Race report Hamburg Championships 05.06.2011

The race facts:

2k swim in 29:54 / 83k bike in 2:07:23 / 20,5 k run in 1:18:55 = 3:56:13 finishing time. 2^nd overall / 1^st age group

What's it going to be today?!?

The story:

One day before the race I was still a little concerned about my legs: they felt tired and without dynamics. I had been doing quite some training for IM Frankfurt and next to that a lot of work obligations. Well, Sunday morning when I got up I did my usual warm up routine and started smiling more and more: good legs!!!! I even posted my idea on how I want to do my bike leg tactics… and that was taken notice of as I was told later!

FoliFlipper goes for second lap...

The swim was a 500m triangle followed by a 1500m triangle. Something very simple if the organizers are able to explain the athletes in a proper way on where to swim along. No one really had understood on how to swim (which bouys) but we where sent on the trip at 8 o’clock sharp. As I had done a little homework on who was racing that day I knew the Marc-Andre Hages (the later winner) was a good swimmer. So I swam as hard as I could to keep to his legs. We headed towards the first bouy (us two thought) only to notice it was the wrong one. The canoe didn’t give us notice either so we had to swim back about 80m to get around the right bouy. We had lost the leading position. After the first triangle I saw I was 6^th and was quite happy with that. The second triangle (1500m) was steady cruising along.

"Which position and how much...?"

The transition was quite long and took about 2:30 minutes. When hopping on my bike my “dream team” shouted at me saying I was 5^th (I had passed one in the transition) and 2:30 minutes down on lead. Fine…: no worries!

Bike POWER on GIANT...

As I had posted I wanted to do the first 40k defensive and then attack on the second 40k. I had taken a speedometer along (which I normally never do) to keep me from speeding too much. After 20 k I had caught the second and was passed the info of being 3 minutes down on first. Still no worries: I had an average of 39,6 km/h after 40 k and new it’s not too bad but…! Now I put down the hammer. I was still 2:45 minutes behind lead after 42ks but the knowledge of having far more in the tank made me feel confident. After 62 ks it was only 40 seconds to lead and after 75 ks I took the lead! Marc-Andre followed me and we hit the transition zone. I had at no time reached my biking limit and felt under control at every moment! NICE!

We ran down the ramp to the transition. 1:30 for that and I had a little struggle with my socks. Marc-Andre changed a little faster and we (really) charged out of transition as if we where doing a sprint triathlon.

The heat is on...

Marc-Andre had a lead of about 15m on me and was running very hard. I thought “I’m going to blow at this pace…!!!” After 2,5k the lead was up to 20 seconds and Marc-Andre also realized that the pace was too high. I caught up to him and we finished the first 5ks together.

I should mention it was about 30°C warm and no shade. That was not the problem but there were only two aid stations after every 2,5ks. That was too far apart!

...5k and 15k to go!!!

I needed to reduce my speed and had no clue on how fast I was running. The gap to Marc-Andre grew steadily but I was focused on myself. I always said running long distances in triathlon is a mind thing… it is!!! I imagined for myself running the marathon in IM Frankfurt. It’s going to be far worse and harder and my goal is to become European Champion in my age group. So where is the reason to moan on this race???

I came into finish well exhausted but very happy to have done a good race. The finishing time is very good and the bike split makes me happy: 83ks in 2:03:25 = 40,2 km/h but I am even more surprised about the 1:18:55 on the run. That is the actual good news.

Myself (http://www.move-ment.net/)  & Marc-Andre HAGES

Biggest respect to Marc-Andre Hages: he ran a 1:16:32 to finish off and ended in 3:53:45. Good job and thanks for the running pain! And to all the other finishers! Well done! 



Support...!



IM Frankfurt can come. BUT I now know where I still have to improve. Homework time…







...more support!!!!



See you all and thanks for reading this. Thanks for all the support and sorry if I sometimes don’t react to you cheering (Britta)…: it’s because I am in a strange own world at that moment: ZONE-LAND    

By the way: to enlarge the pics just click on them...!!!