The Red Bulletin June 2019

Daniela Ryf
“YOUR POSITION AT
THE SPLIT TIME
DOESN’T MATTER.
YOU’VE GOT TO
CROSS THE FINISH
LINE FIRST”
Ryf says she’d rather be the
hunter than the hunted
stages of recovery. When she could turn
her head a centimetre more than the
week before, she celebrated.
On the eve of the year’s first Ironman,
it was still unclear whether Ryf would
be able to complete the swim at all;
she was still receiving treatment from
a chiropractor shortly before the event
got underway. But still she threw herself
into it, completing the swim, giving
everything on the bike and eventually
winning the race. A happy ending, then?
No. This was just the salutary opening
gambit of a powerful, secret mental
weapon. Anything that slows you down
is a dead weight that you can throw off
next time.
“I’ve started every race since South
Africa with less weight on my shoulders,”
explains Ryf. “I think of the extent to
which that injury put limitations on me
and yet it couldn’t stop me winning. And
then I’m happy that there’s absolutely
nothing putting limitations on me right
now. I imagine myself throwing off the
dead weight from back then, and I think
of how I can do even better now. That
thought is like an extra ace up my sleeve.”
Mistakes bring
wisdom
July 3, 2016, Ironman European
Championship, Frankfurt
This was an important race for Ryf. She
wanted to win it, as she had done the year
before, both to assert her position and to
gain greater confidence for the next race.
She was also aiming to qualify for the
season highlight in Kona, Hawaii.
But there were already signs of things
not going to plan during the swim. It was
a cool day, the water wasn’t warm, and
Ryf couldn’t get into her rhythm. She
placed all her hopes on her specialist
field – the cycling – but her problems just
seemed to get bigger. Travelling at speeds
of 40kph with a cold wind to contend
with, Ryf’s skinny frame – she’s 1.75m
tall and weighed 57kg – cooled down
ever further, then went on strike. Her
pedalling had no more power and she was
dropping down through the field. For the
first time in her life, she ended up retiring,
bitterly disappointed and humiliated.
“That was an abject day for me,” Ryf
says. “But I learnt a lot.” She took away
two valuable lessons from Frankfurt. The
first: “I’d always thought I could achieve
whatever I wanted as long as I trained
hard enough and got the most out of my
body. But I also have to pay attention to
the small details of what my body needs
to be able to work perfectly.” In this case,
it might have been enough to put on an
extra layer of clothing when she got on the
bike, maybe just a pair of arm-warmers.
The second lesson? “It doesn’t matter how
good I am when I’m good, it matters how
good I am when I’m bad. Ever since that
day, I’ve known I’m only really seriously
prepared when I can win a race on a bad
day.” The most important realisation was
that while mistakes may drive you mad,
it’s better to learn from them.
Defeat focuses
your senses
October 11, 2014, Ironman Hawaii
A month after winning the Ironman 70.3
World Championship in Canada, Ryf
lined up at the start in Kona for her first
Iron Man Hawaii. She’d already had an
extremely successful season, winning
more World Triathlon Corporation (WTC)
prize money than any other female
38 THE RED BULLETIN