September 2025 Week 2-3: Ironman Erkner Berlin, Germany
Finally completed Ironman 70.3 in Erkner, Berlin Brandenburg.
Fly from SG to Frankfurt then drove 6 hours to Erkner at night. Reason is because I am carrying bike luggage so safer to take SQ direct to Germany. Unfortunately no direct flight to Berlin. So safer to driver to Erkner directly. Next time must choose somewhere with a shorter drive. Fuel is expensive here. Love the Autobahn (expressway with no speed limit). Was driving 150km/h with the Volvo XC60 but still got easily overtaken by 200-250 km/h cars. Road is very well maintained and drivers got alot of road sense. So really good drive.
Overall Ironman experience: Awesome. Air quality is so good in Erkner, I dont have to pick my nose at all! But there is no race tour, so especially for the swim part if you got no experience can be quite scary. Love it that they print race bibs on demand. Something that I aspired to do but failed sometime back.
Swim: the part on getting kicked is real. I got kicked in the face and scratched by a lady swimmer’s toe nails. Arena storm wetsuit is amazing! I think that helped me secure a good swim timing.
Bike: Rainy day so freezing after the swim and very dirty. But I am surprised I managed to get a very good improvement in my bike timing (almost 30km/h).
Run: Did not so well. But just glad I managed to complete. Was cramping quite a bit especially at finish line, cannnot even speed up.
I think I love Germany! Very efficient, clean and I think pretty safe.
Also toured Berlin and Frankfurt before heading back to Sunny SG!
