{"id":44442,"date":"2025-09-19T10:09:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T02:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/?p=44442"},"modified":"2025-10-01T09:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T01:56:07","slug":"september-2025-week-2-3-ironman-erkner-berlin-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/?p=44442","title":{"rendered":"September 2025 Week 2-3: Ironman Erkner Berlin, Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finally completed Ironman 70.3 in Erkner, Berlin Brandenburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/a>overtaken by 200-250 km\/h cars. Road is very well maintained and drivers got alot of road sense. So really good drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swim: the part on getting kicked is real. I got kicked in the face and scratched by a lady swimmer\u2019s toe nails. Arena storm wetsuit is amazing! I think that helped me secure a good swim timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think I love Germany! Very efficient, clean and I think pretty safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also toured Berlin and Frankfurt before heading back to Sunny SG!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"I<\/a>
I think this is the nearest I would get to a war zone…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"First<\/a>
First meal after reaching Germany Frankfurt!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"fuel<\/a>
fuel is expensive!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Need<\/a>
Need to pay 1 Euro to use toilet at the petrol station!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Like<\/a>
Like the Volvo XC60 but really lousy connection with Carplay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a>
The little cabin for stay in Erkner!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a>
The little cabin for stay in Erkner!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Reached<\/a>
Reached Erkner at 1am Germany time (GMT +2)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Breakfast<\/a>
Breakfast while seeing other sprint participants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a>
The little house…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Erkner<\/a>
Erkner Ironman in progress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Checking<\/a>
Checking out the neighbourhood! Netto is a supermarket! (Prefer ALDI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lots<\/a>
Lots of meat and sausages!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Grafitti<\/a>
Grafitti everywhere!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Secured<\/a>
Secured vending machine!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pork<\/a>
Pork Knuckles!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Milk<\/a>
Milk for breakfast!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"REPC<\/a>
REPC long queue!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Real<\/a>
Real time bib printing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"My<\/a>
My first ironman in Europe!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Found<\/a>
Found my name!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Race<\/a>
Race pack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Can<\/a>
Can park beside the bike check in queue and assemble bike!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bike<\/a>
Bike checked in!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mylaps<\/a>
Mylaps is used!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Breakfast<\/a>
Breakfast before race!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pic<\/a>
Pic before start in case I DNF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Swim<\/a>
Swim done! yay!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bike\"<\/a>
Bike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Semi<\/a>
Semi Aero!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Finished!\"<\/a>
Finished!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Done<\/a>
Done the Ironman 70.3 Erkner 2025!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"MEdal!\"<\/a>
Medal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Results1\"<\/a>
Results1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Got<\/a>
Got kicked and scratched by a fellow (female) participant by her toenail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4,10,18,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-renzhi-huang","4":"post-44442","6":"format-standard","7":"category-999k","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-europe","10":"category-ironman","11":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44442"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44530,"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44442\/revisions\/44530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huangrenzhi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}