Marc Muller reporting on his Ironman 70.3 Westfriesland

After Montremblant 2022 and Barcelona 2023, Westfriesland 2025 was my
third Ironman 70.3 that I did together with my brother Eric. We saw it
as a great opportunity to race in our country of birth and meet family
and friends. We are fortunate to have a fantastic relationship and an
interest in the same sport so we very much enjoy sharing the race
experience and creating fun opportunities to meet.

I never bothered to follow a structured training plan to prepare for any
of my previous triathlons, I just squeezed individual workouts into my
schedule and hoped for the best. My PB at Montremblant 2022 was 5h35.
After finishing first of my age group at the Mamzar triathlon (Olympic
distance) in March this year I thought that with more structured
training I would be able to vastly improve my 70.3 PB and so I decided
to sign up with coach David Hunt at Sported.ae.

And I am glad I did! I thoroughly enjoyed the training with the team and
I could feel I was improving and getting fitter after every session. The
training and my level of fitness made me feel more relaxed and confident
on race day.

Ironman 70.3 Westfriesland took place around the historic city of Hoorn
in the province of North Holland, a beautiful part of the country. The
swim started in the inner harbour which was full of boats with
spectators which created a fantastic vibe. We jumped in the water and
had to swim through the old lock towards the outer harbour and open
water. It was windy which meant we had choppy water with quite some
waves out in the open water. It was not easy to get into a steady rythme
and on the last stretch I made my first mistake by misjudging the exit
point (not same as entry) which meant that all in all I lost some
valuable minutes in the swim.

T1 was pretty efficient but I made my second mistake by clicking the lap
button on my Garmin watch while I had configured my watch with auto
transition which I didn’t fully trust. So the watch had already
switched to the bike setting and I then clicked it into T2 mode. When I
realised what happened I clicked through to complete the triathlon and
then started a new ride session on the watch. All this hassle meant the
start of my ride was not as smooth as I would have liked. Lesson learned
is to master and feel fully confident with the triathlon function on the
watch.

So off I was on the bike over the typical Dutch dykes. If you ever
wondered why the Netherlands is typically depicted by windmills you
quickly understand why when you ride there…. The flat low lands is a
good playground for the wind to pick up and it was definitely there on
race day. Keeping the head low, focusing on overtaking the next rider
and enjoy the beautiful picturesque landscapes was my recipe. Despite
the wind there was a relaxed and respectful atmosphere about the ride,
no accidents and mostly uneventful. Approaching T2 I was able to put
into practice the "flying transition" for the first time. I was
happy David took the time to show me this new trick which resulted in an
efficient T2 (for my standards) and 1m38s later I was off for the run
leg.

Third mistake I made was taking a banana with me from T2 and trying to
eat it before reaching a nice run rythme. I took one bite and realised
my mistake, then the challenge was getting rid of it asap without
getting penalised for littering. Ironman are very focused on avoiding
litter, but they fail to provide sufficient bins along the course.

Once I settled into my run I had to manage a strong headwind. I would
have been better off leaving my cap in the T2 bag as it wasn’t that
sunny and I quickly took it off as it almost flew off my head so I was
holding it in my hand together with my flexible drinking bottle. It was
ok, but would have been better without.

I was slower than I had hoped on the run, I could feel the racey 90k
bike ride had taken its toll and I had to control my pace and heart
rate. I did not get any cramps but the last 2km I suddenly felt my legs
get really tired and heavy. Despite that I managed to find some energy
for a sprint over the finish line with friends and family cheering me
on! Fantastic feeling!

I had not seen my official time and as I was no longer using the
triathlon function on my Garmin I had no good feel for my overall time.
I was super happy to discover much later I completed the race in
4:46:09.

The hard work was rewarded with some nice cool beers and a lovely dinner
with my family in Hoorn. What a day!

By Marc Muller