My day

I´ve now completed my second Ironman, nothing compared to the 70 year old guy who just finished his 50th! This was by far the hardest day of my life, a real physical and emotinoal roller coaster, that´s Ironman.

 
My day started out to plan, I wanted to swim under 1 hr. Considering the conditions, with only 5 athletes starting at a time every 10 seconds and a small field of 300 competitors I was pleased with the 1hr 1min swim exit time. I swam a lot on my own just not finding the right feet to sit on. What is one minute over a day that is going to take 10-11 hrs? I made a quick transition to the bike and settled into my rhythm. The wind was crazy, coming from all directions making it a real tough ride. You had to really concentrate and hold on tight every now and then when a gust of wind surprised you from either direction. I made sure that I took on my fluids straight away grabbing drinks at every aid station. The first 90 km were pretty fast with an average speed of 34 km/hr. Unfortunately I had to back of the speed after the 110 km mark with nerve pain in my hip. Up until now I had great positive thoughs running through my mind. All of a sudden I was not sure how the rest of my race was going to shape up. I managed to still clock up a respectable time of 5hrs 30 mins for the 180 km, coming into transition in 5th overall place and the third fastest bike time.

 

The roller coaster ride really first began on the run. First 2 km I felt great, then not so good to terrible and then good again, and this pattern continuted for the 42 km. I had to stop at each aid station for fluids and cold sponges otherwise I would have not made it to the finish line. The temperature rose to 38 degrees and a humidity of 85%, along with a hot wind to make it mentally even tougher. A lot of people were walking due to cramps and total exhaustion. I held the 5th postion up until the 30 km mark where I suffered greatly from the conditions having to let 3 women pass me. At this stage I was only thinking about getting over the finish line. With 2 km to go I could start to enjoy the atmosphere in the city and the pain seemed to vanish. What a great feeling coming over the line. My finish time was 11hrs and 9 mins, 8th place overall and 2nd in my category. Unfortunately my age group only had one slot for Hawaii, meaning I´ll start in Frankfurt in July to chase my Hawaii start.

  

Unfortunately Jörg had bad luck on the bike with two flat tires and could not finish the race. He was in 4th position before flatting the first time and climbed back into the top ten before flatting again. This was the end to this day. He is now focused for Frankfurt Ironman.

 

Our experience in China was an interesting one, not something I would do again for a few reasons. Our trip ended with both Jörg and myself suffering food posioning, felt like I was doing the Ironman over again.

 

Time to look forward to Frankfurt and of course our events that are just around the corner.