I have doen Barca when it was Challenge x 2 and the 1st IM. The bike I can deal with ie drafting but that swim is something else, especially the shelf type beach that causes the huge rollers…
IMJ-type riptide? 
Is it really bad?
I’m looking at a couple of sea swims in a few weeks as a gauge…
Yeah the Med is known for it’s (rip)tidal system 
Tough, tough day in the office Funkster. Love the fact that despite the bad luck on the bike you kicked yourself up the butt and got the job done, as well as helping others along the way. I’ve been in those dark places and fortunately there is always someone like you that passes me / says something encouraging and gets me back on track.
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I’m FB friends with a German guy I walked much of the second half of the marathon with in Austria 09; we still Keep in touch. Bumped into him again a few weeks later and then again in 2011 when he was a volunteer in Regensburg.
Well a nice easy drive back yesterday gives lots of time for reflection
My desire has always been to go to the big island. It’s a lofty goal, but it keeps me going each year.
Frankfurt has twice the slots than the other European races and the course suits my diesel engine.
As a single guy, the only demands on my time are my own and I have another hobby that balances out life a bit
I hate not finishing something I’ve started, so will spend a bit of time just doing some swim/bike/run for fun, but keeping an eye on hotel prices etc
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The fact my 74 year old mother comes out to watch is also a powerful motivator
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I see very few M45 under 10h. Not sure how it compares with 2015. But the hottest day on record is still 5 July 2015 
As the wise sage Elsa said you’ve just got to "Let it gooooooo "
Think she’s grabbing it back this Christmas?
Yep. Let’s just hope she comes out with another great song for my eldest to continuously ask the google speakers to play (mainly because she can’t think of anything else to ask for, and Google doesn’t understand her trying to say Hakuna Matata! 
)
Get THE GREATEST SHOWMAN on repeat.
They live for it
Never seen it … don’t intend on seeing it. (mine are only 3 going on 4 and 9 months, so it’ll be a while yet! )
I also did the most boring Outlaw on record too. Alternate facts
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You mention twice the Kona slots; any idea what times needed in 40-44 to qualify there (asking for a friend !!)
Coach Cox is your friend.
https://www.coachcox.co.uk/ironman-results-and-statistics/
This year’s results will be up soon, I’m sure.
@funkster one of the best race reports I have read. The next time I have a bad race, I will follow your example and help out others in need of support, You get loads more respect finishing a few places lower, but taking the time out to help.
My efforts to qualify for Nice have really washed away the rose tinted dreams of the big island, at the end of the day the IM70.3 World Championship will always be much easier than Kona, yet for me, at least, it pushed me to the my (modest) limit.
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Any news from @T2T?
I made it back to Blighty alive and with a finishers medal and T-shirt.
Ironman Frankfurt 2019 Race Report
So as a complete numpT I forget to pick up my Timing chip. Luckily they replied to my email the night before to let me know it would not be a problem and so that removed a bit of stress. Still had no chance of sleeping as my room was far too hot. Next time, pick a hotel with air conditioning.
Rolling starts for swimming was new to me. I could see a lot of slow swimmers going away in the first groups, I guess desperate to every minute due to the 15 hour cut-off and the extreme conditions.
I had not managed to do many swim-sessions as I had a broken hand and it was just a little too uncomfortable, so not having a wetsuit was going to be a bit of a issue. I realised as I went in that I have never swam that far without a wetsuit, but I knew I could do it, it might just take a while. Finished the first 1500m in a disappointing 44 minutes – then I realised I probably had another hour to go. I was drafting other swimmers but they were either slow, going in the wrong direction or both. Still I was taking it easy.
As wetsuits weren’t allowed, breaststroke was a viable option for a lot of swimmers. There were walls of frog-kickers breast-strokers. Worse still, some of them were quite fast which meant they had fairly powerful kicks. Still I managed to stay out of trouble. A lady next to me was not so lucky, she was kicked quite hard in the face and was quite upset but she continued on.
Finished the swim and decided to run to transition. With a slow swim of 1 hour 50, I had not exactly pushed myself.
I was really looking forward to the bike. It is a lot flatter than I am used to, but it started to get a little bit too hot at exactly 1030. I just stayed in the aero position for dear life in order to get some speed up and airflow going and it worked well.
Was not a fan of the cobbled climb, it wasn’t difficult, it is just that my Garmin Edge mount was not so secure and so I had to hold on to it.
It was quite apparent that the non-wetsuit swim had affected a lot of people. There were still quite a few people behind me when I left the swim and I was surprised by the number of people I sped by on expensive TT bikes. I am guessing they killed their legs on the swim?
The Bike ride was lovely on the closed roads and I was running out of gears on some of the descents with my compact ratio, but my deep rim wheels were getting a bit twitchy from some gusts of winds so I was not bothered. Surprisingly it seems that not many people were pedaling down the descents.
The sheer number of illegal drafting I saw was a bit mad, and there were quite a few people in penalty boxes for it.
About 5 hours into the cycle, a wind came from nowhere that was warm and seemed to be constantly in my face. It even appeared on Heartbrake Hill, but the name far outweighs its challenge. Quite fun riding it up with crowds of supporters leaning it though.
At many points of the loop, their were spectators showering us with water, but I kept on asking them to get it on my face, as they kept spraying it into my shoes and I got wet socks and quite a painful blister. Still the refreshment was better than the pain.
Worst case scenario to beat the cut-off was 2 hour for swim with transition, 7 hours on the bike with transition and a 6 hour marathon.
Finished the bike in 6:41 but was wondering whether 6 hours was enough for the marathon. The heat at this point was unbearable and really draining. I just could not get enough fluids and specifically water down me to dilute the gels. Any water I took on the bike I had sprayed liberally over my head and shoulders while passing the aid stations.
It is hard to do maths when you are exhausted, but I knew if I could not complete the half marathon in 3 hours, I would not be able to make the cut-off and was considering DNF for the first time. Instead I just sucked it up and concentrated on my breathing and forgot about my legs and just let them run on autopilot.
It started to work, I managed 23 or 24km in the first three hours and was just concentrating on getting to the next aid station. Towards the end some joker had put two 38km signs down about a kilometre apart. I was unable to work out whether this meant I was in danger of running out of time…
It was getting close to the cut-off time and there were a lot of people struggling with less bands than me, and so at least another 10km more than me to go. They were still continuing even though they had no chance of meeting the cut-off time.
With roughly an 8 min pace per kilometre I got round with about 15 minutes to spare and decided to sprint the last 200m as fast as possible. Only meant to do 100m, but the finish line was a bit further than what I thought. That last effort got me a trip to the medical tent as I was so dizzy I could not stand up.
Still after about 20 mins lying down I was good to go.
Takeaways:
- Not doing another hot Triathlon for a while. Finished in 14:41 and I am sure I can take 90 mins of that with some training and more favourable weather.
- This was my third IronMan distance, the last being in 2014. It was really tough. Over a third of my category (45-49) did not start or finish. It is such a great event, but I will give it a miss next year as I don’t want to chance the weather again, and they have moved it back a few weeks.
- The organisers obviously had dealt with hot events before. The cold wet spongers were a god-send. I was really glad a friend told me to buy a cap. Putting ice in it really helped, although it did give me a headache. I don’t think I could have finished with just a visor.
- I did train hard on the bike and I think the stationary bike sessions really helped keep me in the aero position and also deal with the heat (I did not use a fan).
- Only managed 3 training runs though as I did not want to run being so heavy. Losing 10kg in the last 8 weeks (through training, not really dieting) really did the trick in any case and I got round the run even though it felt like I was running through hell.
- Felt good that I managed to finish and also felt sorry for the number of people collapsed at the side of the run receiving medial attention. However, next time I want to be more competitive, rather than just finish before the cut-off.
- Will do it again in 2021!
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