Lucy Charles-Barclay’s “Full Circle” to IRONMAN Lanzarote

I remember it all vividly. I was (as I am this year, as well), at IRONMAN Lanzarote as part of the announcing team and was doing some interviews for the race video. A former national team swimmer from London – Lucy Charles-Barclay – was one of the athletes I had to chat with. She had won her age group in Kona the year before (along with the IRONMAN 70.3 18-24 title) and was competing in her first professional race. She seemed nervous, but also confident.

“I remember when I was 22, racing here for the first time, I think Jan Frodeno was racing as well and I said I would beat him out of the swim,” Charles-Barclay said in an interview after yesterday’s press conference here in Lanzarote. “I was probably a quite naive 22-year-old, but I did beat him out of T1 because he had a few helmet issues, I remember. So, I kind of almost won that bet. But yeah, I think it was just a great opportunity to race. I wanted to come and do one of the hardest IRONMAN races and challenge myself and see what I could do. I probably didn’t really realise what it would lead to in my career, but it was an amazing start and then I came back again in 2017 and got the win here. And then that kind of spiraled into an amazing year. I ended up coming second in Kona as a rookie. So it was a great start.”

She’s not joking. It was a great start and also a harbinger of her upcoming career. Her third-place finish in that first pro race in Lanzarote and a fourth a few weeks later at 70.3 Staffordshire signalled she was on her way to a successful pro career, but it would have to wait as she struggled with a stress fracture through the rest of 2016. A year later, though, she was back to win in Lanzarote, take another big win two weeks later at the Challenge Championship and just kept going from there. There were numerous IRONMAN and 70.3 titles, a 70.3 world championship win and an amazing string of four runner-up finishes in Kona before she finally took the win in 2023. There have been injuries and other issues, but as she did so well after the 2016 issue, Charles-Barclay has always managed to bounce back and race even better.

Photo: Club La Santa IRONMAN Lanzarote/ Signe Ungermand

“Yeah, I think obviously I have had some huge ups and downs,” Charles-Barclay said. “I got some world titles along the way, and last year I found out I had celiac disease, which has been a big change for me. I think I feel healthier than ever this year and I’m confident that, actually, by getting that diagnosis and really getting on top of my health, that I should be healthier and stronger. And that’s kind of my main goal for this year – to try and stay healthy … The top goal is just to enjoy myself. It always has been that as I turned pro. I was like, I just want to enjoy this sport and see how far I can go, and I’m still doing that.”

So, was there almost a sense of relief to get the celiac diagnosis since it explained some of the issues she was experiencing? 

“I think my symptoms had been getting worse for two or three years and I just wasn’t sure what was going on,” Charles-Barclay said. “So to get that diagnosis was a real light bulb moment. It was like, OK, this is what I’ve been dealing with. And I had no idea. So yeah, it was a huge relief. And, like I said, I do feel so much stronger, so much healthier this year. And I’ve had a really nice build into the year and a great winter of training that I haven’t had for a few years. So there’s a lot of confidence going into races. But I’m here to just lap up the race, lap up the atmosphere. It always delivers here in Lanzarote, so the conditions are tough, but that’s what I like, so it should be good fun.”

As the 2023 IRONMAN world champion, Charles-Barclay simply needs to validate her slot with a finish here in Lanzarote, but it’s hard to imagine she’ll be taking things easy. She admits that she’s incredibly competitive and always has been, and that isn’t likely to change any time soon. Last year at IRONMAN Nice she scorched through a 2:49 marathon despite winning the race by almost 17 minutes.

After tomorrow’s race, though, Charles-Barclay will be getting back to the speedy T100 Series – she took third at the season opener in Singapore and will next race at T100 Vancouver in June. Charles-Barclay feels racing in that series only helps her chances at taking another world title in Kona this October.  

“I think the T100 series delivers probably the most fast furious competitive racing at the moment with the short course ladies stepping up,” she said. “They all raced in the Olympics last year, and now they’re stepping up to the middle distance. So, by doing that, I feel like it kind of just gives me an extra gear and then I come and race an IRONMAN and it feels a little bit more pedestrian. Hopefully that’s going to give me an edge.”

Photo: Club La Santa IRONMAN Lanzarote/ Signe Ungermand

The racing here in Lanzarote, though, won’t be anything like that.

“This race isn’t really about pace – it’s about listening to yourself, listening to the conditions,” she said. “The bike course takes longer because of the conditions and the wind.”

Charles-Barclay doesn’t just like the IRONMAN race here, she’s long enjoyed Lanzarote as a training ground, and credits her time here as her inspiration for getting into triathlon in the first place. 

“I came out here to train originally as a swimmer in 2013,” she said. “And I didn’t do much cycling then. It was mainly swimming in the pools at Club La Santa. We had some friends training for Ironman Lanzarote at the time, and we got to cycle the bike course. We actually did it over two days and I thought it was so brutal – how does anyone do all of this in one day and swim before and run afterwards? After a while I thought I’d quite like to challenge myself and see if I can do it. And we’ve been coming back to Club La Santa ever since. I’ve come here at least twice a year every year, so it really does feel like a second home. I’d say probably 90 percent of the bike course I ride all the time. There’s only small parts that I haven’t done, so it really does feel like a home race and I should be familiar with most of the course when I’m out there on race day.”

While the race might be “good fun” for her, it isn’t likely to be as enjoyable for her competitors, who will be taking on a fit and healthy Kona champ who is looking to repeat that achievement again in October. Since that win here in Lanzarote in 2017 the “worst” Charles-Barclay has ever finished in Kona is second. Last year the British star pulled out of the world championship in Nice at the last minute due to a calf injury. As she did in 2017, she’s looking to bounce back to another big day on the Big Island with a race on the island that started it all for her.

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