My longest day of the year started early — the alarm went off just before 4am. I’d slept well and felt good; my legs were loose and I was mentally ready for the challenge ahead. A small breakfast and finally some coffee again, then get dressed and off we go. Together with Tobi, Caro, and Klaus-Peter, I headed to the shuttle bus that was supposed to take us to the lake. ...
A full race report will follow in the next few days — for now I just want to hit the highlights in bullet point form. “Monster conditions” is, by the way, a direct quote from men’s winner Faris Al-Sultan. We headed to the lake at 4:45am Shuttle buses were running late, so we were only in transition 45 minutes before the start Last-minute bike prep in a hurry, wetsuit on, and shortly after — swim start Swim went well, much more relaxed and no survival battle like last year Swim time 1:00:23 — I wanted to go just under 1h, just barely missed that goal First transition was okay, put on an extra jersey and arm warmers → turned out to be nowhere near enough in hindsight It rained for 4.5 out of 5 hours on the bike, strong and fierce wind made it even worse After just 1 hour completely frozen, goosebumps all over, legs with a solid blue tint I’ve never experienced bike conditions like that before — it was very, very, very hard Roth 2008 was similarly wet and cold, but without the wind Cramps meant I could only pedal seated — standing up or stretching my legs wasn’t possible At that point I genuinely had no idea how you run a marathon in that state At times I was seriously struggling to stay on the bike, the wind was that brutal The cobblestone section in Maintal also left its mark: the lid of my tool box flew off, my spare tube came loose (it was taped on multiple times), and my bottle cage was just dangling from the handlebar (has anyone ever seen a zip tie snap before???) The bike conditions cost me roughly 10–15 minutes — fortunately the same was true for almost everyone Bike time 5:04:19 — similar to last year, except last year’s course was 5km longer T2 was okay, though they handed me someone else’s bag first After that I ate and drank everything I could get my hands on, especially lots of salt to get rid of the cramps By two kilometers in I’d found my rhythm From then on it was full-on risk. I knew I was 18th in my age group (there are 12 slots in my AG) Set off at 4:30/km pace toward the finish Rain showers and fierce wind on the run too — I was actually freezing out there at times In the first two laps I kept getting passed; from around km 17 I turned the tables and started picking people off The marathon went without any major issues — I ran very evenly throughout From lap three on the course got crowded, making aid stations and passing trickier Run time 3:09:20 — the best running performance I’ve ever put together I knew it was theoretically possible — but actually doing it … especially after that bike leg. I’m very, very proud of that Finish time 9:18:55, 50th overall and 14th in my age group 13 seconds too slow for a guaranteed slot — the sweating continues. Should be fine in the end though Takeaway: new personal best, the hardest race of my career so far in the worst possible conditions — all in all I’m very happy, and a Hawaii slot would be the icing on the cake.