Triathlon Informer

"I started to second guess myself. Was I becoming tired of triathlon, was I not excited about the competition anymore?" he asked himself.

He knew that he had put in the work to compete for a fourth Ironman Switzerland title. Bernhard shares the same trainer with another fairly respectable athlete, Lance Armstrong, and spent two days training with the cyclist in and around St. Moritz this past spring. After so many years and so much attention to detail, Bernhard knows how and when to elevate his heartrate; the night before a race is not the time.

So was the soft-spoken Swiss worried when he left the swim fourth, some four minutes behind countryman Philippe Achleitner? And was he further concerned when he was able to muster only a fifth-best bike split (4:43) and enter T2 several minutes behind the lead? Not at all.

"I stopped worrying about not being interested in triathlon anymore during the race," Bernhard would later say. “Once the competition began, I knew I wanted to win, that I still have the hunger. I stayed completely relaxed throughout the race and that, I think, helped immensely in the end."

It is unknown whether Achleitner slept much during the week leading up to the race, but his training habits cannot be questioned. Taking a thirteen second lead out of the water and onto the bike over Frenchman Gael Mainaro, the 29-year-old amateur from Zug clung valiantly to his lead through two laps of the bike before succumbing to a quintet of professionals. The Swiss had four men in the mix: Bernhard, Christopher Mauch, Bruno von Flüe, and Stefan Riesen. The French had René Rovera, a 35-year-old from Cannes who had come out of the water just behind Bernhard in 14th. The five stayed within striking distance of each other after passing Achleitner until the third and final circuit.

The final 60k saw a gradual spacing out of the top men. Bernhard would still not take the helm, leaving that for von Flüe, third fastest on the day in 4:39 and four minutes faster than Bernhard. Three minutes behind Bernhard was Rovera. The only member of the pack of five who had passed Achleitner to not have come out of the water in 50 minutes was Stefan Riesen, well back at T1 in 56 minutes but well-known for his bike and run. True to form, Riesen used a 4:42 on the bike to move from 45th to fourth and strongly imply further drama on the run.

Beneath gathering storm clouds and increasing wind, von Flüe slowly cashed in his chips and was overtaken for good at the beginning of the second of three run laps. Bernhard was calm, confident, and finding his stride. Riesen would ultimately win the marathon but lose the war; his 2:50 was enough to catapult him into second but still nearly four minutes behind Bernhard. He adds this to his second at Ironman France just over a month ago. Mauch parlayed a consistent 2:54 marathon into a third place finish in 8:36 and his fourth ironman podium finish.

The veteran Bernhard glided across the line beaming from ear to ear; his passion for triathlon had clearly not departed. Though his 8:27 was well off his course record 8:12 of three years ago, the defending champion was content nonetheless. Would he carry this momentum to Hawaii in October?

"I will see what happens with the twins," Bernhard explained. His wife is expecting joy times two in late September and he has clearly indicated that fatherhood is more important to him than triathlon success.

Not to be outdone by the men, Switzerland's leading ironwomen (save the best of them all, Natascha Badmann) came to Zurich with dreams of victory. Due to less-than-ideal races in the months preceding Ironman Switzerland, Australia's Belinda Halloran and Germany's Ute Mückel sent in their entry forms on short notice and significantly increased the pool of women with a legitimate shot at winning.

Mückel can swim with the best athletes in the sport, man or woman, as she displayed at Quelle Challenge Roth by exiting the water second overall, behind only Stephen Sheldrake. In Zurich she came out third, behind Philippe Achleitner and Gael Mainaro. But she would not enjoy the same gap back to second place as she had forged in Roth - Germany's Katja Wollschlager, 11 years her junior, came ashore 33 seconds later. Halloran was four minutes off the pace and Ariane Gutknecht, perhaps Switzerland's best athlete present, was a full eight minutes back.

Mückel did not let up on the bike, swelling her cushion to five minutes before it began coming back down. Gutknecht was the one to mount the attack, closing to within three minutes at the midway point of the third lap. Five kilometers into the run Gutknecht had caught Mückel. The 39-year-old had been second at Switzerland twice in the 90's and third in the previous three offerings; perhaps it was time to climb the last rung of the ladder.

With Mückel tiring a resurgent Yvonne Krömker of Germany was finding her legs. Though nowhere near Heather Fuhr's 2:51 course record from 2000, Krömker posted the day's fastest marathon (3:14) to propel her past Belinda Halloran and then Mückel. Halloran was tiring even more dramatically than Mückel and the two held on for third and fourth, respectively.

At the line an ecstatic Gutknecht embraced her husband and rejoiced in her first ironman victory. The DJ played "Eh Cheowah" for the 300th time and traditional Swiss bell ringers swung their massive bells in celebration, all along the finishing chute. The sheeting rain and powerful wind could not stifle the emotions of every ironman finisher realizing their dreams.

Perhaps it was the amateur Philippe Achleitner who best personified the rapture of such an accomplishment. Upon crossing the line, the speechless Swiss was asked to return to the carpet leading to the finish line so the crowd could have one more chance to acknowledge his sixth-place heroics. Achleitner walked very slowly among the adoring crowd. He gazed all around him, once, twice, three times. His smile radiated, his eyes glowed. Where most of the pros stop and turn around, he continued onward, not wanting to miss a single fan or allow the feeling to end. He never returned to the area beyond the finish line.