“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 Nina 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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