |
| Ireland | 63 | 3.9 |
| Denmark | 62 | 3.9 |
| Belgium | 59 | 3.7 |
| Netherlands | 30 | 1.9 |
| Switzerland | 28 | 1.7 |
| Country | Percentage of Slots | Percentage of Field |
|---|---|---|
| Denmark | 17.5 | 3.9 |
| Spain | 15.0 | 31.8 |
| United Kingdom | 12.5 | 19.0 |
| Germany | 10.0 | 7.2 |
| Netherlands | 7.5 | 1.9 |
| Sweden | 5.0 | 1.0 |
| Italy | 5.0 | 5.9 |
| France | 5.0 | 6.7 |
| Belgium | 2.5 | 3.7 |
| Canada | 2.5 | 1.1 |
| Japan | 2.5 | 0.5 |
| Poland | 2.5 | 0.5 |
| Turkey | 2.5 | 0.4 |
| Estonia | 2.5 | 0.1 |
| Portugal | 2.5 | 0.4 |
| Czech Republic | 2.5 | 0.2 |
| Finland | 2.5 | 0.6 |
Lanzarote is very popular in the UK, so it’s no surprise we were the second largest nation there. However Denmark pulled in the most slots relative to their entry size.
Tracking the times for age group positions over the past 10 years places this race somewhere in the middle. Not at slow as in 2015, but mostly slower than 2016. Further back in the age groups there’s a bigger drop off in times, age group winners tend not to differ as much.
| Slots | Winner | Average Kona Qualifier | Final Qualifier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M18-24 | 1 | 10:06:36 | 10:06:36 | 10:06:36 |
| M25-29 | 2 | 9:27:16 | 9:35:04 | 9:42:53 |
| M30-34 | 3 | 9:22:57 | 9:28:47 | 9:33:12 |
| M35-39 | 4 | 9:34:21 | 9:45:29 | 9:52:41 |
| M40-44 | 5 | 9:36:38 | 9:45:54 | 9:55:02 |
| M45-49 | 4 | 9:39:59 | 10:00:47 | 10:16:00 |
| M50-54 | 4 | 10:37:05 | 10:43:11 | 10:46:31 |
| M55-59 | 2 | 10:51:13 | 10:57:08 | 11:03:04 |
| M60-64 | 1 | 11:27:52 | 11:27:52 | 11:27:52 |
| M65-69 | 1 | 13:27:53 | 13:27:53 | 13:27:53 |
| M70-74 | 1 | 12:57:57 | 12:57:57 | 12:57:57 |
| F18-24 | 1 | 11:28:06 | 11:28:06 | 11:28:06 |
| F25-29 | 1 | 10:58:16 | 10:58:16 | 10:58:16 |
| F30-34 | 1 | 11:11:44 | 11:11:44 | 11:11:44 |
| F35-39 | 1 | 10:49:50 | 10:49:50 | 10:49:50 |
| F40-44 | 2 | 11:22:27 | 11:31:39 | 11:40:51 |
| F45-49 | 2 | 11:01:12 | 11:07:25 | 11:13:39 |
| F50-54 | 1 | 12:29:47 | 12:29:47 | 12:29:47 |
| F55-59 | 1 | 12:53:15 | 12:53:15 | 12:53:15 |
| F60-64 | 1 | 14:25:51 | 14:25:51 | 14:25:51 |
| F65-69 | 1 | 16:00:11 | 16:00:11 | 16:00:11 |
Based on the athlete count I’ve estimated the slot allocation and the automatic qualification times they give. I know there were roll downs that don’t factor into this calculation, so final times and slot numbers will vary a little. You can compare the times with those from other races on my Kona qualification page.
Finally, there’s variation across the top twenty performances for different age groups. For the most part, the very front of the race, the Kona qualifiers, produced average times for the course. If there’s a trend in the top twenties it’s probably towards the slower side of times, coming in a bit below average. So it does look like a slower year in Lanza, but more for the middle and back of the pack than those up front.
You can access a spreadsheet of the full results and splits from Ironman Lanzarote 2017 on my Google Drive.
