Lars Lensdorf has fulfilled his lifelong sporting dream. With 6th place in his age group (age group), in a time of 10:25:46 hours, Lensdorf fought for one of the coveted starting positions for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii in inhuman temperatures.
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At the Ironman Frankfurt and at the same time the Ironman European Championship, 3.8 km swimming, 185 km cycling and a marathon were on the program. At 6:40 a.m., the starting signal was given for the 3226 age group athletes at Langener Waldsee. If the water temperature was over 25 degrees, neoprene was prohibited. Lensdorf came out of the water when he was 24 in his age group (AK) 50-54. Then it was 23 degrees in the morning on the bike course. Here it was important to feed oneself with carbohydrates and drinks in good time and to keep the body cool with water. After all, 38 degrees had been announced in Frankfurt and were also reached in the course of the afternoon. Lensdorf’s catering and cooling strategy worked perfectly. With a strong bike ride in 5:17 hours, he was able to advance to position 8. He was already in the area of Hawaii qualification places (slots), of which there were 10 in his age group. A total of 80 starting places for Hawaii were available in Frankfurt. In general, each age group, men and women separately, get a starting place. The others are divided into an age group according to the number of starters. One age group is 5 years old, except for age groups 18-24. Then came the great heat while running. Lensdorf went through every refreshment point, took care of himself, and made extensive use of the cooling options in the form of ice cubes and water sponges. Although he lost important seconds in the refreshment zones, he caught up with them again between the zones. He went through this procedure up to the finish line. With a running time of 3:50:40 hours, he had fought his way up to 6th place. At the finish, Lensdorf was overjoyed on the one hand, but on the other hand he also said that during the race the thought came up “that I don’t want the slot and that it would be my last long distance”. This is understandable given the heat and agony the athletes suffered. After the race, however, I began to look forward to his biggest sporting day in his life, the IRONMAN in Hawaii on October 12, 2019.
Addition: of the 3226 registered athletes, only 2064 finished. How many did not start in the first place is unknown. However, hundreds of athletes got off while cycling or later while running. Some collapsed, like leading Sarah True, who collapsed with almost five minutes ahead with 900 to go. Ambulances and paramedics were in constant use. Others did not reach the goal in the required time of 15 hours.
Results under:
http://http://eu.ironman.com/de-de/triathlon/events/emea/ironman/frankfurt/ergebnisse.aspx?rd=20190630&race=germany&y=2019#axzz5sVrwj8oR
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