RACE REPORT Ironman Switzerland 2017
Here it is, the IM Switzerland race report. To be honest I was expecting a very different type of outcome, but every now and then things don’t go your way. Still I feel like I learned something new about the sport that I’ve grown to love.

BEFORE
My previous season was outstanding with my first IM finish (10.43 at IM Frankfurt), a 4.40 half distance (Challenge Turku) as well as a new marathon PB (3.25 at Vantaa Marathon), which put me in new territory in terms of finishing times and personal expectations. Due to changes in circumstances (Ironbaby-work-training-life balance) I realized quite soon that I wouldn’t be able to train as much as before and would have to make the decision to maintain my condition for this season rather than aiming for a stronger result, such as a sub-10h time. Or I could try to train less and still aim for the impossible.
Surprisingly, despite new circumstances and less training I was able to maintain my fitness quite well (It helps when you stop looking at TP CTL figures on a daily basis). I kept training with TCF team and coach Yan Busset, maintaining his IM+ programme as a guideline for my weekly training sessions, but making a few tweaks due to personal preferences and time constraints:
First, I switched bike sessions during base training to TrainerRoad sessions and Wattcoach Animal Spin training (simultaneously making sure that I don’t exceed bike specific TSS). In addition, since I wasn’t able to join weekly TCF track sessions, I modified the running sessions to include track reps and tempo runs based on Runner’s World’s Run Less, Run Faster (I read this book like the bible, 6 years and running). Finally, I did strength training on free weights once a week in the winter, but had to switch to functional training (such as burpees, push ups, squats and planks) due to time constraints.
The build up phase to my A race went better than expected. I ran a 1.36 half marathon at Helsinki City Run (my fastest HCR to date, on the new course), PB’ed at Vantaa Olympic Distance (40sec, but still) and came in 9th in the general classification at Voimarinne Half Distance. Even my swim that had suffered during the winter improved in the last 8 weeks before the A race and I was 2nd out the water at Voimarinne.
My biggest worry was the bike that I had to race on. After Voimarinne I had brought my bike to the local bike shop Toni&Toni for a final check before my A race. One of the guys from the store (Toni, I presume) called me soon afterwards to tell me that the frame of my precious Canyon Speedmax CF was broken. I contacted Canyon asap, hoping that they would be able to provide a new frame before the race. Unfortunately it turned out that my bike is one of the most sought after tribikes in the world at the moment, which meant I had to look for alternatives.
Luckily, Jaakko W. from HelTri was kind enough to lend me his bike and Pekka R. a Garmin Vector. I spent the last 2 weeks tweaking the bike to find a position I could hold for 180k in Zürich. To be honest, I was quite disappointed that I couldn’t deliver a great bike leg, as I had focused all season on improving my FTP and handling, had great long bike rides with the strong bike riders in TCF (particularly Timo and Jussi!) and really felt good on my Canyon that I had fitted at Kivenlahden Pyörähuolto. But sometimes things don’t go as planned so I had to be happy to even get a bike on such a short notice and make it to Zürich for the race.
In Zürich, we stayed near Messe in Oerlikon on the other side of the city, but with a convenient 15min train ride away from the event area. Highly recommended to all future IM Switzerland athletes if you want to avoid the sky-high prices near the event area and don’t want to take the long walk from the city center.
We got to the area on Friday, where I picked up my bib (AWA registration, baby, no queues!), bought the obligatory race merch to incentivize my finish and sat through the race info that didn’t really go into too much detail on the new rules (DQ for unzipping the top, I dare you to say it out loud!).

The day before the race I had a quick swim with the TCF gang to check the first buoys. Luckily, we arrived at the area just in time for the 5150 pro start and saw Daniela Ryf battling it out with the local champs in the swim start. I also noted the sharp stones in the start area and reminded my colleagues to be careful in the start. The heat was already rising close to 30 degrees so I opted to head back to the hotel with my family and enjoy the miracle of air conditioning as well as loads of pasta at a Italian restaurant in Oerlikon (Santa Lucia).
For the first time in ages, I had the perfect sleep before the race, catching approx. 7 hours of sleep and waking up approx. 15 min before the alarm. I arrived at the event area round 5.00, checked my bags and my bike, put on my wetsuit and moved with my Finnish trifellows to the swim start. The sunrise was amazing. I was ready to go!

SWIM 1.07 (4016m; 1.41/100m)
IM Switzerland had followed suit with other IM races, ditching the mass start for a rolling start. I positioned myself in front of the 60–70min group, gave final fist bumps to my mates and went my beep came ran in to the water.
Obviously I had forgotten about the sharp stones in the start and stumbled after a few steps for a early dive in the water. Hoping this would not be the shape of things to come, I quickly pulled myself together and started swimming (luckily my mate Jarkko was behind me to witness my fall and has made a tradition of noting my developing points in his race reports. This was the main reason I was biking out of every corner faster than last year. Next time I will look amazing when I dive into the water!).
The swim was quite calm with some mild elbow action near the buoys, but otherwise quite peaceful. The bigger challenge was sighting in the morning sun. Most of the time I did not see the next buoy, so I just followed the lead of others and tried to stay out of trouble. When I got out of the water I quickly realized that this may have not been the best tactic. Looking at my Garmin I was shocked to note that I had swam a 1.07, 4 minutes slower than in Frankfurt! Not the best start, but I knew that I could make it up later on.
T1 4.08
I quickly found my bag and headed to the changing tents. When Jarkko joined me a few moments later, I quickly realized that others may have also struggled with the swim and added a few extra meters to the 3800m distance. I got ready for the bike faster than in Frankfurt and had also decided to go for the quick mount with my shoes fastened to the frame of the bike with rubber bands (something I hadn’t tested with the borrowed bike but what could possible go wrong?).
BIKE 6.01 (29.6 kph; 1435m elevation; 147 avg power; 171 NP; 136 avg HR; IF 0,64; 1,16 VI)
The 90k bike course starts with 30k flat, followed by roughly 30k of uphill sections and ends with a quick descent, close to 30k flat and the infamous, short but steep Heartbreak Hill at the end of the lap.
Within the first 5 minutes I realized that the bike would be more painful than expected. I felt right away that my arms were in the wrong position, my elbows were aching and my shoulders were going numb. Great. I tried to focus on pedaling, not entirely trusting the power output I got from the borrowed Garmin Vector, which I had been using for less than a week, and which seemed to react more slowly than my Stages power crank.
Approx. 15min into the bike, a Finnish guy (Janne? I felt like every Finnish guy was called Janne) behind me kindly enough let me know that my wheel skewer was open, so I had to make a stop to fix it. I lost a few valuable moments, but quickly shook it off thinking that this fellow Finn may have saved me from a nasty crash. A few moments later another fellow Finn (also Janne) passed me and we went back and forth for a few moments, always falling back to appropriate non-drafting distance. When we approached one of the first hill sections, I saw a group building uphill and found myself too close to my fellow Finn. At the exact moment I hit my brakes to fall back, the referee motorcycle pulled up next to me, pulled out the blue penalty card and told me with a thick French accent that I had received a 5 minute penalty!
Now, I pride myself on being quite strict with the rules so I was really frustrated about the call, especially since a lot of groups were building up on the hill, but I seemed to be the only one to get a penalty. I knew that arguing wouldn’t help so I just thought to myself that the referee must be one of the guys that DQ’ed Sagan and did not DQ Bouhanni in this year’s Tour de France. Waiting in the penalty box, I saw friends riding by. There was not much to do, except to cheer on Hannu and Timo who were passing me, remain calm and get ready to continue.
After the penalty I quickly tried to find my rhythm again uphill. I overtook Jarkko who told me to stay calm when I let out my frustration over the penalty. Sound advice I thought, and tried to find my peace quickly before destroying myself in the hill sections.
The heat was definitely on at this point and I couldn’t be happier about every single aid station that offered fresh bottles of “Iso” and water. I also enjoyed the cheering from the Swiss crowds in my former hometown as I tried to remember the little “schwytzerdütsch” I had once known (Hopp zäme! Go zäme! Heja zäme!).
After I had made myself up the hills, another surprise awaited me. Jaakko had recommended to change the wheels on the bike as the Profile Design aero wheels are known for bad braking in wet conditions. Obviously I hadn’t changed the wheels assuming that in dry conditions it wouldn’t be a problem. Approaching the first corner during the “no aerobars allowed” descent, I almost rode off the road with the brakes screeching and squealing. I took the next ones more carefully weighing my options between improving my average speed and ending up in a Swiss hospital.
When I finally got to the final flat 30k I realized that the course had taken a toll despite riding below target watts (I was doing avg 150, NP 170 instead of 180/200). I tried to focus on the positive and the cheers of the crowds (especially the Finns around Heartbreak Hill) to get some energy for the second lap. After seeing my family near the city center I decided that I will do my very best to focus on the second lap and get to the run where I would be able to recover some of my losses.
The second lap felt like an eternity, an exact replica of the first round, only hotter and demanding. Never have I been this happy to get off the bike.
T2 3.55
I am off the bike! I don’t have to bike anymore! Oh and I have a volunteer helping me! Things are picking up!
RUN 4.59 (7.07min/km; 131 avg HR)
So obviously I went out too fast.
I think rule number 1 of racing in the heat is to adapt to the circumstances and take it easy. As I had ridden a weak bike (or a strong one given the circumstances, but it’s hard to think straight after 7 hours in blistering heat), I felt I had done enough adapting and started to hammer out 5.20ish min/km Ks at 30 degrees Celsius. I had 3.40h to make it under 11 hours to the finish line, which would have been a stretch under normal circumstances, but after 7 hours in the heat was pure madness. The first round went well and I felt committed to making up the awful bike.
The big wall came at around 12k. I walked through an aid station grabbing as many sponges as I could and drinking every cup of Iso and water. I had stopped taking gels for some time as I felt sick from all the saltstick, iso and loads of gels, which made me feel even worse. I jogged to the next aid station, drank everything and made a stop at the toilet. Same protocol was followed over and over again for hours.
Whenever I saw friends I cheered up and tried to run, but felt awful after few hundred meters. I have hit the wall previously, but the heat made so much worse. I didn’t feel like stopping, but I felt like I couldn’t run either. I decided that there is only one option left, play it safe and spend as much time as I needed. I wasn’t in the sub-10 or PB game anymore, all I wanted to do is get to the finish line. DNF was really not an option (after all, I had already bought the fancy Ironman Switzerland gear).
The third lap was the hardest. I wasn’t going to quit at any point, but I felt like my interest for finishing the race was slipping away from me.
Things started to pick up again around the Old Village, when I met my friend Juhani from TCF who was fighting it out to make it to the finish line before the cutoff at 2300. I walked, he walked faster. What a legend (he finished by the way too)!
I pulled myself together and started running again. At the lake (round 7k) I found a few more Scandis that had blown up, clearly disappointed. We nodded and kept together a pace that was not what we had expected, but kept us going.
I started the final lap walking. I wasn’t going to rush it. But suddenly everything changed for the better. 1k in I saw my wife and my daughter and my father waving at me. The heat had been too much for the baby so I had told my wife not to come see me in the evening, as there were no places at the event area to cool down. My parents had been stuck in Germany due to a food poisoning, so I had told them not to rush it either. I hugged my family and, after seeing their worried looks (4hrs into my marathon, 11hrs into my race), told them that I’m a-ok and just going to enjoy the evening. I told my wife that I will see them at the hotel and told my father to meet me at the finish line. Next to me, a guy who looked more of an athlete than I do, was lying in the street, almost passed out, crying that he won’t be able to continue. I started to realizie how brutal the day had been. It can be deceiving when the temperature is “only” 28 degrees, instead of 38 degrees.
So one last time, I pulled myself together and started running at the easiest pace that would keep me running. About an hour later I crossed the finish line in 12 hours and 15 minutes, with a solid 4.59 marathon.
I wasn’t really happy, but I wasn’t sad either. I felt like I had learned something new about the sport that I had grown to love. Once again, I am an Ironman!

FUTURE
As many of my friends and family already knew before the race, I won’t do an full distance Ironman next year. Therefore, I was hoping to go out with a bang, but instead ended but with hunger for more.
I can only say that IM Switzerland is a totally different animal than IM Frankfurt. I didn’t really feel comfortable on the borrowed by bike, was working my ass off but couldn’t produce any watts. Then there were the technical issues and a penalty. Combined with the heat and going out too fast on the run, I hit the wall pretty bad on the run. From there on it was either DNF or mostly walking (as did many tougher athletes than myself).
Having said that, I think the race really embodied the whole idea of Ironman. It will punch you in the face and things don’t always go your way, but you just have to roll with the punches and keep going. Important lesson in what in means to be a triathlete and looking forward to come back with a vengeance!
Thank you Ironman Game 2, getting ready to kick your ass in Game 3!
BONUS: LESSONS LEARNED
GEAR MATTERS Due to a broken frame I had to borrow a bike for the race. Although I spent hours adjusting the bike based on my bike fit measurements and two weeks adapting to the bike, it did not feel right. The heat played an important role, but I felt that had to work my ass off to produce watts, but nothing really happened. I might have ended up with a similar bike split on my own bike, but it was mentally frustrating not to feel one with the bike, especially as the descents were tricky and the wheels didn’t have the same braking power as my own ones. I am truly grateful that I was able to borrow a bike from a fellow triathlete which made the whole race possible, but I also learned the importance being comfortable with the gear your racing in (the reason I wear Nikes for half and full distance race, which still feel a lot more comfortable than the approved brand shoes such as Hoka Ones, Newtons and Pearl Izumis).
HEAT ADAPTATION This is a big one. You can do what you want in your preparation, but if you’re not able to train in the same extreme weather conditions as your A race, you are probably going to have a hard time. I spent the weeks before running in the (relative Finnish) heat and sweating it out in the sauna, but Finnish summer does not make you any favours when you’re training for a 100% heat race.
STICK TO YOUR FUELLING PLAN Eat the gels. Whatever happens, eat the gels.
BRING YOUR OWN TOWEL Last year, after crossing the finish line at IM Frankfurt I told the catcher that a shower would be nice and minutes later I had a fresh M Dot towel in my hand. Therefore I didn’t expect that I would need one in Zürich. Getting out of the Athletes Garden to queue for a towel and then get back into the Athletes Garden to queue for the shower is not the way you want to spend your time after crossing the finish line.
IRONMAN IS ABOUT RESILIENCE Finally, don’t give in after additional meters in the swim, a penalty on the bike or a bad split between aid stations in the run. Anything can happen to anyone during a race as long as an Ironman. Afterwards I realize that I had a stronger swim than many others, a decent bike split given the circumstances and a strong start in the run. What really lead to hitting the wall was insecurity about how far I had been left behind. The race was tough for everybody and I respect everybody who fought it out on such a hot day on such a brutal course. Without the amazing crowd I couldn’t have done half of it. But I gave up mentally when I started to race against each other rather than myself.
So as final note, whenever you are doing an Ironman, or any triathlon, race against yourself at your best, given the circumstances. And remember to enjoy the day!