The charity marathon 'Correr, Caminar e Integrar'  takes place on Sunday 13th of April in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote. The event is to raise the profile and funds for the local charity Tinguafaya towards their programme of leisure activities for people with disabilities on the island.

Registration is on race day, in the car park at Playa Bastian in Costa Teguise from 9:00 to 10:45. There are three distances available 500m, 2.5 km or 10 km for the “Run, Walk & Integrate” race which starts at 11:00.

Entry fees are €10 for the 5 km & 10 km distance and €5 for the 500m. Read more »

Registration has opened for the annual swim Travesía a Nado “El Río” from Lanzarote to La Graciosa which will take place on Saturday 4th October.

This is a popular open water swim, places are limited to 650 adults and 50 children on a strict first come basis, so early entry is essential if you want to include this race on your event calendar in 2014.

Swimmers depart from the Playa de Bajo Risco underneath the Mirador del Río in Lanzarote at 13:15 to swim the El Río over to the harbour of Caleta de Sebo on the island of La Graciosa, a distance of 2,600m. Participants have a maximum of one hour after the first swimmer has arrived to complete the distance. Read more »

After a winter lay off, Stephen Bayliss returned to long distance racing at Ironman Los Cabos with an impressive 2^nd place finish on Saturday.

The four times Ironman champion has meticulously planned 2014 in a bid to qualify for The Kona World Championships, and is hoping to achieve the highest ever finish by a British male there.

Bayliss completed the Los Cabos course in 8:32:19, sandwiched between two Italian athletes, 5 minutes down on winner Daniel Fontana and 2 minutes ahead of Domenico Passuello.

He finished the swim split in first place in an impressive 45:37. Saving some energy for his run, he stayed in touch with most of the leading group on the bike, and delivered his best bike performance for three years. The run started smoothly enough, although keeping pace with Fontana proved impossible – he finished with a marathon time of 2:55:06. Bayliss maintained second place until he suffered from sickness halfway through the run, and was passed by Passuello. Once he’d dealt with the issues, and taken some more energy on board, he had an excellent last lap and re-took 2^nd place to get his 2014 campaign off to a great start. Read more »

The Lanzarote bike course is legendary, and is regarded by many as the toughest on the IM circuit. It pretty much covers the whole island, and there are over 2,500 metres of climbing involved! The real killer can be the wind, which is usually a northerly and that means almost all of the big climbs are into wind. If the wind isn’t blowing, then the sun WILL be very hot! Most of the roads remain open to traffic during the event, so you’ll need to stay sharp, but you’ll find Police at most junctions, who will stop the traffic to allow you to keep moving.

Of course, it’s a no draft race, so passing manoeuvres must be made within 30 seconds, and the onus is on the person who has been passed to create a 10 metre gap. There is a notional “Drafting box” for motor vehicles of 35 metres. Your race number must remain clearly visible on your back during the ride.

There are ten aid stations, as well as a special needs aid station where your special needs bags will be waiting. There are judges all over the course and there are two penalty boxes – one at Club La Santa and one at T2.

Let’s have a look at it in some detail:

Leaving transition in Puerto del Carmen, you’ll ride along The Strip, before turning back to run parallel and towards Puerto Calero. Now that your legs have started to spin, you’ll face a steady climb inland on a pretty rough surface, before turning towards Yaiza.

At the time of publishing this article, there are road works on the main LZ-2 between the roundabouts of Mácher and  Playa Quemada, hopefully the widening and resurfacing of this section will be complete before race day.

After Yaiza, there’s a fairly flat and very pretty loop around El Golfo and the views of the ocean are stunning and the surface wonderfully smooth.

Coming back to Yaiza, you’ll turn towards the famous Fire Mountains (Timanfaya). This is a long, steady climb with absolutely spectacular views of the lava from the most recent eruptions in Lanzarote. You’ll reach around 350 Metres above sea level, before beginning a very fast descent through Tinajo and down to the coast of La Santa.  There’s a short climb up from La Santa to Soo,, before another fast descent to Famara, which marks the start of the climb into Teguise, the old capital of the island. Read more »

Get into the spirit of carnival on Saturday 15th March and participate in the Carnival Running event with Club Santa Rosa in Costa Teguise. Read more »