“To get my third win here, really, really special” — Lucy Charles-Barkley on Lanzarote, surgery comeback and the road to Kona

As has been the case for virtually all of her wins over the years, Great Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay led from start to finish at IRONMAN Lanzarote today, besting her previous fastest swim time set in 2016 (when she came close to beating Jan Frodeno out of the water) and posting the day’s fastest swim, bike and run times to easily take her third IRONMAN Lanzarote title. The feat now ties her with Paula Newby-Fraser with three wins at this race, renowned as the world’s toughest IRONMAN.

Charles-Barclay hit the beach in 47:01, almost for minutes ahead of countrywoman Stephanie Clutterbuck (who would eventually pull out of the race due to what she reported on social media as burns/ blisters sustained while running through T2), with yet another Brit, Molly Savill just a few seconds back and Switzerland’s Julie Derron hitting T1 almost eight minutes behind in fourth.

Once on the bike it didn’t take Derron long to ride into second, which is where she stayed for almost the rest of the race. Derron would hit T2 a little over 10 minutes behind Charles-Barclay, with yet another British athlete, Rebecca Anderbury a further minute behind. Clutterbuck would get to T2 just over 16 minutes behind Charles-Barclay, while France’s Nikita Paskiewiez would finish the bike 26:38 behind the lead.

Out on the run course Charles-Barclay continued to dominate the day, gaining even more time on the women behind. Derron would remain in second for most of the run, but was passed by Anderbury heading into the third lap before regaining the runner-up spot and staying there through the finish. Anderbury would fade to fourth as a charging Paskiewiez would make up almost two minutes in the final six km of the run to take the final spot on the podium.

I caught up with Charles-Barclay shortly after the race.

Congratulations on the win. Pretty awesome company you just joined.

I mean, when I was running down the finish and you said I’d had surgery in January, I just did get a bit emotional. I was like, yeah, this is actually pretty crazy — to come back from that and be racing the hardest IRONMAN there is, and to get my third win here, really, really special. To be in the company of Paula Newby-Fraser, who is a friend of mine but an absolute legend and hero in the sport — to be up there with her is amazing. And yeah, just really, really happy to get the win, the final Club La Santa IRONMAN Lanzarote. As an ambassador for them, it feels very bittersweet. But yeah, a special day.

Only seven Kona titles to catch Paula’s record now — how hard could it be?

Yeah, I think she might keep that one! But yeah, amazing.

You love getting out front and staying there, but on a course this tough, was it a challenge today?

Yeah, I mean, the day started off really well — to beat my swim course record from, I think it was 2017, where I believe it was a one-lap course then, so it used to be a bit faster. So yeah, to beat that, I was really, really happy. The bike — I’m definitely not at 100% fitness and I felt that, so I kind of had to judge my effort level and make sure I wasn’t pushing too hard, because this is such a tough bike. It’s like an hour longer than most other IRONMANs, so you have to factor that in. And then there was the unknown of running a marathon having had surgery at the end of January — I was like, I probably need to manage this effort a little bit more than I normally would. But, thankfully, when I got on the run I actually felt quite good. It felt like it was flowing. It was definitely a hot one out there, so hopefully a good little test run before Kona. I’m happy I can actually handle the heat again — I kind of got rid of those demons out there today. So yeah, very happy with the overall result.

This was your first full-distance race since Kona. (Charles-Barclay pulled out on the run in the Energy Lab last year.) Was any of that going through your mind as the heat ratcheted up on the run?

Yeah, I think it was a really nice way to get confidence that I can handle the heat. But there’s definitely parts of me after Kona that were like, oh, do I want to do an IRONMAN again? And I decided to go and do the toughest one there is again — and it just reconfirmed that I do want to do this. I loved it, even when it gets really, really tough at the end. I was trying to embrace it, enjoy it, and be grateful that I’m out there, healthy, doing this. So yeah, for the most part I enjoyed it.

You predicted that Reece would be telling you to slow down all day — was that what happened?

Yeah, not in those exact words. He put it in a very good way, actually — he gave me a focus point, just telling me to have a good rhythm. I think he said to run the last half marathon as easy and efficiently as I can. So I took that as slow down! But yeah, basically just get to the finish line in the best state possible, which isn’t always easy on this course. But yeah, happy to report that I’ve made it back in one piece.

Hamburg — are you sending that email to pull out, or have Reece and Dan not paid attention yet?

Yeah, I think my name will be coming off the Hamburg start list. I’m very happy with getting that Kona qualification done and dusted today, and now I can have a little rest before I start training again. It’s definitely been a very rushed period at the beginning of the year trying to get this qualification done, and I hope to now have a period where it doesn’t feel rushed. I can just continue to build that fitness, because it’s definitely not 100% there — it’s lacking in areas. So yeah, it’ll be nice to go and work on that and not feel rushed into the next race.

Will there be another IRONMAN before Kona, or are you building straight to it?

Kona is definitely my A goal for the year, so I think that will be the next IRONMAN that I do. This race has given me a lot of data points — Dan and Reece will look at that and go, okay, this is where you really need to work and improve to be better in Kona, and that’s what we’ll do. If Dan or Reece thinks it’s a good idea to do another Ironman, I’m all for it. But yeah, we’ll just see how it goes.

Everyone seemed to be making statements in Texas — Christian making his case, Solveig having a big day … now you had a great race here. Do you feel like you’re part of that conversation, reminding people not to forget about you?

I mean, I don’t know if that was much of a statement — it was just me getting around the island and trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Obviously very happy to get the win. And I guess this race is so difficult to compare to any others — it’s really about managing your own effort, getting your nutrition on board. Like I said, it’s basically an hour longer than most other IRONMANs, so it’s a really tough challenge. But if people think it’s a statement, I’m happy to take it! I did get called the Olympic champion when I was running out of T2, and I was like… I don’t think I’m that. But okay, that made me laugh. (Ed. note: I wasn’t on the mic at that point, I promise!)

And finally — 70.3 worlds, still in the picture before Kona?

Yeah, I think so. Obviously I’ll go away and do some good training and see how it goes, but I’d like to defend my title over the 70.3 distance. I feel confident that if we keep building from here, that’s a possibility later in the year for sure.

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