Ironman Wales 2011

The inaugural ironman wales 2011 triathlon is greatly anticipated by many and it looks like a spectacular course that will quickly become a favorite Ironman destination. It is scheduled for Sunday September 11, 2011

CHECK BACK FOR A LINK TO THE RACE RESULTS PAGE ON SEPT.11

It's gratifying to see Wales be the newest member of the family of Ironman Triathlons. Each year I have many visitors from the U.K. and it's great to see them have the opportunity to compete at a Ironman Triathlon close to home.

At the time of the creation of this page for the benefit of my visitors, the course for the Wales Ironman was still tentative, but most likely much of it will not change all that much.

It's quite normal when an Ironman is first created to make several small changes to the bike and run courses in particular.

THE SWIM COURSE

The swim is scheduled to take place at South Beach in Tenby in Camarthen Bay and it will be a two-loop course.

The Ironman Wales 2011 swim course is clockwise with 2 right hand turns. The beach area should be ideal for the swim start.

South beach features more than 2 kilometers of stunning golden sand that stretches from St. Catherine's Island to Giltar Point.

There are plenty of facilities available and South Beach has won many environmental awards.

Athletes can expect temperatures in the neighborhood of 20 degrees Celsius(70f) in September 2011 on race day.

The water temperature normally averages 16 to 18 degrees Celsius at that time of year.

According to the water temperatures expected, this will be a wetsuit swim.

Because of the beach chosen for the swim start, the course should be great for spectator viewing.

THE BIKE COURSE

The Wales Ironman 2011 bike course is a two-loop course and will take triathletes through the stunning Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Along the way cyclists will also pass by many famous local landmarks and majestic castles.

If you look at the map you will notice several long climbs and the bike course will be challenging as triathletes will be making their way over these hills twice as they bike a total of 180kms.

Changes may yet be made to the course, but most likely those changes will be minor.

The people of Wales are friendly and cyclists can expect plenty of spectator support as they tackle the challenging bike course.

Hopefully the normal temperatures for September will be the order of the day and the rain and wind stay away. Well, at least until most of the athletes are off the bike course and into the run.

I always found that a light rain was not necessarily a bad thing in an Ironman marathon. I would take that over oppressive heat any day.

THE RUN COURSE

The run course should prove to be spectator friendly as it features 4 10km loops followed by a 2.2km run to the finish line on the Tenby Esplande.

The marathon course for Wales Ironman 2011 will take triathletes through and around the town of Tenby.

It will begin on Trafalgar Road and then head out towards Penally before coming back into town towards Tenby with it's historic town walls and seaside scenery.

Here are some notes from the entry list....

In the 18-24 category there will be 30 male and 6 females vying for top spot.

As is normal with Ironman these days the 40-44 age group for men will be the biggest and most hotly contested. You might expect possible 8 qualifying spots for Kona in a field this big.

I'm just guessing so don't quote me. From my own experience that will be pretty close.

There are no less than 252 entries in this category for men. For the women in this age category there will be 25 entries.

The 45-49 age group is also a big one for men. There will be 164 men and 23 women in this age group.

There are 88 men and 12 women in the 50-54 age group and 3 men and no women in the 65-69 age group.

Congratulations to Garth Barfoot from New Zealand. He is entered in the 70+age group and I'm sure is an inspiration to us all and is an indication of just how long an Ironman career can be if one chooses.

Best of luck to all the friends of Ironstruck who will be taking part in Ironman Wales 2011.