It really has been a long time since I put finger to keyboard to write something for the site, as opposed to editing the hundreds of news items, features and results that get processed each month. And, while I was sitting here thinking about the last few weeks, it occurred to me that there were such a variety of stories there that I might just as well jot them down and see where it all led.

The first thing that I feel that I should share are some of the experiences from Lanzarote where Jen and I both had a great time - although the next person that suggests that it was a holiday may well regret it... In statistical terms the arrangements in our household are reversed: Jen does all the training and I occupy some of the space around that! And, as many of you will know, Ironman training takes a lot of time so, oddly, the nearer we get to a race the more we actually get to see of one another because the bulk of the training is done and it's just a matter of getting there and doing it. The first part of that being my responsibility...

Getting there is half the fun

After two years at Austria, where we had a room at the Plattenwirt which is less than 300m from transition, Lanzarote was going to be a bit more of an experiment. We knew that we didn't want to be based at La Santa because we wanted to have good access to the swim for some last-minute open water practice and didn't need the hassle of driving across the island every day. A quick hunt through Expedia produced the wonderful La Penita Apartments which are about a mile down the run course and so perfectly situated: a bit quieter than being on the strip but still well close enough to have access to everything we would need. As some will know, Jen is gluten intolerant and we always ship out a parcel of food in advance so that she has the basics to hand but we need not have bothered as, unlike Austria, there was plenty of fresh fruit and veg and even a shop in Playa Honda that stocks both vegetarian and gluten free food - and it was cheaper than here in the UK.

Flying with a bike is always a bit of a gamble; ours always travel in hard shell cases and with Jen riding a small frame there's a fair bit of room to pack the essentials like energy food and all the water bottles into the Scicon as well. Not knowing about the supply of CO2 canisters on Lanzarote we decided to take a risk and pack some in the case - technically the airlines don't like it but there are far more dangerous things loaded onto a plane every day than a 16gm canister of CO2... After two years of traveling with Ryan Air it was also a change to not be able to pre-book the bike onto the plane - passengers who bought tickets direct seemed to be able to do this but as our ticket came through Expedia they told us to turn up early, so we did. Four hours early... £20 later and the bike was through the scanners at Gatwick with not a hint of complaint.

Pretty much everyone who travels with a bike tries to watch it being loaded on the plane, after all the load and unload are when it is most vulnerable, and I don't know who the handling agents are for Monarch but they did a really crap job that day. I watched as the sole loader simply pulled all the soft bagged bikes off the trolley and dumped them on the ground - some falling several feet onto the tarmac - and then started to pull the boxed bikes off on top of them. Words were had with a supervisor at the gate and, in turn, by him with the loader but by then it was all academic. I never did hear reports of any bikes being damaged but if they were, that's when it happened.

One of the concerns with being away from base for a week was that using the internet abroad is an unknown. The apartments did have computers that could be used but I need access pretty much 24/7 and so the search was on for either a reliable WiFi connection or some other means. WiFi is patchy in Lanzarote - it's there but it's nowhere near as prevalent as here in the UK and I couldn't find a reliable source of information about where I could get connected. What I did find, however, was a company renting 3G modemsa> for just €60 a week with unlimited connection. Hand-delivered to, and collected from, the airport and installed and tested first - an amazing personal service and it delivered a top quality connection all week long. I could have used my T-mobile 3G connection and paid £7.50 per megabyte instead but I didn't feel like being robbed blind, it was bad enough taking the 55p a minute hit each way for the calls...

How the work gets done

I had press accreditation for the Ironman which means that I can get access to all those interesting little bits that normally only the athletes are allowed into together with the option of going out on a boat for the swim or a motorbike on the bike course. Having driven the two Mirador sections, and had previous experiences on the back of a motorbike, I opted for the boat! What I totally failed to take into account was that a) it was still really quite dark at 6:30am and b) that nobody had mentioned that we would have to wade out to the boats and get soaked from the waist down... A bit of water doesn't bother me but two mobile phones and a wallet got a good bath - fortunately the cameras were grabbed from above by the boat crew! Taking pictures from a boat in even a gentle swell is tricky, doing it in the dawn light is even more so, but I think we did get some interesting ones - about 350 actually - and I even managed to find Jen in the pack and get a shot of her for the album.

Back on terra firma, not strictly true given Lanzarote's volcanic past, and with a freshly re-soaked set of shorts there was time to watch the pro athletes get out of the swim and then capture the emptying of the transition. Normally, when you are watching an event as a supporter, you get to see them go out on the bike and then head off for breakfast. Next time, do hang around a bit - there are all sorts of wonderful moments as the slower swimmers emerge and ready themselves for a long day in the lava fields. You get to see a few familiar faces and some really quite bizarre sights - one competitor must have used a year's worth of suntan cream in one go, we nicknamed him Casper... Once they are all gone - and there are always a few who don't make it onto the bike - it's time to check the clock, do a few calculations and head for the food. This is the only down-time of the day so you have to make the most of it.

WTC takes its franchise seriously and, as I have mentioned before, other websites cannot report live on the event when the IronmanLive team are in town. Having already met their Editor in Chief, Kevin Mackinnon, at the athlete briefing, I knew that I would mainly be taking photos and doing background updates - as well as keeping an eye on UK race results for Tri247 and trying to cover the World Duathlon Championships in Gyor! Half jokingly I offered Kevin use of any photos that he might like from the set that I had shot so far and, to my delight, a whole bunch of them are up on IronmanLive and have since turned up in a few other places as well. I'm far from being a good photographer but it is nice to see your work getting a wider audience.

An Ironman day is a long one and Lanzarote days are often a bit longer still... When Jen finally emerged from the medical tent, no dramas but the offer of a quick IV for rehydration was just too tempting, it was a long trudge back down the run course to the apartment. On these occasions I get to push the bike (and carry most of the gear) while Jen walks along trying to get to a bed before the muscles all stiffen up - which often results in my getting complimented on doing the race... It really shouldn't be that hard to tell the difference between someone who has sat around for 17 hours and done no physical exertion at all and someone who has done an Ironman! Or do people just not expect women to do Ironman distance - certainly the women's field at Lanzarote is among the smallest of any of the full distance races.

What NOT to do

What follows is an object lesson in how not to approach the return journey...

Unlike some other athletes, or their helpers, I'm just as obsessive about packing the bike for the return journey as I am for the outward leg - I want that thing back in one piece because a) it's worth quite a bit and b) Jen will give me all sorts of grief if it gets bent... So, everything gets bubble wrapped, zip tied and re-positioned until the entire box is full and nothing can move or get moved. After years of experience I also have extra anchor points in the case which get zip tied up in case the locks fail and I even use duct tape across the locks ... you can see where this is going already, can't you ...

No early check in at the airport in Lanzarote, but the queues weren't nearly as bad as at Gatwick, and then - disaster. Or, rather, disaster number one. It was obvious that Spanish airport security was singing a different tune to the guys at Gatwick. Soft bike bags were great because they could rummage through them and they fit into the scanner - hard cases, especially sealed up ones, were being opened and searched in a very peculiar way. First they selected random bits to be taken out of the box: in our case they had one of the two pumps, the bike shoes (but not the trainers...), the gels and the storage bottle we use for spare tubes and those naughty CO2 canisters... Oh yes, they went in the bin - or did they? They didn't scan the bike frame, the wheels, the tribars, ... No zip ties or tape to reseal the box, the spares were in the bags that had already gone to the hold, so a quick patch job and the box went down the chute. Was that the end?

About ten minutes later there's a call on the PA for a "Mr Budgett to information" which meant going back out through security - only to be sent back through it again to go to the baggage handling in the basement. With all the camera gear, laptop and other crap that I carry on trips like this that's not something that you get to do in a hurry... I won't go into the conversation that was had at this point but remember, you can't take fluids through security but you can buy them when you are the other side... The problem, apparently, was that there was still something in the box that they didn't like. And, yes, you've guessed, it was a CO2 canister that the first security check had missed, probably because the guy was not even being remotely thorough and I, being somewhat pissed off, wasn't helping him.

The killer punch came, however, when I pointed out to the guys in the basement that the case had already been checked and OKed. Sure, they said, we don't normally bother about the CO2, it's just that there are so many bikes... So, the moral here is that it's much, much better to follow the rules, even if there's nothing to support them, than try to be a smart arse! Especially when you can't speak their language properly...

Which probably goes for a lot of other triathlon-related rules as well; like keeping your helmet on, and racking your bike in the right slot, and not implying that the referee might be a complete arse of dubious parentage for suggesting otherwise. They WILL get you in the end!