Here are some details form Tangier today.
As it turns out I biked only 12 minutes slower than Esprit with 2xGibraltar equivalent climbs…and ran 7 min faster.
The swim at sunrise going straight into the sun was a massive clusterf&*k for ME as I went somewhat off course, and then got clobbered at a buoy (that’s why it is tri racing not a swim meet). The bike course as you said seems to feature two Gibraltar equivalent climbs one on the way out and then on the way back from Cap Spartel (where Atlantic and Med meet). The winds in the middle 45 km of the course on the rollers just ate you alive (I ended up at 2:48 with 1100m climbing), but things go quickly because you are constantly changing scenery. The best part is all the roads are closed and with around 500-600 in the race, lots of room on pristine pavement. The run course is all concrete and with my lack of run training I was fading around 1 min per loop (3.5km out and back). It did not get too hot. Temps were comfortable all around.
Even with my horrible swim, I was 6th in the swim, then 4th in the bike…but the run well I was 16th…ended up 7th thanks to my bike. Being the old guy in the age group (today I turned 59, my run is really bad compared to the 55 year olds…oh well). Final splits 34+2:48+1:59+6 ~ 5:29 (so I was just a bit slower than Muskoka and a bit faster than St. George)
. I’ll take that as I find it really hard to travel east and race in the middle of my REM sleep (I got here on Wed and the 7:45 start time is 2:45 back home and not really enough time to adjust, but I am in the working world today and I can’t be gone for too long…my tradeoff is doing this stuff around work and just do what I can, versus wait till I retire and go on the MPro60-64 program (vs the MTech55-59 program LOL)
The race primarily has French, Spanish, Italian and British athletes…short flights from all of the above and in the case of Spanish athletes from southen Spain, they can drive over to the ferry and take a sub hour ferry ride and then be on the main beach strip and just walk to hotels and transition.
But it is a super easy race to get to from North America if you can fly direct to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport on Heathrow in London and take a one stop here. It took me barely longer than going to US West coast from Ottawa (total 9 hrs of flying plus a connection…most places US west coast take me 7 hrs including a connection).
So that is stop 6 on my 59 year old half IM Tour (St. George, Tremblant, Muskoka, Penticton, Esprit Montreal, Tangier). One more stop to go in Taupo, but I figured while I can, I better go do all this (I had a few friends die in the last year at 57 and 59). I think I had my best race of the year after a mid year pause for a small back/disc procedure (thus the horrible running).
At this point I am 98 percent sure I will transfer my IM Ottawa entry fee to a half Ironman next year (and build up some type of a half IM tour again as I am already registered for St. George, my son wants to take a trip with me to do 70.3 Hawaii (he’s not planning to race, but he actually wants to vacation with me, which is rare for a 28 year old), Tremblant70.3 and Muskoka 70.3 and Challenge Quebec and Challenge Montreal are nearby.
While it is tempting to do a full IM at home, I don’t think my run is at the point that i can get thru a full IM without a lot of walking (most of my run training is 4-5km after my daily swims and one run per week that is 10km…enough to fake a half, but not enough for a full). I think I enjoy master swimming way more than long runs and lilke to do hard shorter rides in the 90-150min range. That’s perfect for half IM