To say the emotions were flowing for Kieran Lindars after he claimed a superb second place at IRONMAN Frankfurt on Sunday would be a massive understatement.
The Brit was welling up long before he crossed the finish line just under five minutes behind the astonishing Kristian Blummenfelt in what was a career-defining display.
Lindars won Challenge Almere in 2022 and was runner-up there last season but only after a desperate – and horrible to watch – late wobble on the run after he started to overheat.
But since then it’s been a struggle – with his only top-15 finish this season a fifth place at Challenge Wales.
Doing it for the volunteers
IRONMAN Frankfurt’s start list was a completely different level but Lindars excelled and held firm on the run, so no wonder he was so thrilled afterwards when interviewed by Paul Kaye on the live broadcast.
He explained: “I’ve had a really tough year. I had a really rocky finish in a race last year, and I’ve been in really bad health.
I didn’t know whether or not I could do it again.
“My whole team is made up of volunteers and local clubs – they go out there every day when it’s raining and I just wanted to show them I could do it.
“I mean every race I’ve gone to this year, I’ve been just smashed. But I think I’ve got something for the Ironman, it’s my distance. I’ve always had good performances in it. And I went away from the last race and I just thought, you know, I really need to step away, just take some time, really work out what I need to do.
“I said to the team around me, like, I just need a little bit of something.
Rain proves a godsend
“And I saw the rain today and I was like, you know, I don’t get the luxury of training in all these fantastic places. I’ve been rained on all year. And I thought, right, this is mine.”
Ironically the rain actually made one aspect trickier for him – though in turn that meant he raced on feel.
He explained: “I kind of found myself in a [good] place on the bike and thought this is a group to stick with.
“And then the run all my computers and everything, nothing worked because it was so wet. But I saw Kristian and I was like, well, realistically, I should lose a few minutes to him. So for the first half, I was like, well, I can still see him, I must be running okay.
“This is just to say thank you to all my team and everyone behind me. You know, they stayed with me when I didn’t think I could do it.
“They gave me everything. You know, they’re all volunteers. They do it for free. I just wanted to show them that it’s worth it for me and everyone else that are part of the clubs.”
It was a magnificent display, rounded off with a 2:37:05 marathon, and one which will surely transform Lindars’ fortunes – it also gives him the option of going to Kona for the IRONMAN World Championship.
And as he could barely clamber onto the podium shortly afterwards, it couldn’t have been clearer that he’d left everything out there.
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