Registration - Done in under 5 mins. Some mild queues the day before race day with athletes buying licences etc but if you have local tri union membership then you can stroll on through. Even better if you can register on the Thursday, less crowds. Location is great too, right on Alcúdia beach by the port so you can get lunch, have a practice swim etc.

Expo - Plenty there. The main IronMan merchandise tent fully stocked so lots of souvenirs to choose from. There were also tents for Ryzon, On, Zoot, Enervit as well as a bike servicing centre. Basically, if you’re stuck for anything, you won’t be short.

Briefing - Had hoped there would be a rolling video briefing to save me from going back up to Alcúdia after registration but it was well worth the trip. The briefing tent was huge and packed out, with Paul Kaye whipping us into a frenzy and taking us through the course. It was really good fun and built excitement for the next day. Make sure you don’t miss it.

Racking - Pretty easy if you are staying locally as you can just walk down to Transition and check in, hang your bags, rack your bike and get your timing chip. If you’re staying out of town, you’ll struggle to park close to transition so expect a 1-2km walk at least. And prepare to be shocked because transition is massive. Easily laid out and you’ll have no trouble finding your bike/run bags and bike, but it is big.

Race Day Arriving - Same tip as above re parking. Expect a little stroll so don’t be rushing, give yourself plenty of time. You don’t want unnecessary stress just before a big day out.

Swim - Leisurely start at 08:00 and you get warm-up time in the water. It’s relaxed but depending on your ability, you could be waiting up to an hour to start. You self-seed based on your expected finish time, there are colour coded swim hats for this which you choose at registration. They let six athletes go to the water every six seconds, fastest first. Was about 45 mins until I got my chance. It’s a great swim, simple out and back with buoys every 100m and just two turns. It’s pretty shallow, water visibility is 100% and barely had any chop on race day. That is weather dependent of course but for me it was simple and fast. Finishes with 300m run up to transition

Bike - You don’t need to wear your race number on the bike so don’t bother. Course has a bit of everything, I’d say the first 40km was the best. Coastal road over to Pollensa was great and then you have a mountain climb up to Lluc to navigate.  I was nervous about this, never climbed a mountain before, but I just sat back, spun up, amazed at what I was doing, and good banter between athletes too. You may think you’ve reached the top not once but twice, before the final climb up to Lluc. You’ll know you are there when you see a petrol station on the left, and then you can enjoy the long descent. This part of the course is technical with a lot of switchbacks, and they come round quickly so make sure you give yourself plenty of room to slow and turn. There’s some wonderful views to be had of southern Mallorca on the way down too.  Back half of the race was just ok for me, there was a lot of headwind across a lot of flat country roads, and mild irritation with blatant drafting in the last 20k when I was tiring. 15-20 people just hanging out together. I put in two big efforts to get past them and succeeded second time but probably blew a lot of matches doing so. I would have liked to see more motorbike officials on course to monitor this stuff, especially with so many athletes. I managed to avoid drafting all day so why couldn’t they?

Run - Race belt mandatory for this section.  50% of the run is great, 50% wildly uninspiring. It’s a 3 loop affair, with the back half of the loop on the Alcúdia promenade. This was the great part. The other half of the course was through an urban area and out across a main road before turning into the beach. There was very little support away from the beach and without a view, you do struggle, well I did anyway.  Not sure IronMan can do much to change this as the promenade is too small for two-way racing traffic.  Four aid stations per loop with plenty of nutrition, only other thing to note is no wristbands for each loop. Everything is done through your timing chip so don’t panic if you are used to collecting bands on looped runs.  

Finish - Simply awesome, packed, tunes blaring out and space for family and supporters on the side to cheer you home. It’s over too quickly but what a moment. Medal and t-shirt given and straight off into recovery tent where there was great range of cooked food, cola, beer, water and massage recovery options. All that was left to do was collect the bike before 19:00, just that long walk back to the car to deal with after :-)

It’s a very good race, great atmosphere between the athletes and lot of variety on the course to challenge you physically and mentally. My toughest day out yet but so glad I’ve done it!