Today I raced Challenge/Ironman 70.3 Kraichgau for the second time. This is a great race, really well organised and a joy to take part in. The organisers always look after us so well here which I am really grateful for. I love to race in Germany as the spectators are so vocal and so supportive, always such a great atmosphere, I just love it. Also the town of Bad Schoenborn has been a bit of a base for me after the first time I raced here in 2012. It is great for training here so we came back later in the the year of 2012 to train and now I am back here for the third time and will be based here for the next few weeks in the lead up to Ironman Frankfurt. For the last couple of weeks I have been training down in Bad Reichenhall, Germany which is a town about 15k away from Salzburg right on the border of Austria. I really love to train there and that was my 3rd time basing myself there as well. I got in some great weeks of training, really hard training in preparation for Ironman Frankfurt. In the first week we had cold, rainy weather, the high on some days was 6 degrees and then in this last week we have had very hot weather, over 35 every day. Just great to get fit, but of course it takes it out of you this heat. I felt very tired coming into this race, I took the two days before the race very easy but just felt even worse. I was a bit nervous to race with the sore muscles I had, but saw it as a great training day with no expectations, my goal is this race in Frankfurt!
So to the race. I was somewhat confused with the swim. It was that the pro were to have a 5 minute lead over the first group of age groupers but this was last minute decision in last week and maybe some people did not know this? We were to start with only red caps (pro) the blue caps were age groupers to start 5 minutes behind but when I was swimming I saw many blue caps. I am not sure what happened here, maybe I was wrong and they change their minds again? I don't know, or maybe some pro men got given blue caps? So anyway we start with the men which is nasty and is the one downside to doing this race. In NZ, Australia, USA we usually have separate start with pro men and women. In the last race Ironman 70.3 Austria we had separate start too which was super, but not here. Do you know any other sport in the world where the professional women have to compete with the men? I don't. I can't understand this. I always try my best to contact race organisers and sometimes I am successful, but mostly not. It is a worry for me in Frankfurt as we are to start with around 400 age groupers. This is a Championship race P4000 deemed as very important race for points and prize money, but yet we can not have separate start? Even for the professionals no separate start? I have contacted race organisers but I don't hear back. Maybe in the future we can get a consistency in all races, this would be very nice, and I think a good step forward. So anyway to this race. I hated the swim. I got kicked and had fights and I think maybe I have black eye this week. It was not pleasant, I hated every minute, nearly had panic attack. But I got through it and in the end in very good time. I was on the bike and who comes past me? Sebastian Kienle!! That is a good swim then! I came out second women by a few seconds to Eva Potuckova, but got no gap to Julia Gajer who was just a few seconds behind.
Onto my bike and it was a very windy day. The course is about 10k out to where we start the loop and this first 10k was into a big headwind, this made for much slower times than what I have done before. I got a gap on Julia and Eva and just rode my own race as hard as I could. I like the course. It has 1000 metres of climbing but is more rolling, less technical downhills but still technical through the villages but not on downhills, so I am not so bad at this. I felt good on the climbs, worked very hard into the wind and started feeling quite tired at the end, but my trusty Ceepo Katana with my Rolf Prima wheels with SRAM got me to T2 first lady!! That is a first here in Europe! So alles gut!
I was so determined not to stuff up my T2 yet again, I think I did a pretty good job, only a few seconds slower than the others, not 30 seconds as per normal. Onto the run I only had 1 minute lead to Julia and under 3 minutes to Yvonne Van Vlerken, both of whom are great runners. I did not feel good, my calves were screaming. This is a hilly run course and last time I raced here I really struggled with it. Julia caught me at 5k and I stuck to her with all my might. Then at 7k I felt much, much better and I was able to even go in front of Julia for a time. Julia was much stronger up the hills and then I would claw my way back on any flat. We basically ran together until I reached 14k and we had to get our second lap band. They wanted to give me blue but I needed the second band yellow and I had to come almost to a stop to get this. And then Julia had a gap and it grew. I then clawed my way back a bit until I was maybe 5-10 seconds behind her with about 3k to go and then I think we both gave it everything. I came up 16 seconds short by the end. Julia is a great athlete and she also lives less than an hour down the road in Stuttgart, this is her home race and I knew that incentive would help her a lot. I have raced Julia many times now in Europe and although I am not too far behind over the iron distance she has always beaten me quite convincingly over the half distance. So to come so close and to be able to have a battle with such an athlete, I think I can be proud. I made this race exciting for the spectators I think!
So this was my best result so far in Europe and I am very happy. I am down to race Ironman 70.3 Luxembourg this Saturday. I got this wrong. I presumed this was Sunday but then discovered last week when looking at the schedule to my horror it was a Saturday race! I organised to do this race back in February (and I have never been one to not honor commitments), however it was arranged back then with the organisers to receive accommodation, but the last few weeks I have made contact with the organiser a few times to find out where we are staying and I can't get an answer. So maybe this is a sign that I shouldn't race? The race looks lovely and the wave starts are very good. Separate pro men and women and then big gaps to any age group men, it has been very well thought out, although it starts at 1pm which I'm not too keen on. At this stage I'm not sure what to do, maybe see how my legs are the next few days and see if I feel the urge to race or not so soon. I pushed myself pretty hard today.
I'd like to thank my sponsors again for all they do for me. Ceepo, Powerbar, Rolf Prima, Asics, SOAS, SRAM, Roka, Rudy Project and Keywin. I'm glad I could get on the podium once again here in E
Gina Crawford (photo: Marcel Hilger)