Becoming an Ironman - Ironman Klagenfurt-Kärnten Austria 2023 Race Report

Breakfast on the camping ground at 5am

Race morning - it was Sunday, 18th of June 2023, I got up around 4:30. I knew that I wanted to have tons of time to digest my oatmeal & coffee, but also to have enough time sort myself out and don't get stressed. Luckily we were staying only about 300m from the swim start, and although I had to go to my bike first to drop my drinks & nutrition there, I luckily had plenty of time to get to the start area.

The feeling that I was going to race my first Ironman really sank in when I was putting on my wet suit to go for a test swim. There were thousands of people running around close to the swim start, some getting warmed up outside the water, some inside and overall just so many athletes getting ready, support by friends and families. My dad was with me and took my valuables and I hugged him goodbye just after the Pros had startet, knowing that it was my time to get in line soon. At Ironman events nowadays it's always a rolling start, which means you have to sort yourself in line based on your expected swim time. At my first half Ironman I had put myself into a conservative "35-40mins swim" category which left me actually having to overtake dozens of athletes on the swim which slowed me down, so this time I was going to be a bit more ambitious and chose the "1:10-1:15h swim" category, knowing that on a good day I might be able to swim just under 2:00mins/100m in average for the whole 3.8km.

Official start for the age groupers was 6:40am so I thought I might start easily before 7:00am. As it turned out there were lots of good swimmers before me, so I only got started around 7:15am. When I did get started things were smooth at first. It's a bit of a funny feeling knowing that you are entering a race, but racing really doesn't start in 8h+, when you're deep into the run. So I set off easy, trying to find some feet I could hang onto and trying to hold a good line close to the buoys. Only 2 weeks before I had a pretty terrible swim at the Olympic distance in Berlin, when we did two right circles around an island in the Spree, and as I tend to drift towards the left side, I was doing a lot of extra meters which lead me to swim over 32 minutes for the 1500m which left me really unsatisfied. In Klagenfurt though, we would be taking only left turns and a lot of straight swimming, so I knew I could just stay close to the guys on my right and I should be fine. About 600m in - I had my auto-lap on my Garmin set to 475m, breaking the swim course up in 8 equal intervals, so I roughly knew where I was at - I had a few moments of panicking. I kind of expected it and so far on the swim leg over every race I had moments of panic in the water. With these small panic attacks, I have realised they actually start with a physical sensation - like the tightness around my chest because of the wetsuit or swallowing some water - and then lead to racing thoughts quickly finding myself in a panicking cycle of short breaths and racing thoughts of how I am going to get through this. Luckily I had found my ways of dealing with this, and physically I try to take long breaths out and mentally, I try to give myself the comfort of knowing that I can always just swim breast stroke, stop completely and that I'm going to be fine. Here, 600m in the swim, I actually found myself to get back into my rhythm very quick, focusing on swimming smoothly, finding good feet to follow and a few minutes later I had already forgotten my panic. Although this was my first long distance event, the shorter events I did 2 and 4 weeks before, were an incredible help getting mentally ready for these difficult moments as I had gone through them and knew I was capable of just going on. The swim continued to be nice and I drafted off a few swimmers for the most part of the 2.8km portion in the lake and it only got a bit more hectic in the 1km canal bit, when the lanes were actually quite narrow and it seemed swimmers were crossing each others paths. On the other hand, it was incredible seeing so many people supporting on the sides and the bridges of the canal and I continued to feel good and just did my thing. I had no idea where I would stand, but knew that I should have stayed around the 2:00mins/100m and expected to be out of the water around 1:16h or a bit slower. To my surprise when I did leave the water I looked at just over 1:14h and not only was I done with the swim, that I was most afraid of, I had done it faster than my best case and incredibly happy to go on.

Barely able to believe that I had completed the swim in under 1:15h.

The run to transition zone was actually amazing as I for the first time fully could take in the atmosphere as there were hundreds of supporters along the few hundred meters leading to T1. In T1 I found my bag quickly and put my helmet and shoed on, stopped briefly for a wee and then ran towards my bike, that was waiting for me with 500g of carbs and 2l of liquids.

Almost transitioning to fast out of T1 to be captured on camera.

Starting on the bike felt amazing. Just after coming out of transition I saw my dad for the first time, and he was excited, which made me even more excited knowing that he had also seen my swim time and knew that it was a really good one for me. I started off pretty hard going for me, mostly because I was so excited to be on the bike and show what I can do. I had planned to push 200-210W in average for the 180k on the bike as I knew what that felt like, but actually went out averaging 220-230W for the first 30k. My plan was this - I wanted to race a bit harder in the beginning and try to find a good group of people that were racing my pace, as even in non-drafting races there is quite a benefit sitting 12m behind someone. It also helps mentally to stay with some people knowing that you're in in together. And so I found a few people - "Phil" and "Andreas" - who I took turns with probably for the first 60km.

Overtaking and apparently giving some drafting to someone I never saw again.

I felt great overall, but I also had to work pretty hard on the hills, that were coming up. I really did not have any small enough gear, so I had to push sometimes up to 300W with super low cadence as I was simply running out of gears for the steepness of the mountains. I kept drinking away my carb drinks and also started to pick up Maurten gels as I knew that I might need them later on.

This town with the cobblestones had a great party going on and the overall atmosphere was outstanding.

The Ironman Klagenfurt-Kärnten bike race course consists of 2 loops, like an 8, that are 94 and 86km long. So after a little less than 3h I came by transition and saw my dad again and waved him that things were going great. The truth is, I had realised, that I maybe had started a bit too hard and knew that I had to take it down a notch to be able to run well. I continued on, saw "Andreas" again at km 100 and also was caught for the first time by a few riders who were going a bit faster than me. That moment I had realised, that pretty much no-one had really overtaken me since T1, but I had overtaken hundreds of athletes. Which overall of course is unfortauntely much more down to me being a sub-average swimmer than being an outstanding rider ;)

While I myself never saw that castle, the scenery was beautiful overall.

So overall I kept it easier for the following 30km or so and things were going okay. Then the second last hill was coming and that was hard! I honestly had to push 300W just to not fall over with a cadence of less than 50 which took a lot out of me. I actually couldn't believe how hard that hill was, knowing that I had done similar ones already in the first 90k and I had a little graph on my watch showing the numbers. Unfortunately about 15-20k from the end of the bike leg, there was the biggest climb of the day. And then I had little to give. It was the time when lots of people started to pass me and though I was always descending faster relatively to my climbing, I really felt it hard. After that climb I was pretty cooked and I couldn't wait to get to the long downhill that I had seen on my watch. The downhills were nice, but I had developed another problem. Toes on both my feet started to get a bit numb and sometimes really hurt with a sharp sting. It was no frequent sensation so I was not too concerned about it, but I did loosen my left shoe a bit to give my feet more room, as it seemed like the pain was stemming from too much tightness of my shoe. When I crossed the line to the transition zone the watch shoed 5h and 31mins and I had already known for a while, that I was not going to make the 5h 20mins split that I had aimed for, but I also knew my strongest discipline was yet to come.

Running, pushing my bike next to me, I had this thought of how surreal it is to go for a marathon now. It didn’t even shock me, it was this thought of “how crazy is that?!”. In T2 I decided to switch my outfit and represent my triathlon racing club Gorillas & Butterflies and it was actually nice to wear something not sweaty and wet and also get new socks on. I again stopped to wee - knowing that I was certainly not drinking too little - and then I went out on the run. The water bottle I had in my transition bag had only super warm water in it tasting of plastic, that I spit out the moment I tasted it and I was reminded for the first time how hot it actually was.

Just after having passed the finish line area for the first time, still feeling fairly fresh.

Coming out on the first 1-2km I felt great. I had set myself the goal of running around 4:40mins/km pace, which was ambitious, but I also knew that if I was able to do that at a fairly low Zone 2 heart rate (I was aiming for around 135bpm) it could be the pace that I could hold onto for long. I additionally had also planned to walk most aid stations as it was the hottest day of that week with expected 28°C and I knew that I could not compromise cooling down and getting in my proper nutrition. The first km lead next to the canal we had swam before and then by the finish line and swim start. You could see that km1 was essentially also km21 and km41 and it slowly sank in that it was a very long way to go to the finish line. When I was going through km2, so just next to the finish line, the whole party there was going on already, expecting the first pros which were only a few kilometers away. I also saw my dad after the first kilometer, he greeted me and told me that so many people are supporting and I got emotional hearing it. I told him everything was good so far and I was happy. The truth was, that something with my feet wasn't right even then - I had numbness in both feet in the middle foot and 2nd and 3rd toe, but I knew that sensation a bit so I wasn't too worried about it. After the second aid station though just about 5km in, I had to stop. My feet were hurting a lot and for the last 2km already I had realised that I had never tested my gummy laces properly that I only had put in the day before. For some reason I really wanted to change the laces on my Asics as I had some trouble with them in shorter races, when I had to tie them again after setting off on the run. At the Ironman distance this of course would have not make a huge difference time wise. And so, the motto "never change something before a race" proved true again as I was in trouble with my numb feet only a few kms into the marathon. It took me about a minute to loosen the shoes a bit as I was of course already 7h into the race and I had actually never dealt with the laces. I had also cut them off, so the only way to loosen them was to leave a few holes empty. And so I continued after that, still averaging around 5:00mins/km which I was happy with.

Around km4, just before I decided to change up my lacing as my face was certainly not representing the state of my feet.

The course was hot as were running on pavement and many people already had started walking, while I kept my rhythm of running consistently and walking the 25m or so of every aid station, cooling myself with water and sponges, taking a Maurten gel and a bit to drink and then immediately running again after the littering zone had ended. The first loop is around 12km, so I was coming back in the finish zone and was looking forward to seeing my dad again to then set off to run towards the city of Klagenfurt. People had told me that the run course is quite cool because it goes into the city, but the truth is that about 10 of the first 13 kms are pretty odd with very few supporters and if it wasn't for the really well placed aid stations, it would have been a pretty long first part. When I did see my dad at km13 we almost missed each other so I just waved and he just chanted something supportive and I guess it was good that I wasn't able to give a recollection of how I was feeling. Because since a little decent under a bridge the stinging pain in my feed that I had experienced on the bike had come back. And this time it stayed. To be honest at first I was so shocked at the severeness of the pain, that I was not even able to process it. Every step hurt. A lot. I was absolutely sure that either my toes or my mid-foot in both feet were broken. Because I was so perplex at first I just decided to run and see if it goes away.

Sometimes it happens coming of the bike, were maybe a nerve was pressed to long. But this time it didn't. I guess under normal circumstances I would have stopped immediately to figure out where the pain was coming from, but in my mind I of course I had expected to go through some pain so I just continued and hoped it would pass. It didn't. Funny enough, this is probably what allowed me to run the time I did even though I had a brutal pain in both feet for almost 30km, meaning basically 3h on the run. I somehow collected the confidence that I can run on pain in those first kilometres when the pain had started when I had expected it to go away. Somehow I realised, that maybe if I just keep going, I get through it, even it is painful. At least it was not getting worse. And so the longest 25km of my life so far started. They were in particular so long, because I was not running even close to what my cardiovascular potential should be. I think my heart rate never saw 130bpm after km13, so metabolically I was actually going really easy while my feet felt like they were falling about and I was limping away meter after meter. The city of Klagenfurt then was indeed nice. The race course led along the canal we were swimming in further into the city and did a nice tour through the center of Klagenfurt. I went there a few days after and it is a strange feeling when you don't really get to see what everything looks like in a race, but because you raced it, you have a special connection to that place. I guess it's something only other athletes who race can relate to. The places you raced, are never the same again. You have a story for almost every corner and it is easy to feel all the emotions again when you're in that spot.

Just after finishing the half marathon being pretty destroyed of the pain. At least I knew the way now.

Attempt to smile not 100% convincing, but at least with a new hairstyle.

For me, those emotions were on the first lap more grief and on the second hope. Between km25 and km30 I had realised that I could run every kilometre in under 6:00 and I had calculated, that this should be enough for a sub 11 hour finish and a sub 4h marathon. My hopes really had been to go close to 10:15h total and a sub 3:30h marathon, but I also knew that in a long race a lot of things can happen and I wanted to stay flexible with my goals to really race for something in the marathon. And so I worked away step after step, just focusing on the current time split, focusing on getting my body to cool down and taking a Maurten in every 2-3km. There were times were I had to negotiate with myself that I do not walk further than the littering zone in the aid stations. I had to negotiate that I never walk even on the steeper sections, especially on the downhills when the added pressure on my feet made the main shoot up into the legs.

Moments where I could not appreciate the beautiful city of Klagenfurt.

And just moments after, when I realised that I had only 5km or so to go.

But I never walked outside the aid stations. Except for aid station kilometres, where I sometimes just slightly averaged over 6:00mins/pace, I stuck to my plan and so after long 10 hours 55 minutes and 44 seconds and a sub 4 marathon in 3:56:31 I had reached the finish line and become an Ironman.

I watched Average Rob's youtube video on the race, which happened to be his and his brother's first Ironman, too. During the race he said something like "every time I think of the finish line I cry a little". It is exactly how I felt and did and so when I did reach the finish line, with the medal hanging around my neck, hugging my dad, who had supported me not only the last 11 hours but also in the last days and weeks leading up to it, I did cry not only a little. When I got my phone, I got to read all the people that had followed me during the race in the various groups I am in. I probably have never received so many supporting & congratulations messages in my life. For that support before, during and after the race, I can only express my deepest gratitude. It is a privilege to be able to go for athletic achievements like this and it feels like an honor to be able to share that with my friends and family, knowing that it does serve as inspiration to some to sign up again for a race or get back into a healthier lifestyle. Thank you.