What a poorly organised start!
We were supposed to check into swimming, means going through a gate to the side so they know who wento into the water.
I went there about 10min before my start, lots of blue and orange caps waiting in a big bulk in front of the gate
Nothing was moving forward, occasionaly a handful of people went in...
With less than two minutes to go I asked around and there must have been at least a dozen of others from my wave still waiting
I was super upset but nothing we could do
Few minuted later with the next wave about to start there was a little bit of commotion and people started to push towards the gate. Finally, they let everybody through without counting...
Then there was the next line at the gate to the actual beach portion for the start
THis wave was now probably 50% larger than planned with the many people from my wave now wanting to start
Information was a mess, some organizers told us to just start, they would figure it out, then the race announcer saying not to start in the wrong wave...

When the gun went off, I was several rows behind and about the last one in the water. Need to work my way through the field which probably cost me half a minute or so

Breathing was really difficult, it took me at least 300m before I got into a rythm
I was then swimming mostly by myself with one woman drafting off of me for larger parts

I slowed down a little on the last leg, the hectic of the first 300m had quite an effect

Sighting was surprisingly difficult, would have expected much easier navigation with the many buoys

Not start in a disorganised race!

Had to run through complete T as my bike was at the very entrance

Meant running slightly uphill

Really need to learn to keep the shoes on the bike...

Lets start with the positive: the views were phantastic (if you cared to look around...)
I was fully aware of the monster 3.6km climb up to the Spitzingsattel at the very end with avg 12% incline (felt like a very steady incline)
That one was bad enough and I had checked it out the night before

What was even worse mentally were the many climbs, steep and long, in the first 20km! Some of them were winding up hills and after each curve you would see that the pain is still not over. On others, you would see people way above youand you knew what laid ahead of you...

I kept thinking: if noone mentioned the first 20km, what will the last hill REALLY be like?

At this point I was mentally preparing to walk up the big one...

Additionally, there were many tight turn, so even if it was going downhill you still had to slow down

There were several quick showers during the bike, which made the descents more dangerous. I was surprised that there was hopefully no crash in the conditions

Temps were still around 10 degrees C, so by 20km both my feet were fully numb

When we hit the big one in the end, it turned out relatively okay. I started it in third smallest gear so that I had some reserve and wanted to switch down one gear at the 33% and 66% mark. That plan worked very well and kept me motivated. I was surprised how relatively quickly the climg went by, I was just hoping that my Garmin was not fooling me!

When I looked at the watch it mostly read between 6.3 and 6.9 kph. Especially in the last third, I had some negative thoughts creeping up like "any slower and you will fall over". Good thing that they had great music and some cheering crowds at the top, that pushed me over the hill

From there on I was just rolling down into T2

BTW: I was passed by massive amounts of people on all the uphills, including lots of women and people looking "unfit", I was cursing heavily!!

Not doing this race!

Not sure if I will ever be good at such a race, even if I lost weight

Time included in bike time

there were many volunteers, you had to place your bike againt racks and they took them immediately and racked them

Then along two long lines were boxes with your stuff, that went pretty well

The wheels fell off here...

My plan was to take it easy and shoot for a 1 hour 10k

The challenge was that I was hardly ever going faster than 6min pace

It took me the first 2 km to get the feeling back in my feet
Also, the muscle in my right leg started to hurt again. Not too bad but a constant reminder that something was not right

I was walking most of the uphills, in the Valepp valley, and each time on this muddy section

Given that, the time was okay...

Definitely need to cure the right leg before the next race

They handed out blankets which was great

Drinks and food (Kaiserschmarrn) were very good, just some long lines

Was waiting for Alex and Christian to finish and then headed home (had to ride the big hill down on my bike because the promised buses with bike carriers were non-existent)


Common theme, my weight

Plus I need to heal my right leg


Will probably not do this one again

I am simply not a mountain goat

Also must say that the organisation was not impressive