Heidelbergman 2015

Loop completed, wheels still turning…
Back in 2008 I did one of my first Olympic distance triathlons in Heidelberg, a drop-dead location.
I just had completed my first year as triathlete after several years of MTB marathons. It was also my first race where I had a chance to apply my newly acquired/re-learned running skills.
Two weeks ago came the spontaneous idea to sign up for this 2015 edition. In between there were seven years of triathlon including IM Nice twice, IM WCS Kona, IM Louisville twice, IM Mallorca, Kraichgau half distance three times and several running races including finally going sub-3h in Frankfurt’s marathon.
Intense adventures and memories. Not always easy but amazingly rewarding.
So, there went the gun on August 2nd, 9:30 a.m. in ideal weather conditions for the opening 1,6km in the Neckar River.
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That part had been moved up-stream a bit, which rendered my tactics of seven years ago to partial failure. However, I got along with that split mostly undisturbed and went into a smooth transition to the bike.
The bike course is rad! 35km with 800m of climbing … AND descent.
That’s basically up the hill above the castle, twice. I didn’t see a lot of drafting … if you acquire my drift.
Since TT bikes do not make a lot of sense here, I went for my weight-weenie road bike and did most of that split out of the saddle. For the descents I had to activate all the remaining MTB skills of years past. These descents are SERIOUS and not suitable for the faint-hearted!
Back in town comes a brief cobble-stone stretch in order to check if all implants are still in position.
From my first participation, seven years ago, I knew that the run split would be more than just icing on the cake. Nobody will get through this one without hitting maximum pulse rates:
5km steep uphill on the world-famous “Philosophenweg”, opposite of the river bank displaying all the city’s touristic highlights, and then back down. Not even a km after transition the runners are confronted with a climb that is on the verge of what is runnable.
Running has become my strongest discipline and so I had the painful pleasure of continuously collecting position after position. Coming back down I had to mobilize all my stability and the remaining muscles to catch the descent and then finish it off on the last flat stretch.
Hell, what a refreshing variation of severe body slapping.
As a reward came a wonderfully chilled day on the river banks of this extraordinary city, including podium (3rd AG M50) and dance lessons in the evening.

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Warm thanks to my dearest company.
Next weekend comes another spontaneous sign-up: 70.3 in Wiesbaden.

Rage hard!
Alex