Haile Rules

Ethopia's Haile Gebrselassie is one fast dude!

Today in Berlin, he laid the smack down on his own marathon world record (2:04:26) by running a crazy fast 2:03:59. Not too shabby for a 35 year old eh?

Check out the splits:

5 km 00:14:35

10 km 00:29:13

15 km 00:44:03

20 km 00:58:50

half 01:02:05

25 km 01:13:41

30 km 01:28:27

35 km 01:43:05

40 km 01:57:34

Let me break that down for you. This incredible athlete averaged a 4:43/mile or 2:56/km for the entire 42.2 km. Now go out your door and try to run 1 km or mile at that speed.

I guess skipping the Olympic Marathon paid off. But would he rather have an Olympic Gold medal or a world record? The hot and humid conditions of Beijing definitely would have made a world record attempt not possible though. The conditions on Berlin today was perfect for running a marathon. Sunny, 9 degrees Celsius to start and 13 degrees by the end of the race.

As great as Gebrselassie is, I think that Kenenisa Bekele could even be better. He holds the world record in the 5km (12:37.35) and 10 km (26:17.53 ). If he makes the move to the half and full marathon the world better watch out.

Congrats go out to a few buddies of mine who ran the Scotiabank Half and Full Marathon today (a race I was supposed to be a pace bunny at for the 4th time -- but couldn't due to my wonderful Achilles injury). Special mention goes out to a few former students who finally stepped up to the plate. Both were first timers and one did 1:53 half, and the other completed his first marathon. Way to go dudes.

Til next time, thanks for reading.

RH

Paul Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008)

I loved his salad dressings and movies but Paul Newman sadly passed away a few days ago due to cancer. There are lots of tributes everywhere on the web so check it out yourself if you want more information. If you haven't tried the Newman's Own product line give it a go. Not only does it taste great but all profits go to charity. RIP Mr. Newman.

Politics Schmolitics

Let me get political for a moment.

Yes, they have zero chance of winning but I like a lot of things the Green Party stands. Plus, the leader, Elizabeth May, is quite a cool lady.

Too bad the Liberals don't have such a leader (Dion is a nice guy but not a great leader that instills confidence in most Canadians) or else they would de-throne the Conservatives for sure.

Anyway, the Green Party is growing with popularity each day, and I'll be supporting them this next election. Here are few links to investigate if you feel so inclined.

http://www.greenparty.ca/

The Green Platform

That is as political as I am going to get here.
Til next time
RH

Lance is back

With all the rumours floating around the past few days, Lance Armstrong finally confirmed today that he is returning to professional cycling. I guess he will not be doing an Ironman for a while (despite what others have speculated).

Here is what he said:

"I am happy to announce that after talking with my children, my family and my closest friends, I have decided to return to professional cycling in order to raise awareness of the global cancer burden. This year alone, nearly eight million people will die of cancer worldwide. Millions more will suffer in isolation, victims not only of the disease but of social stigma. After the passage of Proposition 15 in Texas, a $3 billion investment in the fight against cancer which is helping to make this disease part of the national dialogue in America, it's now time to address cancer on a global level."

The article can be found here:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/12511-stub-article/

The video statement is here:
http://www.livestrong.com/lance2009/

This should be an interesting year of cycling for sure. Now why couldn't he have come back this past summer when I had all the time in the world to sit and watch all the coverage from the Tour de France?

Til next time
RH

I swam last night and I liked it

That Katy Perry song was in my head so why not alter it a bit and make it the title of this post.

After 12 years I made my return to the Markham Masters swim club.

This had nothing to do with the club because it remains great (probably better now) it is just that my goal back then was to get competent enough to swim in an Ironman.

I was able to do so and as many of you know, I only swam 2-3 times per year. Thursday and/or Friday before the race for 10-20 minutes, and then on race day. Extra swim practice did not make me much faster, plus my constantly dislocating right shoulder made a lot of swimming not possible. The amount of time I would need to put into swimming to improve just a few minutes would be better spent biking for running where I could chop some major time.

However, last night felt great and this fall/winter/spring might bring about some swim improvements that I might try to maintain for years to come. I am only swimming one night per week so I am not expecting miracles. I am actually thinking about boosting my membership to swim 3 times per week because it was so enjoyable (I never thought I'd be saying that). A lot of that has to do with me not being able to run until January (hopefully) so I had to find something else to do other than biking right now.

All you non-swimmers who want to get into triathlons need to join a Masters Swim Club in your area. It really is the only way to get your swimming up to par. Unless you have some serious dough to hire a private coach and find pool time.

Til next time.
Thanks for reading.
RH

Beijing Olympic Triathlon Results Booklet

Things are busy on the home front since I started back at work today.

All is well on the healing process. I'm riding my bike everyday, getting physio 3x a week, and getting stronger each day. Only my heel is taking a beating. Especially after being on my feet most of the day today.

If you want to see detailed splits from the Olympic Triathlon, click on the link and enjoy. If you didn't know already, these girls and guys are super fast.

http://www.triathlon.org/docs/official-results-book-Beijing2008.pdf

As usual, Simon has a wicked blog entry where he reflects on his journey over the past 4 years.

http://simonwhitfield.blogspot.com/2008/08/final-globe-blog.html

Til next time.
RH

Support our Canadian Athletes

Two more medals today and more to come tomorrow for sure.

If you don't know about this organization already, Canadian Athletes Now has provided much needed funding to many of our needy athletes. Check out the site and donate to the cause if you want to personally do something about the lack of adequate funding that the athletes receive.

http://www.canadianathletesnow.ca/home/

Til next time
RH

By the way, Simon Whitfield will be live and answering questions on Slowtwitch tonight at 8 pm ET.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1947056;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

I'm Lovin' it

Like I said almost one week ago, the medals will come for Canada and they sure did. Lots of other great performances and close calls too. Unlike the first week, I haven't heard any Canadian athletes cry babying about lack of funding and making other excuses for their performances. Just HTFU and get the job done. These athletes are doing just that. Awesome job!

The perfect example of that was last night when Simon Whitfield clearly gave it all he had to valiantly claim a silver medal. It was truly incredible. All athletes should check out the final 5 minutes of this race to see what HTFU, giving 110%, and laying it all on the line is all about. He had nothing left by the end of the race and that is how it should be. Drain that tank and have no regrets. The bronze medal performance by Priscilla Lopes-Schliep was wicked too.

Here are the Canadian medals as of today:

Diving
Silver - Alexandre Despatie (3 M Springboard)

Equestrian Jumping
Silver - Team Canada (Mixed Team)

Trampoline
Silver - Jason Burnett (Men's Individual)
Silver - Karen Cockburn (Women's Individual)

Rowing
Gold - K. Light / B. Rutledge / A. Byrnes / J. Wetzel / M. Howard / D. Seiterle / A. Kreek / K. Hamilton / B. Price (Men's 8)
Silver - D. Calder / S. Frandsen (Men's Pair)
Bronze - I. Brambell / J. Beare / M. Lewis / L. Parsons (Men's Lightweight Skulls)
Bronze - M. Kok / T. Cameron (Women's Lightweight Double Skulls)

Swimming
Bronze - Ryan Cochrane (1500 m Free)

Track and Field
Bronze - Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (Women's 100m Hurdles)

Triathlon
Silver - Simon WHITFIELD

Wrestling Freestyle
Gold - Carol Huynh (48 kg)
Bronze - Tonya Verbeek (55 kg)

Canada's updates are available here:
http://stats.cbc.ca/olympics/medals.asp?country=CAN

We have more medals coming for sure so keep cheering and checking for updates.

The CBC Widget

Here is a real cool tool to get quick access to all the Olympic results and stories. I have the widget on the right hand side too.

Enjoy
RH

Nothing New...sort of

Like the title says, there is nothing new happening with me. But I have a lot to say.

I finished my online course, volunteered at a race this weekend (forgot about my condition and accidentally ran a few steps..oops), keep watching the Olympics to see Canada win its first medal (by the weekend for sure), and try to keep healing from my ATR.

I sorta hit the wall in the healing process over the past few days. Plenty of soreness and swelling. I had a bit of a slip a few days ago, heard a bit of a click but suddenly the heel pain went any and so did a lot of the tightness. Very eerie! I was just hoping I didn't re-rupture the darn thing. I poked around and the middle section felt softer as compared to the rest of the Achilles so maybe I tore away some scar tissue? So I've been taking it easy and today is tons better.

I had some physio today and he checked out the area and said all was OK. He also thinks I just jarred some scar tissue loose. At any rate we put off the start of my strengthening exercises for another day. This didn't prevent him from doing the super deep and painful massage of the tendon of course.

Since most of my time has been spent watching the Olympics, I wanted to spout out a few comments.


If you have been watching the CBC coverage over the past few days, you probably saw some interviews where a few Canadian athletes were complaining about the Canadian Government's funding. While the funding has improved over the last 1-2 years, it has been too little too late for these Olympics (and for many sports it is still too little).

I agree with the athletes 100%, but only if the Canadian public, media, and government is going to scoff, complain or be ashamed of the medal count at the end of the day. If they expect these athletes to compete at the same level as the rest of the world the need the same support. Canada must decide one way or the other. Either support our athletes properly and make the athletes accountable for their funding (no free handouts - they must meet performance standards, do public speaking, coaching, etc.) or let them go at it alone to find their own deals or fleeing to other countries if need be.

My only disagreement with the athletes comes in the fact that they decided to make athletics their "job" in a badly funded sport society so why am I (the Canadian taxpayer) being made to foot the bill. Does a person wanting to go to University or take a course to get a better job get free government money to do so? Simple answer. No. If I decide to give support athletes I'll donate to a specific sport organization or pay a membership fee in which much of that money goes to support up and coming athletes. I'm sure many potential world class athletes from Canada saw the sad funding situation and chose another path in life.

While I like watching the Olympics, is it that worth it for the government to spend millions of dollars to see Canadians bring home a zillion medals? I admit it would be nice but, no. I really just appreciate the spirit of the competition, seeing their efforts and achieving personal bests, and the many cool and inspiring stories of the athletes. I am proud of their efforts to even make it to the Olympics because it takes major skill, talent, determination, hard work and sacrifice.

This is why if any Canadian brings home a medal of any kind, I admire their efforts even more. I know that they have risen above extreme hurdles to beat the best in the world.

Let's go Canada! Medals will be coming your way soon. And if it doesn't, does it really matter?

If it does to you, then you better contact your local Member of Parliament and complain for Canada to change its system and give more money. Otherwise, don't slag the athletes, keep your mouth shut and enjoy their efforts. Remember, they haven't spent years of training to go to Beijing to be embarrassed. They all want to win and are trying to make Canada, their families and themselves proud.


I'll stop my rant on that note.

Don't forget the Women's Olympic Triathlon - Sunday August 17 @ 10 pm ET, and the Men's race on Monday August 18 @ 10 pm ET. No matter what happens it will be a wicked two days of racing. Go Team Canada!

Til next time.
RH

Beijing Olympics are underway

If I don't poste regularly it is due to the Olympics.
I will be watching every minute of the coverage on CBC, TSN, and NBC.
Despite what many ignorant fools in the mainstream media have to say, I'll watch the Olympics over baseball, etc., any day.

Here is the schedule of events:

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/index.shtml

The CBC generally covers the Olympics every day from 6pm-12am and 6am-12noon. With some added coverage and schedule tweaks in there (depends on the day). Check your own local listings.

Just look for the Women's Olympic Triathlon on Monday August 18 (10 pm Eastern) and the Men's Olympic Triathlon on Tuesday August 19 (10 pm Eastern).

Here is the excellent CBC site. All the events and times are on the right side and can be customized for your own time zone.

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/

It is going to be a great next couple of weeks.
Enjoy

RH

McEnroe & Nadal Roadtrip

Enjoy two of the greatest tennis players of all time getting together for a road trip.



By the way here are my top 10 players of all time:

Men
1. John McEnroe
2. Roger Federer
3. Bjorn Borg
4. Rod Laver
5. Andre Agassi
6. Pete Sampras
7. Stefan Edberg
8. Ivan Lendl
9. Raphael Nadal - and rising qickly
10. Daniel Nestor - Canadian content & has career Golden Slam in doubles.

Women
1. Martina Navratilova
2. Steffi Graf
3. Serena Williams
4. Billie Jean King
5. Chris Evert
6. Martina Hingis
7. Monica Seles
8. Justine Henin
9. Ana Ivanovic
10. Anna Kournikova - If she is on court I'm there. It's "my" top 10 after all. Let me refresh your memory below.




Oh yeah, check this out too. Mac does Rafa.

I'm Walking, IMLP Pics & Roger's Cup

Hello again!

Still busy doing a lot of stuff like..................walking, woo hoo!!!

Once out of the cast, every day feels better and better and much progress is being made. While my walk does not look great (Achilles is still fairly tight but not like last week), there is less of a limp each day. I've been to physio (at Physiobility) 2 times this week and I am getting awesome treatment. I highly recommend them if you ever need treatment. Lots of hydrotherapy, ultrasound, massage, and laser.

I get to do all of the stretching and range of motion exercises on my own. I even got on the bike Wednesday (indoors) for 15 minutes. I was not riding all that fast or forcefully but I was pleased to be back riding. The Achilles was tight at the start but loosened up more at the end to decrease the pain. I wore bike shoes but did not clip into the pedals on the left side. Not enough strength or guts for that yet. I'll try riding again today.

I took a few pics of myself to see how much my left calf reduced, but as you can see I actually looks bigger. However, the reality is that the muscles are all mush. It it likely bigger due to swelling and the fact that my right leg was taking most of my weight as I took the picture. But the good news for me is that I did not sustain major shrinkage. I've seen lots of pictures with some major atrophy happening on the injured leg. Let the recovery continue.

After finally uploading these pics, I can finally congratulate a few buddies on their finishes at Ironman USA Lake Placid. Way to go Angus, Gord and Rick. That was the toughest day IMLP has ever seen and I sorta glad I missed it. I signed up for the 2009 race a few days ago so look out boys, I'm anxiously awaiting to make up for this year. Here are some pics from the soggy day.

Prior to the swim start - Just half of the athletes.

Showing some art skillz - making a sign for my buddy Angus


The wife's new shirt - that is me squeezing into a women's small. Do I need a manzier?

Angus heading out in the downpour

Rick

Gord

James Bonney (got hypothermia and dropped out--you'll get them next time)

Desiree Ficker (great athlete but the wet and cold shut her down too)

Men's Winner (Francisco Pontano)

Stephanie Dubois

Jelena Jankovic & Ana Ivanovic

On top of recovering, doing my exercises, writing articles, and finishing an online course, I've been watching the Roger's Cup from Montreal. There is lots of great coverage going on and my favourite Canadian female tennis player (Stephanie Dubois) is playing right now. When I started this post they were in a rain delay but play has resumed and she has just lost the first set to Jelena Jankovic 6-3. It will be tough for her to advance to the quarter finals but I'll keep pulling for her. Ana Ivanovic (if you have been following this site you know I've been touting her for many years) will be playing later and I will be watching that too. Gotta go and catch the rest of the match.

Til next time. Thanks for reading. RH

1 week delay / The cast is off

Sorry for the one week delay but lots of stuff going on this week.

Obviously, by now you know that Stadler did not race in LP and Bonney dropped out of the race due to mild hypothermia. I saw him head out on the run but he looked real cold and uncomfortable so I was not surprised that he pull out.

Race day at Ironman Lake Placid was horrible. Basically, it rained 14 hours out of the 17 hour race day. It started once the pros headed into transition (45 min into the race), stopped briefly from 3-4 pm, and poured again til 945 pm or so. A very tough day. It got very chilly out there.

My cast got soaked (I'm not allowed to get it wet) and there was not much I could do about it. A whole bunch of dead skin started oozing out from the bottom of my cast. Yummy! By the next day it seemed to dry but in reality it kick started some nasty stuff a few days later.

I got some nice pictures of the pros and a few friends. Hopefully some will be used by Triathlon Magazine Canada. Congrats to Rick, Gord (his first Ironman) and Angus! All of who completed the race and what was the wettest and toughest day at IMLP.

Once I got home, I showered but somehow my many protective bags slipped and more water slipped down into the cast. So now the cast was soaked once again. I don't think it fully dried out in the first place.

The next morning I was at a tennis conference and I suddenly smelled something rancid. I soon realized that it was coming from my cast. It was still wet and could only imagine what it looked like under there. I immediately called the hospital to get the cast removed. I was lucky enough to get an appointment and they cut it open. I cleared the room with the stench coming from my leg and there was tons of dead skin.

The cast technicians/nurses did not want to touch it. I just wanted to clean it off, peel off the dead skin and go on my way. They insisted that I better not since I might just pull off all the skin from my foot and have nothing underneath. They put on a new plaster splint on top and wrapped it. They told me to take a hair dryer and dry my leg off at home.

Once I got home I could not imagine leaving that wet stinky mess under wraps so I pulled the cast off. I peeled off all the dead skin and washed my foot. Aside from the severely wrinkly foot (like if you were in water for several hours) everything was normal and a lot less gross looking. I was glad I did this because I'm am sure it would have been worse a few days later when I saw the doctor.

On Thursday, I saw the surgeon and he examined my leg and proclaimed that I am no longer in a cast, I am on to full weight bearing and can start physio. Yahoo!!! I met with the physio minutes later and she gave me more details. I was very fortunate that she is a fellow Ironman athlete too (and a very fast one at that) so she knew my needs. I was given a bunch of exercises and told that I am cleared to ditch my crutches at any time, can start riding a bike (indoors), can swim but just refrain from pushing off with my left leg.

My Achilles is definitely tight and achy. But every day the range of motion gets better as I stretch it out. Still a long way to go but things are looking great. I am excited to start riding the bike again. It has been way too long. Plus those extra pounds have got to go.

By the way, don't forget to check out the huge Running Free sale going on right now. Lots of deals to be had. Feel free to use my discount code to save even more $$ -11296
Go in person or online at http://www.runningfree.com/

Til next time, thanks for reading.
RH

The cast it cut open.

Nasty leg revealed.

A closer look. Most dead skin is off. But still gross.

Cleaned off and one day later.

6 surgery incisions.

James Bonney & Stadler

For those of you still wondering if Normann Stadler will race in Lake Placid I have the up to date news................ There isn't any.

I've talked to some race officials and they (like all of us) have seen the information posted on his website and have sent the call out to him to find out what is going on. However, no one has returned their calls or emails. While it is quite possible he could still show up today to register, that is unlikey. Keep your fingers crossed though.

After picking up my race kit today (turned my chip in so no chance of racing--maybe), I had a chance meeting with James Bonney at the Expo. I was checking out his bike and we had a nice chat about a ton of stuff. Before my chat with him I thought that he had a great chance to win this race (especially after his IMAZ performance), and I sincerely hope that he does so. A very classy and down to earth guy! If he runs a sub-3 hour marathon (his goal for this race--he swims and bikes like a demon already) I think he will do it.

As usual, the town of LP is in full swing in preparation for Sunday. Lots of fit people riding and running around town. I'm jealous. I'm almost feeling my leg healing at the moment. Maybe I should rent a bike and do this darn race? There are so many fellow athletes and locals saying sorry to me and wishing me well. This makes things easier and why I love this sport and town so much. I'll be back next year for sure.

Til next time
RH

Camelback Sustainable Hydration Project

I came across this site a few minutes ago.
Excellent info about tap water vs bottled water, etc.

http://www.choosetoreuse.net/

I've always loved Camelback products and I would also suggest that you pick up some of their bottles that are BPA free.

Check out this great site to discover the dangers of those plastic bottles.

http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HealthNutrition/get-rid-of-plastic-water-bottles

Til next time
RH

Le tour still rules

Just when everything was going great, some dope decides to be stupid and gets busted for using EPO.

I don't know about you, but I was really starting to enjoy the wide open competition of this year's Tour de France and the lack of the daily reports of riders getting busted for testing positive for one drug or the other. While I not totally naive to believe that no one was going to test positive for drugs this year, I thought there was a great chance.

Since everyone is going to be tested a zillion times, who would be that stupid and disrespectful to the great sport of cycling to try and get away with taking performance enhancing drugs? Well it seems we had at least one taker for that title this year and he is Manuel Beltran. For a 37 year old guy whose best days were well behind him, and who had zero chance to win anything, what was the point? I guess maybe it was his only way to stay on the team and make a living. Sad really.

All the rest of the world (who don't follow cycling regularly) will take from the headlines is that the cyclists are still a bunch of druggies. Obviously not the case. If anything, the rest of the sporting world should take notice and follow the lead of cycling. They are catching the cheaters, unlike to others who are ignoring the issue or sweeping it under the rug.

I appreciate the efforts of the cycling establishment in getting rid of the dopers (I didn't like how Astana was left out of the Tour but that is another story), and I admire the immense talent, skill, and toughness of the cyclists. So I will always be watching my TV every July from day 1 right to the end when the race ends in Paris.

No only if OLN would show more cycling up here in Canada then things would be perfect.

Link to the #$%@*! getting busted yesterday.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i1yQ9pzKB7WfHIg02Ua83vcbmMkw

Til next time.
RH

Tour de France 2008

I know I've had a bunch of visitors to this site looking for Tour de France info. A lot from the US but I had OLN (Canadian) broadcast info so to help you out and to update and add other links here you go:

Canadian Broadcast Schedule on OLN
http://www.tsn.ca/oln/tour_de_france/feature.asp?fid=10749

Versus Broadcast Schedule
http://www.versus.com/tdf/article/view/758/?ss=tv&tf=body_tdf_schedule.tpl

Versus TDF Site
http://www.versus.com/tdf/

Worldcycling Site (Lots of videos, and blogs by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen)
http://www.worldcycling.tv/


Enjoy the tour. It's wide open and exciting this year.

Doc Stoddard, New Tat & Physio

I am extremely dubious about the pain I'm feeling in my right foot (bearing all of my weight for 5 weeks now, and the Achilles and top of foot hurt before the whole left Achilles rupture deal) so I decided to be proactive and get help before a repeat of the left side happens.



So yesterday, I paid a visit to Dr. Stoddard (sports medicine expert at Toronto SEMI, and the creator of eLoad). We have worked together in the past (Transitions Magazine) so it was nice to see him again an catch up on things, chat about sports nutrition, his new Fly product, etc. He confirmed that there was inflammation on that side, and set me up to see a podiatrist to discover why I'm getting all these problems in the first place. I've been avoiding these for about 10 years now and it looks like orthothics might be the remedy. I won't know anything until my cast comes off and they can check both feet out. I'll see a physio tomorrow.



Ever since the surgery, my appetite has dropped. I basically only eat once a day. Thank goodness for that otherwise I'd be over 200 lbs now for sure. I had not eaten since the afternoon before so I was a bit hungry after the appointment. Thanks to the Taco Bell commercials I hit a drive thru and got the 5 tacos and a drink deal. Man was it good..... and bad all at the same time.


After killing some time doing some writing, I headed off to get my latest tattoo at Way Cool Tattoos (thanks for Jen for a quick and easy experience). Things you do when you are bored eh? I cant post pics of the new addition since it is under bandages right now but I'll scan and post the artwork ASAP. I also updated the Ironman completion dates on my left arm. This will probably be my last tat for quite some time. No more space on my right side anyway, and I don't feel inspired or the need to add anything else. Although every time a family member (Mom) says they hate my tats, I want to get some more.




It looks like this except the mouth part.

Today, I had my first physio session at Toronto SEMI, and it was one of the most professional encounters I've had with a physio. All comments were documented on computer as I gave them. and a very thorough evaluation and testing protocol. I got some exercises to do and received treatment on my Achilles and top of foot (bottom end of my it band) and was off.


Got home, ate, and as I am writing this, I watching the wicked Individual Time Trial from today's Tour de France. I so want to get out there and blast away on my Saber.


Thanks for reading.


RH

Stadler to race at Lake Placid?

This was posted on the coverage from the European Ironman Championships (tomorrow in Germany). Once he found out that I am not racing it is only natural that he decide to come over and do Ironman Lake Placid. :)

Normann Stadler has to cancel IRONMAN Frankfurt because of illness

“I absolutely wanted to participate, but the doctors forbade it.”

Because of a compounded influenzal infection, Normann Stadler who won two times Ironman Hawaii, can not participate in the IRONMAN European Championship in Frankfurt.

The captain of the Dresdner Kleinwort Triathlon Team had to announce the staggering news this morning, after having won the International German Championships (middle distance) only four weeks ago.

“I wanted to start at any price, but my medicals clearly told me to risk my health by doing so,” disappointed Stadler stated. “If the doctors would not have strongly advised me not to race, I would have done the race with the last of my strength. I feel endlessly sorry for my fans and my sponsors. Now I am going to do everything I can to support my team colleagues Jan Raphael, Markus Fachbach und Maik Twelsiek in Frankfurt and I will show in Hawaii what I am able to.”

Stadler is going to compete on the next Ironman on the 20th of July in Lake Placid.