Kristian ticks a goal on the lifetime to-do list

Our first 2 days in Germany have been great, despite the tiredness from travelling for 30 hours, and missing 2 night’s sleeps.

Day 1 was spent watching Ironman Germany. It was a beautiful sunny day in Frankfurt- perfect for racing. It was a really exciting race to watch. We’re Macca fans. I don’t think he’s ever lost an Ironman outside of Hawaii so I was confident he would do it- even when he was starting the run with a 3-minute deficit, after an uncharacteristically bad swim. It was super cool to see him fight his way up to the front and then a big shock to see him literally gorne! It was an awesome effort and really impressive to see him fight so hard to the end. He didn’t win but he did everything he could to try. It was a very well paced race by Timo Bracht. I made sure we were at the finish to feel the energy and see Timo’s face and the elation in his eyes. It’s one of the biggest and loudest finish-lines in Ironman- just an amazing buzz- thick with spectators.

The women’s race was harder to follow- we didn’t understand what the commentators were saying, and kept missing them coming round amongst the rest of the field.

Today we picked up our hire car and drove from Frankfurt to Roth- less than 3 hours- but time flew and so did we- on the Autobahn! Hertz had upgraded us- big shame- to a Renault Laguna with sat nav- thank goodness. It was quite an experience to be travelling at 130kms/h and be overtaken like we were literally standing still. Man they fly. So Kristian was able to tick “driving on the autobahn” off the to-do list. He was happy as Larry. I can’t say the speed he reached- my Mother might be reading:) Hilarious to see a smart car leave us behind!

We’re with our home stay from last year, Claudia. It’s great to be back. Claudia is a fantastic host- she remembered all our favourite foods- and even got hooked up with Internet access- since Roth does not have any Internet cafes- unless you count a smoky gaming hall. Takes a big stress off since Kristian has to work.