“Sport has been my favorite pastime and passion from a young age. I played soccer for Grasshoppers and later played for the college team in the USA. I also play tennis, squash and golf. However, where I never saw much point was in running and endurance sports. My motto was, I’ll run, but there has to be at least one ball involved! Nevertheless, the thought of being able to say “I’ve run a marathon” at some point in my life appealed to me. There are different approaches…
I’m more the type of person who decides first and then looks for a path; there’s no giving up! Others look for the route first and inspect every section of it before deciding on the destination. This way of thinking led me to sign up for a marathon in January a few years ago in October, but I hadn’t run a single kilometre yet. And so the pressure came on, now it’s serious, if I don’t train, I won’t make it; and from the pressure and the will to prove something to myself, I started to train. What I didn’t know was that this was the beginning of my whole new passion, my new lifestyle and my new way of living and thinking. The marathon was followed by the triathlon, then the half-Ironman and then, finally, The Ironman! That’s how I came to Roy Hinnen at the end of 2012.
I had already completed a few marathons and had also finished the Ironman Zurich quite well, but now I wanted more! Roy understood my needs extremely well and as I am a self-employed entrepreneur, a meticulous training plan is not the solution. With my rhythm, I could never follow a plan for weeks on end, so we had to play a lot with flexibility on both sides, which Roy is very good at. We often had to make drastic changes to the plan and organize the training sessions very efficiently and creatively. Roy also knew incredibly well when to push me and when to slow me down, because over-training can be just as fatal! This worked very well as I achieved all my goals for 2013 in relatively little time!
At the end of a successful 2013 season, I can only say: Thank you! I was able to have many unforgettable experiences, including Ironman 70.3 Rapperswil, Ironman Nice and the Berlin Marathon! However, this is only the first year for me, where it was all about gaining experience… Because my big goal is and remains to qualify for the Ironman Hawaii! This is a 3-5 year goal, but thanks to Roy’s support, expertise and help, I am taking a small step closer to this dream every day… Lava-Island here I come!”
