European Champion Ironman 70.3 yeahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

As I am writing this story you can imagine what a happy girl the writer is. 

Sunday August 15th the Sparkassen Finanzgruppe Ironman 70.3 European Championship was held in Wiesbaden/Germany. As the defending champion in this race I was eager to take place on the highest podium-spot again. This year the race was even more important for me than last year, the new title of the European Championship is a nice upgrade for this race and and I just wanted this title badly. Its hard to win a race, but it’s even harder to win it for the second time and defend the title. 

I didn’t know if I could do it, but I knew I trained hard for it and my shape was good. The days before the race we had some nice summer days. Unfortunately the weather would turn around in the wrong way on race morning. You have to know that I personally think that this Ironman 70.3 race is one of the toughest in the whole series. 1500m vertical climb on the bike course are a lot and not to be underestimated, also the technical part of the course with it´s long descends with tricky corners and bumpy parts of road. So now you have a race that's already a challenge when the weather is normal and dry. Now count hard down-poors, rain, mist, wind and 13 degrees to it and you know that this will be a hard day for everyone. 

The field, both in the men's and women's promised to guarantee an exiting race and it exactly would be that on both sides. My race went pretty good, I swam 2 min. faster than last year, as it looks I indeed did improve my swim as I have had now a few races where I was quicker compared to last year. Of course I also have to give credits to my new Xterra Vector Pro-wetsuit which is simply incredible to wear and to swim (Thank you Glynn).

So ok, happy with my swim, 29 min. is a time that’s nothing to be ashamed of. I jumped on my bike, did a little prayer that I would finish this beautiful, but now dangerous bike course in one piece and started my chase on Nicole Hofer and the rest of the girls. 

My plan was to ride as hard as I could on the uphill's and as slow as needed so I would feel comfortable on the technical downhill's. I really improved my downhill biking riding in the Austrian mountains and I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t use those skills. I was just to scared with all that water on the roads. It was something that nearly everyone had on this day, a lot of people would crash during on the course. I decided I wouldn’t take any risk at all. My thoughts were to just leave it for the run. That it would be hard, was clear just having a look at the start- list. Several great runners like Desiree Ficker, Nicole Leder, Kristin Möller and myself would go for the title when the bike-leg was done.

My prayers helped and I would return to Wiesbaden safely. That I decended like an old lady has to be mentioned on that point and that I want to come back next year and break my bike and course record again is something that's already playing in my mind :-)! 

For the run I found myself a great partner in Desiree Ficker. We know each other from ITU races in the past and knew that she’s a similar athlete as I am and besides that an amazing runner. Did you all know that Des ran an incredible 2:39 hours at New York marathon last year and took 10th overall......??? Maybe it was good that I didn't know that before the race....??? J. So for sure that’s not a lady that you want to take with you on the run course to run for the title.

But I think we both had fun running side by side, just like in old Duathlon-times. We really pushed each other and closed the big gap of 5:10 min. to the leader Nicole Hofer in 17km. When I think back it must have been very exiting for all the people to watch this race. At least for sure we did raise the heart-rates of a lot of people.....!

Pushing each other faster and faster Des and me would both go under the run course record of Viriginia Berasategui/ESP by more than 2 minutes (...though Kristin Möller posted a 1:21 and now holds the new run-record). That I finally was 20 seconds faster at the finish line had nothing to do with that one of us was the better one on this day. I think I just simply wanted it more than Desiree. To defend your title is such a special thing and I was ready to dig deep for it! 

The volunteers, spectators and organization was amazing again. It was a pretty big advantage that my German has improved a lot to give the interviews and talk to all the fans who I thank for all those cheers and motivations that were really pushing me too.

Big thanks to my new (and old) coach Frank Senders and his wife Conny (www.stapsport.com).  They did everything they could to make it perfect for me, it really felt like old times and I was overwhelmed by there enthusiasm!

My partner Thomas „Tommy“ Vonach would have raced Xterra Germany in Zittau, but because of the bad weather circumstance prior to the race, his race was cancelled and that gave him the opportunity to come over to Wiesbaden and support me in his unique style and with all his experience. He, as always did a great job, and all though I was sorry for the nice Xterra race in Germany, I was pretty happy that he was there to guide and support me. Thank you sweety! Even Desiree was amazed how Tommy, in which way and with which words, would push us on the run when we would pass him. He got the best out of us....! Desiree and I had a great fight and without her, I would have never broke my own course-record in these conditions. 

Unfortunately it was not all happiness on these days. As you might have heard a 55 year-old athlete, great swimmer and part of a relay-team, lost his life on Sunday. He was pulled out of the water by helpers and reanimated for 2 hours. Even though everybody did what was possible they lost the fight.

It´s a big concern to express my condolences to the family of the athlete. We triathletes are a big family, no matter whether you are a top-pro or amateur-athlete. We are in the same boat, and if such a thing happens, one of us leaves. I want to dedicate my title to this sportsman. 

I just recognized that our little family of Tommy and me have a World champion (Thomas ITU long course amateurs),a Vice-World champion (me at the same ITU long course ) and a European Champion (me, yesterday) in the house. This all happened in just two weeks time. I would say we are doing great! The next and last race on European soil fort his year will be the new Half-Challenge in Austria on September the 5th.

Just loving all those „home“ races. Looks like this will be another great race in the Challenge- series. Find more information about the race itself on: www.challenge-walchsee.at

Thomas and I will both be racing and will for sure enjoy to race on our training-course. We stay and train in this area a couple of weeks per year (Tommy´s mum lives there) and we will have his whole family on the course cheering for us :-).

Watch the interview with Germany´s Triathlon Magazine

See you out there...yours in sport
Yvonne xxx

Sometimes you just want to compete in a race that’s not on your schedule. There’s not a particular reason, you just have to compete!
So following the story about me racing at the ITU Long Distance World Championship on August 1st in Immenstad/Germany.

Dutch Long-Distance team-coach Guido Vroemen asked me if I wanted to race for the Dutch team and not only because he’s a big and long time friend of mine, I said ok, but even more because Immenstadt is like a home race for me, it’s only 45 km from where we reside. We ride to the course frequently when we train as it is such great riding in the area around Immenstadt called "Allgäu". With living so close you don’t have to travel, you can sleep in your own bed and just hop over to race on a course that you know quite well.
I can give you a whole list with reasons why I decided to race, another one of them is the beautiful location of Immenstad and the bike course promised to be brutal with 2000m vertical climb, technical downhills and absolutely zero drafting on 130 km., so for sure an honest race worth a World Championship!!!

Besides all that we took it as a great "training-race" for the Sparkassen Finanzgruppe Ironman 70.3 European Championships in Wiesbaden which happens just two weeks after.

The women´s field promised to be a true tough one appropriate to a LD World Championship with Virginia (Berasategui) (reigning European Champion on this distance), Erika Csomor (my favorite college), Caroline Steffen (2nd Ironman Frankfurt) and my humble self as the female toppers. With these 4 world-class girls it promised to be a hard one for the 3 medals and spots on the stage as one was supposed to be the crying one. The weather gods were on our side and after days off torrential rain which drowned our country and filled cellars in our area, we were welcomed by sunshine, nice temps and freshly washed summer air in blue skies.
On race morning (the days after it proceded with more downpoors) we were simply lucky!!!!!!

The 4 km. swim was a nice one. We lifted off and I felt pretty smooth all the way. Erika was with me in the group by my side. About 1 km before the swim-finish I last my swim-cap, my long blonde hair was all over my face, on my goggles and in front of my eyes. So I couldn't see a thing and was struggling, hoping that I wouldn’t end up at the wrong side of the lake.

Transition went well and I was happy to see Erika besides me again. Because of the short distance of 130 km (in relation to what I am used to), I decided to take off fast. By km 45 I knew I was already in 5th position, after 65 km I could see that Erika wasn’t having a good day and already was 6 min. behind me, first time that we wouldn’t be racing side by side. Unusal.
I felt pretty strong on the bike and could record the 2nd fastest showing that my curve is uphill...

After finishing the race I got informed what happened to Erika and was shocked to hear that she had crashed later in the race and had been taken to the hospital. We decided to visit her after the award ceremony. Happy to report that just before we were off to visit her, Erika had already left the hospital and hadn’t broken anything, thank god! We wish her a good recovery and a much better result at her next competition.

Going out on the run I had the company of a Dutch athlete Mr. Smits, I didn’t know him before the race even though he is one of the better Dutch athletes there are. I have to say that it was pretty nice to be running together. I was down about 6min. on Virginia. So the 30km should be smooth and go pretty well. Though I did get a little issue with side-sting at km 9 and had to run a bit slower, I could maintain a nice pace and started closing in on the Spaniard. After pacing myself and getting the control back, my run went as easy as never before. I was able to close the gap to 2nd place, but knew I would never be able to run down Caroline. So what do you do in a situation like that. Either you just run all out and hope that the one in the front blows, or you pace yourself to that nice silver medal, because you have a major race in two weeks coming up. As a smart girl, I did the last. I also closed the gap to the other Dutch athlete again and we ran to the finish. I think I was smiling all the way the last km.’s. I was just so happy with this 2nd place after how the year had started.

My partner Tommy got a perfect day and became World Champion in the amateurs. I was so happy for him, only 8 months ago he had a pretty serious surgery on the back and received an artificial disc. The Dutch Team coach Guido Vroemen was pretty happy as well, I got a lot of positive reactions. Only the Dutch Triathlon website www.triathlonweb.nl seems to be pretty spoiled. Guess they only want golden medals, they always know, how to write a race report that makes a great result look like much less :-)!

Next race coming up is the Sparkassen Finanzgruppe Ironman European Championship in Wiesbaden/Germany. I’m looking forward to defend my title at this race. Last year I had a good one and even broke the course-record there. Also this race is a fair one, 1500m climbing on 90 km, a bike course that fits me perfectly, no drafting here as well and that’s why I just love races like Immenstadt and this one. I'm especially looking forward to this race, because my “old” and “new” coach Frank Senders will be there to support me.

My return to my former coach Frank Senders

Hot Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman Germany 2010.

Last week I raced the European championships Ironman in Frankfurt/Germany. Last year I took second in this race and of course this year I was eager to improve one place and go for the win.
The women's field was called the strongest field ever in this race, with defending champion Sandra Wallenhorst, Caroline Seffen, Joana Lawn, Nicole Leder, Andrea Steinbecher (Brede) & myself it promised to be a exciting race.
Because of the warm conditions leading up to the race. The water had 25 degrees, with that the organization took the best decision in these circumstances and decided it would be a non wetsuit swim. Maybe some of you will think that I, as a middle swimmer would rather swim with a wetsuit, but then your mistaken, I feel better without and my swim position in the water isn’t bad at all. So while saying that, I proofed this as well, my swim time of 57:00 min. was only a couple seconds slower then my swim of last year with a wetsuit.
So after this first discipline I only had a small cap to the other favorites, Sandra would even be 2:20 behind and I felt pretty satisfied and all in the game. Jumping on my new bike, the beautiful Honu 3 with her flowers and turtles, I was ready to concur the 185 km bike course ( most athlete’s would even find 187 km on there computer).
I think everything went pretty well, Sandra overtook me pretty fast and for me at that moment it seemed to fast for me, so I let her go and told myself to be patient. After about 130 km. I found myself overtaking her again and from there on chasing the leading Caroline together. By then we were already 2nd and 3rd and had left the other favorites behind us. Still that doesn’t say a thing, with such hard circumstances everything will come down to the marathon and for example, Nicole Leder is always a very strong runner, especially in her “home race” you shouldn’t forgot those behind you.
So finishing the bike leg, big thank you to my bike Honu 3, for bringing me back safe in T2:-) I found myself in the same situation as last year, Sandra and me together in T2 and then her running away fast, while I was still dressing up for the marathon:-)
Last year I made the mistake to run after her as fast as I could, this year I thought to be clever and just run a nice pace for the first kilometers. So running 4.03, 4.05 and going steady I thought to be doing well, but Sandra by that time was running away from me, so see must have been running faster then 15 km./h and that with that heat.....Big compliment to her, she really run very well!!!
So running and running, but not getting any closer isn’t really nice, but ok, things like that can happen and you just have to be patient on a marathon, anything can happen!
My problems started after 25 km., my belly was cramping up and I felt pretty bad, my escort on the bike for 3rd women,Mr. Bernd was a great help, he made me relax every time I would cramp up again, he was so sweet and nice to me, sorry that I wasn’t able to give him a Hugh for that! I had another problem, my hart rate wouldn’t go up and I found myself running on a 130/135 HR, it amazes me how I could still run a 3.05. One thing is sure, when it’s not going like you want it do and you don’t feel good, the spectators in Frankfurt will pull you threw and you just don’t want to miss out this finish, so doesn’t matter what happens, just keep running, you will regret it for sure when you skip the last km.!! (Just for the people to know, that will be racing here in the future).
I had a big team with me out there on the course, they were cheering for me like crazy and I do appreciate there being there for me, so a big thank you to all of you and especially to those who came from so far!
Sorry, back to the race, I wasn’t able to catch Sandra, after seeing her run time of 3 hours it gives me the answer why:-) Big congratulations to her and defending her title successful.
The cap between the 2nd female and me was getting smaller, everything was still possible and I was gaining time, but there was still the problem of my belly and it was getting worse and worse. First time in my Carrere that I had to make a decision, like I had to make in this moment, maybe it’s stupid to write about it in this story, but it will clear up why I didn’t close the cap, that was only a minute and a bit. I had to go to the toilet, just couldn't hold it anymore. This decision is personal for everybody, and I know that other people on this day would choose otherwise, but I just couldn’t. I for myself find it to humiliated to just let it go, I’m not only a athlete, but a human being in first row. I think you should respect this decision, that it resulted in “only” a 3rd place, what maybe could have been 2nd is something where I can live with.
I finished third behind Sandra and Caroline, was second last year, leaves me to nothing else then take 1st place next year:-)
Our “Biestmilch Team” did very, very well, 3 Biest Angels (Meike, Nicole and me) in the top 10 on the stage and our Macca became 3rd just like me.
A big thank you to my physiotherapist Andy Hammerer for taking care and helping me the whole week, Thomas for the great organization around the whole event, helping me out with everything he can and of course thank you to the more then 4000 volunteers & the team/ organization of the Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman Germany. See you next year!

All the best,
Yvonne

SPRINT FINISH- Video by BIESTMILCH

  Watch the video HERE!

  TV-TIMES Austria Television "ORF 1" & "ORF Sport Plus"

Even more exciting will be the race-report that the Austrian TV-station ORF has produced in St.Pölten, with 12 cameras (!!!).

Due to the fact that the race was so thrilling we expect an extraordinary show on SUNDAY June 6th 2010:



ORF 1: Sunday June 6th, 11:10 am, "SPORTBILD" (appr. 12 minutes)
ORF SPORT PLUS: Sunday June 6th, 8:15 pm, "Austria Ironman 70.3 Coverage"
(appr. 75-90min.)