Matthias Grosser at IRONMAN Championships

Under the motto “toughest half-day of the year”, 2,400 athletes from more than 50 countries took part in IRONMAN 70.3 over the half-Ironman distance. The whole day, the weather was moody and had everything to offer for our athlete: From fog, rain and sun all the way to thunder and gusts of wind at temperatures around 20 °C. Before the start, Matthias was not quite sure which goal he should set himself, since his last long-distance triathlon was the  Challenge Roth as early as 4 weeks ago. “The body has not yet regained its full power. Nerves, tendons, ligaments and joints need 6 weeks to regenerate”, he explains.

At the beginning, the swim course of 1.9 km in the Raunheimer Waldsee was awaiting the contestants with a specialty: a 100 m land passage over a sandbank. Almost 30 minutes later, a relaxed Matthias tackled the bike course.

The challenge in Wiesbaden got its motto not least because of the bike course that takes the athletes over a difference in altitude of more than 1500 m. “Pretty heavy” was Matthias’ usually dry comment on the 90 km bike distance between the swim course and the half-distance marathon. He deserves full respect from us sporty and less sporty people for the fact that he reached the transition zone at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus after 02:47:45h with an average speed of no less than 33 km/h. Despite his usual habit to overextend himself during cycling, Matthias this time even saved enough power for the half distance marathon. During the 01:24:15h on the running course, he constantly kept his speed and finished 53rd overall with a total time of 4:47:45 and was very satisfied with his result. Well done, Matthias!