[danieleberle]

Hier mein Rennbericht. Entschuldigt bitte dass er auf Englisch ist aber ich hab den für meine weit verstreuten Freunden auf Facebook verfasst und war jetzt zu faul nochmal auf Deutsch zu übersetzen

IRONMAN Italy Race Report

What a day! Full of emotions, efforts, joy and immense relief.

Just 2 days my collapse in Roth Julia had the idea that I should do IM Malaysia in Langkawi but after some research it seemed that Italy would be the more cost efficient option. So just 2 days after the trauma of Roth I signed up and immediately continued training. It was tough but in the end I was here, ready to go.

The days started at 4:30am with some keto breakfast in my room. I prepped and made my way to transition at around 6am as it was just a 5min walk. There I received the good news that it was a wetsuit swim.
After my usual routine (bottles in bike, pump air,…) I made my way to the swim start.

It was an amazing sunrise and the Pros got kicked off at 7:30am. The fact that they had Start blocks based on expected swim times and rolling start (6 athletes every 10 seconds) delayed my start but made the swim very smooth. The huge issue I had was that I couldn’t get a good fit of my goggles for the first 1.5km which made me permanently having water in there. Somehow at one place I managed and it was good thereafter. There were a lot harmless like mini jellyfish in the water which felt weird at the hands. I swam easy and relaxed to save energy and was happy to be out in a reasonable time.

The transitions were both ok, however this is the bloody longest transition I have ever experienced (Check the picture).

On off I went on the bike. The streets in the city were bad, however turned much better outside then. In general the bike ride has been flat but quite windy. I tried to pace myself based on wattage which worked well in general. I didn’t push hard as I wanted to save energy for the run to avoid a “Roth-situation” as I really wanted to finish. Surprise was how the often mentioned climb at km 63/133 respectively turned out. It was a long and very steep climb so that I had to leave the saddle and stand up. That did burn quite some matches up there. The last 20km back into the city were characterized by extremely heavy headwinds that made me curse quite a bit.

After putting on my race shoes I went off to the run. The run course was a 4 times 10km plus loop.
I love those shoes. They are like made for my legs, my running style,…
I took it easy yet I was fast. It went so smooth. It was fun. I felt absolutely amazing. Usually the first 20km are smooth but then it gets tough. Not today! After 21km I still felt fresh and it was just such a pleasure to run. I felt strong and relaxed at a 5:10min/km pace.
As I didn’t want to finish relaxed I decided to slowly speed up a little on lap 3. I passed the magic 26km mark (I collapsed between 25 and 26 in Roth) and after lap 3 I still felt great so I decided to go even faster on the 4th and final lap. I had so much joy and fun running this marathon as I never experienced before. It was exhausting on lap 4 but still fun. I felt like flying past all the other athletes on the track. That made me finish the marathon in 3:30h, my absolute personal best in a marathon.

It was a magic moment running pass the finish line. Hearing the MC saying those 4 magic words “you are an Ironman” after Roth and all those endless hours of training this year while having a challenging job was such an emotional moment and so much falling off my chest.

A few words on nutrition. I had one MCT bar pre-race and one during the bike. Only after km 130 I started to add low doses of carbs into the mix. In total I did. the last 50km on the bike with 2 Gels and 2 bottles of Gatorade. During the run I had a small paper cup of coke at every aid station. I guess I haven’t had more than 1.0-1.5l of Coke for the whole marathon. So keto endurance races work.
What I changed compared to Roth was the salt dosage the days before and during the race which I think helped to stabilize my blood pressure and reduced fatigue and heat stress.

All in all a wonderful day in which everything worked out and I simply had a great day. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t extremely demanding and exhausting though ��