Rachel Joyce won her first Ironman title! (21.05.2011)

Just a few days ago Rachel decided to race on Lanzarote. Now she added her first Ironman title to her resume.

Rachel’s season 2010 was characterised by injuries. Though she finished that year with the sensational 5th place on Hawaii. Everything is different in 2011 – 2 Ironmans within a few weeks and Rachel finished second in South Africa and won today’s race on Lanzarote.

Her trip to the island was actually one for training. Without any special preparation she decided beginning of that week to race. It was the right decision as she said: ”I felt well and I just wanted to race.”

From the beginning on she was in the lead. On the bike the Swiss Natascha Badmann did not close the gap but she decreased the distance up to 5 minutes. On the run Rachel showed her strength. She speeded up to make the distance bigger. It worked: “I justed wanted to get away from Natascha. I had a perfect day. I never had to slow down and I had no problems the entire way.” So she broke the old marathon record in just over 3 hours. And she came pretty close to the old record of the whole course of Paul Newby-Fraser from 1995. In the end less than 4 minutes were missing and she won in 9:28:12 in front of Badman and the Dane Ottosen.

Rachel’s recovery phase will be short. Already in 2 weeks her next race – Challenge Kraichgau - is on her schedule. And with today's victory her slot for the Ironman World Championships is clear.