Ironman Hawaii 2014

Who would have thought I’d ever get to start a race report with a headline like that?!?!??! I earned my World Championship qualification in May at Ironman Lanzarote. Four weeks later I raced Challenge Kraichgau (1.9km – 90km – 21km), and four weeks after that I stood on the start line at Challenge Roth (3.8km – 180km – 42km). After that came a longer break and a significantly longer and better preparation for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. ...

After a night’s sleep the world doesn’t look quite so bleak anymore. Where yesterday I was pretty disappointed with the race and how it unfolded (especially the marathon), today I’m already happy and satisfied with the result. A clear improvement over last year, in significantly tougher conditions. 20th in the age group, 90th in the overall standings at a World Championship, 14th-best German overall and 7th-best German age grouper. What more could you ask for? ...

Rain on Hawaii — a first for me… Good that the bike is already checked in, not so good that the helmet is hanging on the bike completely wrong: Then again, maybe I should just choose the following ride tomorrow — then a wet helmet wouldn’t matter much anyway:

Finally here…. ….not entirely according to plan — 4 hours late and in the middle of the night, but here. The departure from Frankfurt and arrival in San Francisco were still on schedule, but unfortunately the connecting flight to Kona kept getting pushed back further and further, so we didn’t arrive there until around 1:30am local time and weren’t at the hotel until about 3am. At least I could still get 3 hours of sleep in an actual bed — sleeping on airplane seats and airport benches isn’t really restful. ...