Why I Decided to Chase the Hawaii Ironman
Status: Long Distance Comeback in Roth 2026 Imminent → Shooting for Sub-10h
I’m the kind of guy who is able to draw fulfillment from chasing long-term goals. They have to sit at the small intersection of big but achievable in order to become a daily source of inspiration for me.
In the past, there have been several such projects. The biggest example would be how I ran the official capital city marathon in all of the members states of the European Union, 28 at the time. It took seven years and brought me tremendous joy and lots of stories to tell.
I liked the process so much, it inspired some more marathon-related long-term goals.
- Making it to all the six World Marathon Majors races
- Breaking the magical three hour barrier
- Completing a long distance triathlon
And along the way I also ventured into ultra running, which inevitably made me pursue the goal of one day standing at the starting line of the legendary Western States 100 Endurance Run in California, the world’s oldest 100 mile footrace.
That specific goal is a still ongoing project of mine and captured my attention starting in 2021. Year after year, I’ve been chopping away at it, becoming a better ultra runner in the process, but losing at the weighted lottery every time. Statistics show how it’ll usually take close to a decade to finally succeed at it. And it’s mostly down to luck and patience, not so much about my abilities.
The individual ultra races which are necessary to keep going at the lottery still are great fun to me, it’s just a bit frustrating to know I can’t change anything regarding the slow lottery process.
That’s fine and I’ll continue on. But I’ve become bored with it at the same time.
During one particular weekend in early July of 2024, my old love of triathlons was rekindled. I spent the weekend in beautiful Roth, southern Germany, supporting my friend Mathias during his first go at a long distance triathlon. Him being here was my fault, because I was the one who decided to buy the Challenge Roth ticket for him. It was his dream to one day do a full distance but he was reluctant. So I encouraged him over and over again until he found himself on the famous Main-Donau-Kanal starting line. I did all I could to make that day one to remember for him, and I think it was a success. While he hugged me in the finish line stadium, he had tears of joy and gratitude in his eyes. It was a wonderful experience.
Afterwards, it made me think about my own triathlon-related goals. I have completed the IRONMAN Copenhagen back in 2015, then did the Challenge Roth myself in 2017, followed that up five weeks later with the first ever IRONMAN Hamburg, and put another IRONMAN Hamburg in 2019 on top of that. All of those four races were super hard but definitely something to remember.
But where to go from there? I wasn’t exactly sure. It felt like I had completed the game of long distance triathlons – my own standard was just to properly finish them, not about getting great results. I was sure there’s no way for me to get really fast at it. Not in the cards. Still, Hawaii was somewhere in the way-too-far back of my head, because I thought it would be nearly impossible to make it there with my weak results. My fastest one was at just 11:25 hours, about two full hours too slow in my age group. Granted, I wasn’t prioritizing to become fast at all, and my training reflected that. I remember doing just three training rides on my bike in total for that last IRONMAN race. Ridiculous.
So I ventured into Ultrarunning and found lots of joy there. Turns out, in order to become better at those really long distances in the mountains, running faster on the shorter distances helps a lot, too! So I trained for fast marathons at the same time and became a lot faster between 2019 and 2024. I took nearly half an hour off of my personal record and can now do marathons in less than three hours, my PR standing at 2:55h.
Wait a minutes. So how fast would that make me on a long distance triathlon?
Time to find out! With Challenge Roth being in the back of my mind after that wonderful experience crewing Mathias in 2024, the two of us made a plan to return in 2026. We both got the ticket and that’s when it became more and more of a passion for me.
↩️ Time for a Comeback
Challenge Roth is amazing and might be the best long distance triathlon race in the world. It has been voted so for many years by lots of athletes, professionals and age groupers alike.
It will be great racing there again, nine years after my first go at it in 2017.
When I started calculating how fast I might be able to go now that my marathon time is that much better, it didn’t take long to figure out that a result of less than ten hours could be in the cards. In recent years, the carbohydrate revolution has made everyone of us a lot faster. Then, carbon plated shoes are allowing us to make literal leaps these days. Bike technology upgrades and wind tunnel testings of the professionals have had a big positive impact on amateur possibilities, too. Not to mention how far the training itself has come.
The rising tide lifts all boats.
In my realistic approach, comparing my times from nine years ago to what I think could be possible with some preparation, here’s what I came up with.
🏊♂️ Swim 3.8 km
My training back then was subpar, to say the least. For example, I never ever did any speed work or intervals in the water. The only thing I trained for was making it through the whole distance in one piece, because that’s been the most important thing to me. But I left a lot on the table that way.
My personal best during a long distance triathlon stands at 1:14:56 hours, but I think that with just one focussed session per week over the roughly six months before Roth I can get that down to under 1:10h.
🚴♂️ Bike 180 km
In regards to training for the bike part of the long distance, I used even less of my potential here. Bike training outside just isn’t something I particularly enjoy, so I did the minimum. For weeks it was just a single bike ride per week of around 30 kilometers back then. Sometimes a longer one, and usually about 2-3 key long rides nearing the 100 kilometer mark. That’s been it.
That way I landed all my four long distance triathlon bike legs in the vicinity of 6:00 hours, once breaking it ever so slightly so my long distance PR there stands at 5:59:39 hours. A year after my last race, I got a Zwift bike for riding in my basement. And I even started using it! My run training was supplemented by VO2max focus sessions on that bike over the past 2-3 years. And a couple months ago I started getting really into it, turning it up to about 250 kilometers per week. With a newer bike and some better equipment, I think I can easily go under 5:30h in Roth.
🏃♂️ Run 42.2 km
It’s a luxury for most triathletes to have the marathon run as their strongest discipline. My best result at a long distance triathlon marathon was 3:55:10 hours and I did all of the four at around 4:00 hours. My best marathon race without the swim and bike before it was a 3:30h at the time, and now it’s at 2:55h. As it gets exponentially and not linearly harder to run a faster marathon, I’m super confident I could do at least a 3:15h marathon in Roth. Maybe, on a good day with more specific training and good pacing during the race I could even get near 3:10h.
If you add all that together and include some time for the two transition zones, a result under ten hours becomes a possibility.
When I realized that, my motivation made another leap.
🚀 Sub-10, Let’s Go!
Swim 3.8 km: 1:15h → 1:10h
Transition 1: 5:00min
Bike 180 km: 6:00h → 5:30h
Transition 2: 5:00min
Run 42.2 km: 3:55h → 3:10h
And there you have it. But it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t think more long-term when realizing this. So, provided I made it under the ten hour barrier in Roth, could I maybe scratch off another five more minutes off of my then new personal best every year? Should be possible, right?
What exactly are those unreachable IRONMAN Hawaii qualification standards, by the way?
The system is tough to understand and has been changed not once but twice during this year 2025 alone. But from what I understand, a male in my current age group M40-44 would need a finishing time at an IRONMAN race of around 9:20-9:30 hours, heavily depending on the particular race and on the abilities of the other amateur athletes who are competing on the day. Right now, that’s out of reach for me, but give it a few years…
Wait, if I’d actually give it a few years trying to get better each year, I’ll also just age and slip into the next age group! That will happen in 2029, when I’ll turn 45. Qualifying standards drop heavily at that moment, and suddenly a 9:40-9:50 hours result is absolutely realistic to produce a Kona Slot for that hot race in the middle of the Pacific. This could be possible! Anything is possible.
🌺 Why Hawaii, Though?
Lots of factors stand against it. It’s far away, super expensive, hot, the course isn’t exciting, the crowds are tiny, and I’m sure you could find even more reasons not to do it.
On the other hand, though, it’s Hawaii.
The birthplace of triathlon in its current form! It’s historic. It’s magical. It’s the center of it.
The first time I have watched the complete livestream of the Hawaii race is way over ten years behind me. Since then I have watched it almost every year, even though they finish at three in the morning in my timezone. I know all the corners of the route. I know the street names, I know the places where most people struggle. Every year, I love watching it. It’s one of the most important races for me to follow.
I just never thought I could make it there myself one day – until now.
So that’s what I’m trying to do. Challenge Roth 2026 will be a test of my theory, and if that goes well and I see potential, I’ll follow that up with an IRONMAN race in 2027, likely the one in Kalmar in Sweden. Then I’ll be keeping it up with high training efforts and one or two races per year, so that in 2029 I might make it into the first few places of my then new age group and subsequently to Kailua-Kona, Big Island, Hawaii.
With long-term goals like these I really like how they connect you with your past and future selves. If my past self who had just finished IRONMAN Copenhagen 2015 knew that in 2025 I would make a serious effort to go to Hawaii and actually stood a chance at it, I know he would have found it amazing. And imagining my own future self standing at that Hawaiian starting line with my oldest daughter then being old enough to drive a car fills me with that same feeling, too.
Will it work out? Let’s go and see!
