I didn’t finish with a time under 8 hours (8:00:25) and I didn’t win (2nd place), but still I am extremely satisfied about my race - largely completed solo in 30 °C heat, in and around Frankfurt. In the world of sport you sometimes just have to bow down to someone else’s superiority; and today Sebastian Kienle simply was the best.
A serious pace was set during the swim by former Olympic champion Frodeno. He led a large group of athletes, with seven of us coming out of the water after a mere 45 minutes. After a quick T1, Frodeno and I together soon took the lead, far ahead of the rest for the first kilometres of the bike race. Around the 25K mark, after a short climb, I grabbed first position. It would then take up to kilometre 90 before Sebastian Kienle closed the 4 minutes gap after the swim. He succeeded to escape at Heart Break Hill and I had to let him go. Over the following 90 km I continued to lose ground and eventually arrived at T2 more than 5 minutes behind Kienle, but also more than 10 minutes ahead of the first pursuers. There was a significant gap between Kienle’s bike time (4 h 12) and my own (4 h 21).
At the start of the marathon I had trouble finding my rhythm and soon lost ground to the leader. But as usual, a good second half of my marathon made up for this loss, and I finished just over 5 minutes behind the winner and 7 minutes ahead of Frodeno, who took third place.
I’m proud of this second place and my achievement!
From now on, it’s all about Hawaii ;-)