After a well deserved week off in San Francisco, I travelled to Austin, Texas for a two week “getting back into it” training camp. My buddy Brant Speed, a former college runner who now turned into a strong cyclist, accomodated us at his place. We did several rides together and he showed us the crowded but amazing SXSW music festival that was going on last weekend. I really like the city of Austin but also need some time to get used to the many stop signs and traffic lights around here.

I was also very sad to hear the news about Mr Lance Armstrong crashing- he is back here in Austin, so my dream of going for a ride with him has to wait a bit longer…

After a pretty stressful last week in taupo it all came down to a great race.

My bike arrived a few days before the race and as you can see on youtuibe- we made it work in the shortest possible time. Also my suit from Santini came right in time- to be honest pretty late, but having it hand delivered Friday night at 8pm works for a early Saturady race, right? Last but not least, we had to move out from the place where we stayed in 2 Mile Bay and found a more quite place where there were no distractions for the race. All of that wasn’t really helpful, nor was my ongoing plantar facia issues leading up to the big day in Taupo.

The adrenaline is pumping and I am very excited to step up and race my first Ironman tomorrow: All is well and i am feeling really good and relaxed at the moment. There are quite some changes compared to ITU racing but it should be no problem to adapt here. Some rules are strange-but its the same for everyone.

The past days went by fast and the training effort has been on recovery mode for some time. We just changed our accommodation in a more quiet place and that will give me the necessary space I need before the competition. My friends Chris and Natasha came all the way from Germany/Luxembourg to support me and give me a hand in the days leading up to the race. Alicia is doing all the organization and planing every day, which turns out to be quite a bit of work.