My sister Anne and I had a blast racing Challenge Aarhus (Denmark)!. Challenge Aarhus is one of the largest half ironman/70.3 distance races in Europe. Possibly inspired by my races, it was Anne’s first long distance triathlon, and she did great! Fastest swim in her age group, a strong bike and a controlled run. Anne finished in 6.25 (and from talking to her today it sounds like it won’t be her last long distance tri…).

As usual my swim was relatively slow, but I quickly made up for it, powering up through the field fighting heavy winds and pouring rain on the technical course with 4,000 feet of climbing. I ended up setting the 3rd fastest bike split of the day in my age group (45-49) with a time of 2.31 (less than 20 mins slower than the fastest pros!). Then a 1.42 half marathon saw me crossing the finish line in 5.06 – by two minutes my strongest half ironman time so far. The time was good enough for a #8 place in my age group (out of 92 competitors). I did not quite break 5 hours – but it was close!

Finally, not to forget: a big thank you to my wife Helene and the rest of my family for again being there, cheering on us the whole day!