SUNDAY: We rushed out to La Santa this morning as it turned out that there was a 50% chance that Jen might have a slot for Hawaii as two of the four in her age group didn't want it... No dice, but as it turned out it was a good thing we did go because we dicovered that Peter Dalkin did have a slot and he had no idea at all! Mad dash back across the island by Ian Parker to fetch him and get him back there for the 12 noon deadline...

Other Brits who placed top three in their age category were: Joanna Carritt 1st in 30-34, Erni Hamilton 2nd in 40-44, Carol Young 3rd in 45-49, Hilary Webber 2nd in 55-59, Steven Lord 3rd in 35-39 and didn't show for his slot, John Griffin 3rd in 45-49, Glyn Williams 2nd in 60-64 and Peter Dalkin 1st in 65-69.

Now I've unearthed the missing memory card from the camera there are a load more shots from the run up on the PicasaWeb album for you to laugh at. This is one seriously tough Ironman - many reckon that it is the toughest - but yesterday's changed bike route did remove two climbs and replaced them with a relatively flat section which serial offenders out here said was no bad thing as the wind was reversed from normal making the home stretch a long old slog into a headwind.

The organisation here is unique - I don't think I've ever seen anything quite so casual and yet totally professional at any race of this size. There's an enormous determination to get everyone through the day and to look after the athletes but, on the other hand, there are some bizarre oddities like the transition security being almost non-existent after the race with no check on what bike you took and the fencing being secured only with zip ties! There again, there was an armed policeman on every side road so you probably wouldn't have gotten too far... Definitely one for the album and definitely one that draws people back again and again.

If you feel like a taste of the event, but also fancy doing something completely different, you could try the Las Tres Islas race where you swim from La Graciosa to the main island, bike down the length of it to Playa Blanca and then sail across to Fuerteventura. You can read all about in on their website: www.lastresislas.com

SATURDAY 5:30pm: Three Brits made the top 50: Steven Lord was 15th and second in the 35-39 category in 9:46:32, Simeon Lloyd was 26th in 9:55:07 and Nicholas Peter Ward Munoz was 42nd in 10:06:26. Results are filtering through onto the IronmanLive site and we have been promised a set once they have been verified, probably first thing on Sunday.

SATURDAY 5:20pm: Tiina Boman won the womens race having led from the start although the discovery that Tara Norton ran the whole race after dislocating her shoulder in the swim makes you wonder if it might have been closer. Well, at least the wife is safely back off the bike and out onto the run, in the ensuing hiatus I've uploaded another batch of images to the PicasaWeb album for your enjoyment. Now it's just a long wait...

SATURDAY 3:50pm: It's over, Eneko Llanos never really looked to be challenged on the run and came home to take the win in front of a home crowd. Just before he finished we had a nasty incident where a pedestrian wandered into the road and knocked a Chester Tri athlete off his bike as he was coming into the finish chute. After treatment he walked in to change for the run and we hope that he will be OK to finish.

UPDATE: A week after the race we got an email from Nick Campbell, the Chester Tri member who got knocked off his bike:

Just spotted your review of the Lanzarote Ironman. I was the competitor (no 815) from Chester Tri who was knocked of his bike close to the end of the bike course. Just to let you know that despite a very painful left thigh I was able to limp through the marathon course and still enjoy the fantastic atmosphere the race generated. I had a great week and would recommend the race to anyone.

SATURDAY 2pm: We have data for the first five Brits home off the bike: Steven Lord in 15th (5:22:46 bike), Mark Racher in 27th (5:31:53 bike), Nicholas Peter Ward Munoz in 51st (5:28:43 bike), Nick Thomas in 60th (5:31:40 bike) and Simeon Lloyd in 79th (5:38:36 bike).

SATURDAY: The Pro men are starting to stream back in, five by my count so far. While we were waiting for them it seemed like a good idea to look at the swim times and the top five GB men were Mark Racher in 10th (50:04), Peter Campbell in 14th (53:12), Andrew Lovell in 16th (53:12), Gavin Hill in 34th (55:29) and Iain Hamilton in 37th (55:32). For the women we have Anne Fallows in 12th (1:05:38), Candice McDonald in 17th (1:06:45) and Johanna Lovell in 21st (1:08:31). All the swim splits are now up on the IronmanLive site - the live feed has not turned out to be possible after all so they are doing batch uploads during the day.

SATURDAY: It's noon, we are five hours in to the race and now I've dried out the mobile phones, wallet and just about everything else that got soaked while I was out in the boat this morning, I can get back online again. The sun has been breaking through but it's largely overcast and the wind is still pretty much a gentle breeze as opposed to the stronger winds of earlier in the week. We are leaving the race coverage to IronmanLive but we have taken a load of photos and these are now up on the PicasaWeb album where we put the rest of our race photography. (These pictures are free for personal use and if you happen to be the lucky person in shot and email us we'll send you the high res file as well. All use on other websites or in print must be credited.). Observant folk may also notice some of the pics on the IronmanLive site -- yes, they are the same ones and, yes, we did let them have them!

FRIDAY: The bikes are racked, the wind has picked up slightly - but from a completely different direction - the swim buoys are all in place and, oh yes, Rebecca Preston has pulled out due to injury. Interestingly none of the Pro athletes seemed very positive at the press conference this afternoon, they all know from previous experience that this one is too hard to call and pretty much any one of them could be taking the prize home tomorrow afternoon. The good news from the IronmanLive team is that, for the first time ever, we should have direct timing on the internet so do check out the action on their website: www.ironmanlive.com