Always quick to share the good stuff so thought I had better be honest and share when things don’t quite go to plan! A recent trip to Lanzarote for my husband and athlete to take part in Ironman Lanzarote resulted in a night at hospital after the race. In recent years Simon has been suffering with very painful stomach cramps during the last 6 miles of the run and after some changes to his nutrition plan we finally thought we had conquered the problem at Ironman Wales last year when he didn’t suffer with any issues. Fast forward to May 2026 and Lanzarote unfortunately brought on the same stomach pains at mile 20 but possibly worse than previous races. Simon finished the race (in a still very impressive 12hr 45min) but then fell ill a few hours later. He was cold and shivering and the hot and sweating, feeling sick and very unwell, we had to call an ambulance and after a long night at hospital and several drips and blood tests later he was diagnosed with low sodium levels and hyponatremia.
Now we have this information we are speculating that it could possibly be low sodium that has been causing the stomach problems all along and in Lanzarote it just went one step further. We’ve been to Precision Fuel and Hydration for a sweat test and this has given us some valuable information to work with and see if we can nail the nutrition for the next race. Its obvious that we have been well under sodium levels for all racing and training in the last couple of years so with this new information we are experimenting and hopeful for a successful race in Leeds in August!
On a positive note it was an amazing place, a lovely area and definitely somewhere we would go back to!