Hamburg Triathlon

Last weekend wasn’t only the Triathlon ITU World Championship Series here in Hamburg, but also the largest Amateur Triathlon event in the world. Throughout the weekend over 9,000 amateurs competed over the Sprint and Olympic Distance in the heart of downtown Hamburg.

Two weeks after my first Ironman I found myself at the starting line for the Sprint Triathlon on Saturday morning. 4050 participants started in waves of 150 athletes from 8am until 12pm.
I was very fortunate to start at 11am just after the rain had stopped and temperatures started to rise to about 20 degrees Celsius.

The Binenalster was the sight for the 500 meter swim. Starting at Jungfernstieg we swam about 150 meters towards the Kennedy Bridge, around the first buoy and straight back towards city hall underneath the Jungerfernstieg Bridge.
I started off with a very quick 150 meters to be first by the buoy and being able to avoid any congestion. Once that was achieved I had troubles to keep up the initial pace and struggled towards the end of the swim. Just over 7 minutes, 7:08 (1:25 per 100m) was my time for the swim, still good enough for the 12th fastest time of the day, but a little behind expectations.

A quick transition, if you can consider it quick since we had about 700 meters from the start of the transition zone until the bike start, was followed by a very interesting 22 Kilometre one loop bike course. Once on the bike I started the chase towards the lead, knowing that several athletes had finished the swim course almost one minute faster. Quickly I found a good rhythm on the wet roads, but had to remind myself that this is only a 22 kilometres bike course and this means an almost all out effort. Don’t safe any energy!

My 33:21 bike time was recorded as the fastest of the day and put me right into first place, gaining almost 2 minutes over the fastest swimmers.

Once leaving the second transition I was able to enjoy the 5 kilometre run with thousands of spectators and other athletes cheering. I felt right at home on the run course, being my daily ride home after work and a part of my lunch running loop. 5 kilometres felt so much better then my disasters marathon at Ironman Zurich and a time of exactly 17:30 (3:30 per kilometre) was good enough for the fourth fastest of the day.

Finishing time of 1:03:41 placed me first with a lead of 1:31 over the second finisher. This was my first overall win at a triathlon! It felt great to win, especially at this amazing event in downtown Hamburg. This was a big confidence boost for the second part of the season.

Two more Regional Liga races over the Olympic Distance in August, Hannover Triathlon in September and Ironman 70.3 World Championships in November are still coming up this season.