Photo Gallery: Waves? What Waves? (And More from Marbella)

Originally published at: Photo Gallery: Waves? What Waves? (And More from Marbella) - Slowtwitch News

Photos: Kevin Mackinnon

Things kicked off at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship this morning with a swim session hosted by swim director Chuck Glynn and Craig Alexander, the man who won the first IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida. (Along with three Kona titles and one other 70.3 title, too.) Despite the wavy conditions, the pair managed to reassure the athletes on hand that they wouldn’t have too many issues with the swim and the waves that were crashing into the shore. (They were right – even with some of the larger waves it wasn’t too difficult to dive under and keep moving forward.)

It looks a lot easier on the map.

Here are a few shots from this morning’s swim, beginning with a few we caught of a couple of the women’s pre-race favourites, along with some other photos we captured from out on the bike course yesterday:

Kat Matthews will look to do a couple of things here in Marbella this weekend: 1) get that elusive world championship win and 2) defend her IRONMAN Pro Series title.

Craig (Crowie) Alexander was on hand to provide some good pre-race thoughts for the competitors.

There are, of course, over 6,000 age group athletes competing this weekend, too. We caught a few of them at the swim this morning, too.

You go first. No, YOU go first …

While the conditions in the water are expected to be a bit calmer on the weekend, the bike course won’t be getting any easier. Hopefully athletes can at least enjoy some of the spectacular sights to go along with all the climbing.