Originally written in German. Translated to English by AI — please excuse any awkward phrasing.
… but I’m not really satisfied just yet …
It was neither great nor terrible — somewhere in between. The swim went according to plan and I broke the 1h mark for the second time: 59:43. The first time I could still excuse it by saying we ran the first 500 meters — now I can’t do that anymore and need to learn the flip turn … not exactly thrilled about that yet …
The path to the first turn buoy was the usual brawl; after that things calmed down a bit. The first transition was also decent, so I was on the bike pretty early. And that’s where things started going sideways. I already planned to ride a bit more aggressively with more risk, but 30 watts more instead of the planned 15 was a bit much. The conditions added their part — very strong wind, on-and-off rain and showers. Groundhog Day all over again, although at least this year it was a bit warmer and I was only completely frozen after 3 hours.
The weather and my slightly overambitious riding style produced a fast first lap, but pretty quickly after that the man with the hammer showed up and everything shut down. 240 watts for 3.5h and 190 watts for 1.5h averages out to the planned 225, but the difference was too large. I have no idea how I rode it to the finish — at times I was dizzy and seeing stars.
I should have ridden much more evenly. That was ultimately the reason it wasn’t better — and it frustrates me because I had the ability and just went in too hot. Given the circumstances, the bike split of 5:01:18h is still acceptable.
And then there was the marathon. With noticeably more dead legs than last year, the first 5 kilometers were anything but smooth and everything hurt. Add hunger on top — fixed with a few Tuk biscuits. Something solid in the stomach was just what was needed; drinking nothing but isotonic mix for hours is pretty grim. After that the pain mostly went away and I ran the first half in about 1:32h. Then the legs got heavier and heavier meter by meter and the effects of the bike leg showed more and more. So it’s no surprise the second half was 1:37h — 5 minutes slower than the first. That was 3:09:53h total for the marathon — roughly equal to last year, but well below what I was capable of.
52nd overall and 15th in my age group. A Kona slot this year is essentially off the table since there are only 10 places in the age group.
Preliminary verdict:
Took too much risk on the bike, paid the price — but still a new personal best.
I’m going to leave the Ironman world for now — next year it’s back to Roth.
A more detailed race report will come in the next few days, once I can think clearly again and the pain is gone. While writing this I just got a cramp in my rear upper thigh 😉