News / Lynsey’s off to Hawaii for Ironman following a strong showing in Copenhagen sunshine
ONE OF Shetland’s leading athletes is bound for Hawaii after completing the mammoth Ironman event in Copenhagen at the weekend.
Lynsey Henderson, from Lerwick, conquered the course – consisting of a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.4km run – on Sunday and was “super chuffed” with her time of 10 hours 43 minutes.
The faster-than-expected time also resulted in Lynsey being offered a place at the Ironman World Championship, to be staged in Kailua-Kona in Hawaii on 8 October this year.
“I was pretty shocked really – I thought it was probably a once in a lifetime chance so just took it,” Lynsey, a regular for Team Shetland at Island Games over the years, told Shetland News.
She will join another Shetlander, Davie Williamson, in Hawaii after he qualified in a time of just under 10 hours and 25 minutes at a race in Bolton last month.
To have two islanders qualify is an impressive feat given only a few Scots make it into the competition each year.
Also competing in Copenhagen yesterday were Lynsey’s former Shetland Triathlon Club teammates Mark Georgeson and Ewan Stirling, who both now live in Inverness.
She finished eighth in the 30-34 age group, 33rd among women and 601st overall out of a total of 2,835 athletes.
Her achievement, in a physically demanding event lasting longer than a normal working day, is all the more remarkable when you consider that she had never run a standalone marathon before.
“I was super chuffed with my time, faster than I expected,” Lynsey said. “I had never run a marathon till [yesterday] – might have to run ‘een on fresh legs some day!”
“I had been thinking about doing an Ironman for a while since [I’d been] working up to more distance triathlons. I did a few half Ironman events. And then I signed up to Copenhagen a year ago.”
She started training last winter right through until August, building longer distances and hours on the bike and running.
“I wanted to do Ironman as best I could, so put in hard training to give it my best shot. The marathon was the most daunting, and it was really warm with the sun out on route.”
She was cheered on in Denmark by the “best support team” – twin brother David and his partner Drew, along with friends Gemma and Ruaridh McGregor and their young son Magnus, who Lynsey is godmother to.
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