Go to bed with a dream, wake up with a purpose
Today marks the start of a project to which I will devote myself for three years with all my physical, mental and spiritual strength – and yet with playful enthusiasm. I have been thinking about it for a long time. Since the beginning of the year, the idea has been coming more and more to the fore. Now it’s happening! And I’m visualizing:
On October 10, 2026, at 7 a.m., I plunge into the waters of the Pacific Ocean in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, along with several thousand other competitors, to complete the first part of the race, the 3.8 km swim. Then it’s back to the transition zone, where the racing bike is ready for the 180km ride through the island’s endless lava desert – and back to Kona to lace up the running shoes for the third discipline, the subsequent 42.2km marathon run to the finish line. This is the Ironman World Championship on the mythical island that has already written many stories.
Not to toil, but to enjoy and have fun
Ten years ago, I successfully finished here once before, and the myth of this island has always appealed to me. I was 67 years old then, so now I’m 77, and in three years I’ll be 80. That will be the golden moment and the harvest of three years of disciplined and structured sports training. Because I need these three years, it’s due to my age. I don’t want to beat myself and my body up, I want to give it pleasure.
I’ve hardly swum or run for ten years now. Instead, I ride my road bike all the more – between 4,000 and 7,000 km a year – and feel physically stronger thanks to regular strength training. So the first step was to complete a professional performance test. In addition to my good basic endurance performance, which I have been able to maintain over the years thanks to my sporting CV, the deficits that need to be worked on naturally also came to light.
What drives me?
I’ve been fascinated by “sticking with something” for as long as possible since I was young. And I have always been a person of movement who can hardly sit still. As a child and teenager, I did gymnastics or played football, and at some point, around the age of 30, I sought my own respite from work, farm and family in endurance running. And the distances got longer and longer. Until the idea of running a marathon came up. That was the New Yorker. Over the years, there were many, including ultramarathons, mountain marathons and finally the legendary Marathon des Sables in the Sahara in southern Morocco. This was followed by a new challenge, the switch to triathlon and seven Ironman participations with the last finish in 2013 in Hawaii.
Science-based training methods
Today is my first day of training. Dan Aeschlimann, my coach, writes the plan for me. I know him from back in the noughties when I took part in a triathlete camp in Gran Canaria. Today, training methods have become much more scientific – and also much more precisely tailored to the individual athlete – and can of course be accessed digitally on all platforms and devices. I must and want to benefit from this.
So today, strength training, yoga and some exciting stretching exercises. Well done, first green tick ticked!
