16th July 2006.
A report from Tony Rees.
Breakfast on race morning was @ 04.00 then buses were provided to take athletes to the race venue, the lake side “Stranbad”.
The swim start was to be in Lake Worthsee with the 2200 athletes starting in the water. The water start meant a calmer than usual Ironman swim start with most athletes managing to find reasonably clear water well before the first turn @ 1500 mtrs. Graham had an excellent swim in 1 hour 5 minutes and managed to beat one of the pros out of the water. The huge field and bright sunlight made sighting difficult and Darren and Tony both felt that they swam a wide course. The last 800 metres of the swim are in the very narrow and shallow Lendkanal. Darren exited in a respectable 1.12 Tony was out in 1.17.
The bike course at Klagenfurt was to be two laps rather than three this year which meant only two ascents of the tough Rupertiberg climb but it also meant less fast descending and a number of smaller but quite tough climbs on the new loop around Faaker See Lake. The fast first section of the bike along the shore of lake Worthsee produced high average speeds initially but these soon dropped on the tougher sections. Unfortunately the athletes didn’t gain much advantage on the long downhill sections due to a fairly strong headwind. They were expecting speeds of 50mph plus on the descents but rarely got over 40 and were having to work quite hard even on the descents. Most athletes felt that the new course was probably 10 -15 minutes slower than the three lap version. Tony was off the bike in 5 hrs 31 mins with Darren not far behind in 5hrs 36 Graham hit T2 after a 5.53 ride.
The run was very tough as temperatures peaked and although it’s a flat course at Klagenfurt with a fair amount of shade an Ironman marathon is always hard. Tony was first onto the marathon but was beginning to pay for the early pace and Darren started to close the gap as they approached the final turn around the monument in the centre of Klagenfurt, Tony managed to find a bit more over the final 3 miles and was able to hold off Darren to finish with a 4.17.59 marathon and 11 hrs 13 min 06 sec overall for a new PB by 56 minutes, fifteenth and first Brit in the 50-55 age group . Darren’s run was a 4.17.52 and he finished with a superb time of 11.21.33 for his Ironman debut, Graham’s training has been beset by difficulties this year but he still managed to run a 4.39 marathon and finish with an 11.47, a really impressive result.
The trio can highly recommend Klagenfurt to anyone considering Ironman next year but don’t be fooled by its reputation as a fast course. This is a tough place to go and race. If you are thinking of Austria in 2007 be quick – in the first five days of registration they already had over 1000 confirmed entrants.