A Torturous Nine Hours
By Christopher Benz, SAP
On Big Island, Hawaii, the temperature can climb to 40°C in mid-October. For many, that’s the sign to lie back and relax in this Pacific vacation paradise and maybe sip on a cocktail or two. Christian Müller definitely doesn’t belong to this category.
“How far can you go?” is the question that powers Christian forward, day in day out, as he swims length after length in the pool, burns up endless miles on his bicycle, and uses his lunch break for a demanding training run. It’s all about getting better and better, challenging himself to go further, and finding out what enormous feats the human body and mind are capable of.
The Hawaii Ironman is considered to be the world’s toughest and most prestigious one-day endurance event. A 2.4-mile swim is followed by a 112-mile bike ride, and a footrace of 26 miles. “By the time you get to the marathon stage, you’re always vowing never to do it again,” is how Christian sums up the athletes’ physical and mental state in the last part of the race. The muscle ache that inevitably follows every Ironman event usually takes a whole week to wear off. During this time, says wiry athlete Christian with a wink, “I’m more than happy to be able to just sit quietly in my office.”
Off to Hawaii again in October
Christian has crossed the finish line on Alii Drive as fastest amateur twice, in 2009 and 2012. Last October, he finished ahead of more than half of the professional competing athletes and placed 24th overall – a result that is at least as impressive as winning his second Ironman World Championship amateur title. To crown this amazing achievement, he also clocked his first ever sub-nine hour time in Hawaii (8:54:17) and finished a mere 30 minutes behind the overall winner, Australia’s Pete Jacobs. His personal best time of 8:39:55 was set at the Frankfurt Ironman in 2010.
Christian, who lives in Pfinztal, near Karlsruhe, Germany, has competed in the Hawaii Ironman five times in the last seven years. This year, he is planning his sixth and final race. He’d like to end his Hawaiian Ironman career by crossing the finish line on another high note.
Christian didn’t start competing in triathlons until he was 31, a fact that makes his success in this event all the more remarkable. He took part in his first-ever race over the Olympic distance in 2004, near the Schluchsee reservoir lake in Germany’s Black Forest. “I did a lot of sport when I was younger,” he explains, “but it wasn’t until I’d been working for a few years that I decided to focus on the triathlon.”
At SAP in Walldorf, Christian is jointly responsible for developing the German HR Payroll software. His colleagues include a number of top-class runners, swimmers, and triathletes with whom he trains on a regular basis. He meets up with members of the SAP swimming group, “SAP-Wave”, at the indoor pool in Walldorf three mornings a week to get some training in before work and fits in most of his running training at lunch time or after office hours. “SAP offers great facilities for helping me make efficient use of my training periods,” says Christian.
6.2 miles of swimming, 37.2 miles of running, and 186 miles of cycling make up an average weekly training schedule for Christian. “I have to plan between 20 and 25 hours for my training, but it’s a great way of switching off and leaving the office behind,” he says. When you’re asking so much of your body and mind, it’s obviously vital to follow a healthy diet. “I try very hard to watch what I eat,” says Christian, ever the professional, but admits to succumbing to the temptations of the occasional portion of curry sausage and chips in the SAP cafeteria.
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