Disclaimer: I’ve never written any race report, but no need to be gentle, feedback is always appreciated.
1. Introduction
There’s a great front page article about the IM Frankfurt European Championship pro race. I thought I’d better share some amateur racer perspective. Rather than walking you through every minute of my race, I’d rather provide you with multiple dedicated paragraphs.
2. Main section (around the race)
2a. Frankfurt
Frankfurt is a highly populated city, primarily a financial center. It’s not particularly pretty. It has a good hotel and restaurant offer. Its center is full of junkies and homeless, particularly the area near the main station. It stinks of urine more than it doesn’t. I lived in the Frankfurt area in the past and there’re are valid reasons why I didn’t stay.
2b. Logistics
Frankfurt is the best connected city in Europe, if you consider plane, train, car or even a boat/ferry altogether. However, the airport is sometimes on strike, highways often clog-up and you should never ever trust Deutsche Bahn. My train trip from Zurich took over 9h and it still haunts me - it’s a material for a 1993 Falling Down spin-off. Best solution is still a plane if you’re coming from abroad, with an exception of car if you’re coming from Germany, Switzerland, east France or west Poland.
2c. Expo
Pretty standard nowadays, nothing extraordinary. Focus on German brands like Ryzon and Powerbar. No free gifts either ;-(
3. Main section (race)
3a. Pre-swim
The organizers offer free shuttle service between the city center and the start of the race (ca. 15km away). However, the shuttles were stuck in traffic on both Saturday and Sunday up to a point that we were allowed to leave the bus pre-race around 1.2km from the start and around 15 minutes before the original T1 closure. All in cold rain, no light, in flip-flops, with air pumps etc.
However, this big elephant in the room was addressed proactively and shamefully as almost the first thing during the Monday’s ceremony opening speech, promising to do way better next year. The acknowledgment of the issue so early and humbly received a separate round of applause.
I didn’t like that the organizer never announced either water temperature or mentioned wetsuit / non wetsuit allowance (I think it was like 80/20 chance, in favor of non wetsuit). Normally I’d expect to see this information at 4-5am in the Ironman Tracker application or on a Facebook page. As a result, many people were removing their calf sleeves in haste, trying to pack wetsuits into dry clothes bags etc. It’s a tiny information sharing / transparency issue that could’ve been easily mitigated.
3b. Swim
Mass start for pro but rolling start for AGers. Quite congested, but it’s a single loop in a sense that you never swim the same route twice. Ergo, you can’t do much more as an organizer. Nice warm and decently clean water.
3c. Bike
Wet. Wet & rainy. Wet, rainy & slippery. Many crashes.
175kms with (Strava-adjusted) 1296m of elevation. I wish it was 5km longer. Nothing steep or particularly long. Suburbs, little towns and countryside. Most of the time a good quality asphalt (Frankfurt itself being the exception). Course ideal for strong riders with high absolute power, on a nice big 1x setup. If dry, the course isn’t technical at all.
Many aid stations, all well equipped, clearly marked. ‘Ordnung muss sein’ at its best.
I’ve see a lot of AG drafting. Nothing like pelotons or gruppettos, but 2-3 riders in same trisuit riding together with 5m gaps shouldn’t be allowed. I haven’t seen many people in penalty tents though. To my taste, referees should’ve been more strict, by a significant margin.
3d. Run
Flat-ish course (flat course with 8x bridge passage). Roughly 75% tarmac, 20% gravel, 5% cobbles. 200m too long.
Same as for the bike: many aid stations, all well equipped, clearly marked. ‘Ordnung muss sein’ at its best. Volunteers did a great job.
Spectators were truly awesome: by their sheer number, by their preparation (orchestra, cheerleaders, kids with Mario Bros signs etc.), by their volume. All despite not-the-best weather.
3e. Finish line
Ok in general, with an exception of volunteers who were beyond extraordinary, again. Once you mention word “dizzyâ€, you’re being taken care of.
I don’t have much to say about the buffet or massage, as I left asap because I felt really cold and I dreamt about a warm shower in my hotel. If you check weather retrospectively, 17-23 degrees C doesn’t sound like cold, agree. But Frankfurt has had 30+ degrees C for over 2 weeks at that point, so it was a substantial drop plus rain & wind.
4. Conclusion
Overall a well organized race, with only minor issues. Spectators & volunteers were the highlight to me. Would I recommend to do the race? Yes. Would I do it again myself? No, primarily due to my negative attitude to Frankfurt as a host city.
5. Appendix
5a. Awards ceremony
Great atmosphere. Really. All the TOP10 pros appeared and were applauded numerous times. People created a corridor for pros to run/walk to the podium. Something similar I’ve seen only in 2023 WC in Nice. (edit) My short recording of the atmosphere when KB joins the stage: https://share.icloud.com/...TWr0K6xv49wpA_W2MBiA
5b. Slot allocation
There were 75 slots for men to Kona 2024, 75 slots for women to Nice 2024 and 35 slots for women in Kona 2025.
Kona 2025 for women went smooth. Only a few rolling slots.
Nice 2024 for women also went smooth, because the organizers simply asked “how many women are here, finished the race and want to go to Nice?†Roughly 12-15 came to a stage, there were one or two big rounds of applause and that’s it. Sorted.
Kona 2024 for men took most of the time. All the big age groups between 30 and 55 had 10-11 slots each. From the top of my head, 35-39 finished at #17, 40-44 finished at #20, 45-49 finished at #19 etc. To the best of my knowledge, 30-34 rolled down the most, somewhere around #35.
5c. My own race
I had two goals before the race: do a PB and qualify to Kona. For a long time I had hoped for a wetsuit swim, which didn’t happen.
I survived the swim, over-pushed the bike (my 4iiii PM stopped working after T1, showing +- 2000W), had a great zone2 run at target pace, until I didn’t. I didn’t stop for a second, but slowed down with every km.
Overall time of 9h17m15s, giving me #32 in my 30-34 AG. I find it crazy. This is now my long distance PB. I also qualified to Kona, benefiting from the deep roll down in my AG. This will be my first trip to Hawaii or even USA, for that matter. Huge amount of luck & coincidence at the ceremony, but I also feel that 9h17m15s is nothing short of a decent result. The only surprise to me was the fierce level of competition.
good job! xoxo