In his first Ironman Race in 2014 on European soil Jan Raphael finished eleventh. The athlete from Hanover was quite happy with the assessment of his current form which gave him clues as to the structure of training in the weeks to come.
Jan Raphael finished the 1.9 k swim in the bay of Alcudia on 13th place after a time 23:04 minutes. This was a situation, Jan had wished for. "I hope to be in the lead pack right from the beginning and then I will see about my current shape", Raphael stated in an interview before the race. Raphael has little experience in 70.3 k races as he has been racing almost exclusively on the long distance. Indeed, races on half the distance are not really his favourite format.
Half marathon to make up time
On the difficult 90 km cycling course, the 34 years old athlete had to overcome the legendary climb to the Monastery of Lluc with more than 500 metres of altitude. "It's a difficult part", Jan admitted. And that was exactly what it turned out to be in the field of numerous top athletes. After the cycling, Raphael had dropped back to 16: „I now know my status quo and that there is still a lot of work to do. The good thing is, that it will just going to be better and better!” Yet he knew that he would make up some time with a solid half marathon. And that was exactly what happened. With a time of 1:16:48 hours the POWER HORSE athlete finished on eleventh place overall and was quick to draw an conclusion: "I know my current form. I still have a lot of work to do. But from now on it will be uphill all the time!"