Starting my 8th year in Professional Triathlon!
Looking back
Last year was not a seven-year itch for me, but a year I am proud of. Besides the two Ironman titles and the early qualification for the World Championships on Hawaii 2019, I had a lot of other good races. These are the highlights of 2018:
1. Ironman Austria, Klagenfurt
1. Ironman Langkawi, Malaysia
13. Ironman World Championships, Hawaii, USA
4. Ironman 70.3 Luxemburg
1. Köln Triathlon half distance
1. Indeland Triathlon half distance
1. Aasee Triathlon Bocholt – half distance
1. Krefeld Triathlon – olympic distance
1. place election as sports woman of the year 2018, Wesel:
The winter break is over!
I will not rest on my laurels, but I want to improve my performance even further. Having this in mind, I took a longer winter break to allow the body and mind to recover and refresh. After christmas I picked up training again. Aqua Sphere gifted me a x-mas swim cap, thus there was no way not to swim at x-mas already. I spent the turn of the year very sporty. New year‘s eve I ran 20.18 km and swam for 02:18 hours, on new year itself I biked 201.9 km on Fuerteventura. ? Lucky me I am not counting in miles, but km!
As last year, I spent some weeks at Playitas Resort on Fuerteventura escaping the German winter and building up for a successful 2019.
Ironman South Africa
Being a triathlete, the focus in racing is swim, bike and run. Through the sport, I have the opportunity to get to know new countries and cultures. This is one of the reasons I decide on races that are new to me. On the one hand, April is a very early time to race Ironman, as I aim to be in top shape and still fresh in summer and autumn for the season highlights. On the other hand, April is early enough in the season to try something new. I am grateful that I have this chance on Sunday at the Ironman Regional Championships. I got asked why I do such an early race bearing in mind I am already qualified for Hawaii. Because I want to!
After the race I will explore the country and people a bit. Learning about Townships, seeing the elephant national park and hiking up the Table Mountain are on my to-do list.
Outlook
After Ironman South Africa, I will build up together with the team and guests of Bikefriends Schon on Mallorca. For the 11th time I am part of the bike guide team. The races season continues with the Olympic distance in Buschhütten on May 5th and the Challenge half distance in Lisboa on May 18th. Further races in summer are yet to be confirmed. An always up-to-date schedule you find on my homepage (mareenhufe.de/en/events-2019).
I am proud having such great partners on board for 2019:
