31.05.2019 Views

The Red Bulletin June 2019

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Daniela Ryf<br />

In 2018, Ryf won<br />

her fourth Ironman<br />

World Championship<br />

in Hawaii in a row –<br />

and set a new course<br />

record in the process<br />

triathlete, and now she was in the World<br />

Championship. Ryf demonstrated her<br />

superiority on the bike to the full – eightand-a-half<br />

hours in, she was way out in<br />

front, about to take the title – but 5km<br />

from the finish, the fire inside went out.<br />

Australia’s Mirinda Carfrae had made up<br />

the 10 minutes between them. She closed<br />

in on Ryf, overtook and set a pace that the<br />

Swiss athlete couldn’t keep up with.<br />

“After the race, I might well have been<br />

proud to have given it my best,” Ryf says.<br />

“But when I crossed the finish line, I was<br />

already thinking about the next year. After<br />

all, I now knew how close I’d come to<br />

victory.” Since then, she has woken every<br />

morning with the same thought, playing<br />

and replaying the moment Carfrae closed<br />

in, then passed her at an irresistible pace.<br />

Ryf promptly started the following season<br />

with a string of wins. “<strong>The</strong> fact I couldn’t<br />

keep pace with Mirinda still motivates me<br />

“I IMAGINE<br />

THROWING OFF<br />

DEAD WEIGHT”<br />

in every training session,” she says, even<br />

though younger athletes are now more of<br />

a threat than Carfrae. “If I imagine Mirinda<br />

drawing up beside me, I immediately<br />

pedal harder or run 1kph faster.” Ryf has<br />

transformed a defeat into the perfect<br />

mental stimulation to give purpose to her<br />

exertions, and it’s been the basis for dozens<br />

of subsequent victories. A pretty good deal.<br />

Bad luck mobilises<br />

your energy reserves<br />

October 13, 2018, Ironman Hawaii<br />

As she prepared for the start of the year’s<br />

most important race, the defending<br />

champion felt unbeatable. Ryf was in<br />

fantastic form and had done all of her<br />

homework. But with just two minutes<br />

to go before the swim began, a jellyfish<br />

stung the underside of both her upper<br />

arms. <strong>The</strong> pain shot through her entire<br />

body, right to the tips of her fingers. <strong>The</strong><br />

previous year, a competitor was forced to<br />

retire from the race for the same reason<br />

and was rushed straight to hospital. Ryf<br />

didn’t let anything show and set off into<br />

the maelstrom with the others.<br />

But the pain soon grew worse and she<br />

began falling metre upon metre further<br />

behind. <strong>The</strong>n her arms went numb and<br />

she began to doubt whether she would<br />

be able to complete the 3.86km swim.<br />

Ryf had already given up hope of a finish<br />

near the top of the leaderboard, but she<br />

was determined to carry on out of respect<br />

for the race itself. She now thought of<br />

finishing the race in 14, maybe 15 hours,<br />

way down in last place. But when she<br />

climbed onto her bike, Ryf realised she<br />

was only 10 minutes off the pace. Maybe<br />

this wasn’t over after all.<br />

“In the water, I went through all the<br />

emotions you can imagine,” she says.<br />

“But once I was on the bike, I could think<br />

clearly again.” Ryf decided to ascribe<br />

new meaning to the jellyfish sting: “I<br />

imagined how an extra dash of anger and<br />

additional energy had entered my body<br />

with the pain, and that I’d only be able to<br />

get both out of my body the harder and<br />

more relentlessly I pedalled.” She rode<br />

faster than she’d ever ridden in her life.<br />

Ryf picked off her rivals one by one,<br />

and by the time she started the run, she’d<br />

notched up the fastest-ever bike ride by<br />

a female athlete at Kona. She finished the<br />

race in 8:26:18, which made her not only<br />

world champion but the holder of a new<br />

course record. In doing so, Ryf proved that<br />

our inner transformer can turn negative<br />

energy into something productive. Pain<br />

can give you extra power.<br />

danielaryf.ch<br />

40 THE RED BULLETIN

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!