Originally written in German. Translated to English by AI — please excuse any awkward phrasing.

… or slow start, strong finish?!?!?
Both pretty much characterize the key points of my race, but more on that later.
After the workload of the previous days I was anything but rested at the start line — quite the opposite of last year when the race came at the end of a rest week and I was fresh. My priorities were therefore mostly on nutrition and equipment, with a faster time than last year being a bonus.

The conditions were actually perfect: slightly overcast, little wind, not too hot (and yet I still got a nasty sunburn …)

Already during the warm-up swim I could tell it wasn’t going to be an easy day. The power in my arms had somehow vanished — after a short time the leg kick felt like it does after 200m of kick-only laps. After the start I stayed on the left edge of the pack so I could get away without too much fighting and found a decent rhythm pretty quickly, if not the fastest. I also had an orientation problem. At first I thought everyone else was swimming crooked — it quickly became clear that I was the problem. I’ve rarely swum such a zigzag course, left and right — my arm stroke was that inconsistent and uneven. Given all that, the swim time of 30:36 isn’t terrible, but still over a minute slower than last year. Lesson learned: swim open water more often …

The first transition wasn’t too bad. The wetsuit came off quickly, but unfortunately I pulled the timing chip off with it and had to dig around in the wetsuit to find it and put it back on. So overall a bad transition.

On the bike it continued as powerlessly as in the swim. I had pain in the first hour in places I didn’t even know you needed for cycling. After that it got better and better minute by minute — I was able to really push and passed a lot of people and especially groups. And that’s exactly what did me in again.

“Same procedure as last year.” After I’d rolled up to another 10-15 person group (riding three abreast with 2m gaps) and briefly reached for my water bottle to drink, an older referee came up from behind and immediately showed me the black card! 4-minute time penalty … I tried to explain to her that I’d just rolled up to them (which she must have seen from behind) and was going to pass once I’d had a drink — completely useless. I might have even understood if she’d stopped the whole group and penalized everyone — but no, this lovely lady noted my number and rode past the group (which was still doing a casual group ride) without paying any further attention to them … What’s the point? That’s completely senseless!

Well, what can you do. I completely lost motivation at that point — I really didn’t feel like continuing. I did anyway — somehow you have to get home. I served the penalty at the Schindelberg climb, where there was quite a scene. At that point there were two others who had similar stories. Seems it was systematic.
In the end my bike time was 2:38:47, almost three minutes faster than last year (also with a time penalty). Though I did 5 watts less than the year before.

Then there was the run, which can only be described as awesome, stellar, or any other superlative you like. Quietly and without announcing it, I’d set myself the goal of running about 5 seconds per kilometer faster than last year. Over the longer course that would have resulted in roughly the same finishing time as last year. But I also had 72 running kilometers already in my legs before the start — had to factor that in, wasn’t sure how it would play out. OK, those hoped-for 5 seconds per km turned into 10 seconds faster, my legs got better and better with every meter and I could really push. Around km 13 I briefly felt like I was about to completely blow up — one sip from my nutrition bottle later and that problem was gone.

I still have no idea what exactly I’m taking, but the effect can only be described as sensational. It works so fast that you feel literally back from the dead in about a second — you just mustn’t forget to keep drinking alongside it. Because if you do, you’ve got a problem — a very, very, very, very big problem.
I ran the (somewhat short) half marathon in 1:21:40, over two minutes faster than last year — and on a longer course! The fastest and slowest laps were exactly 18 seconds apart — you could call that “running evenly.”
Final time was 04:34:37, which put me 77th overall and 21st in my age group.

Summary:
A few things to improve, but overall I can be satisfied with the result. The time penalty is annoying, but better here at Kraichgau than at Frankfurt. Nutrition worked great — never an energy deficit, got everything out that was in me that day. Lost a toenail and got a 1cm cut on my heel, but nothing that gets in the way. Cynically noted: the nail definitely won’t fall off in Frankfurt.

One last thing to leave you with — a small equation: “Form = Fitness + Freshness”. By that formula, I wasn’t in form yet — the “Freshness” was missing, but the “Fitness” thankfully seems to be there. If that’s what I can do without “Freshness” — where does this go when I’m actually rested????????????