If you were at the finish line of this year’s Ironman World Championship to see Patrick Lange take his third title, you’ll know just how much that finish meant to the 38-year-old German. It had been six years since he last took the title, the longest gap any champion has ever had between titles, but that was just one of the reasons Lange was on top of the world with his win that saw him shatter the course record with his 7:35:53 finish.
Mentally prepared
Lange struggled at his last Ironman race in Frankfurt and was open at the press conference after the race as to what happened.
“I had a panic attack before the start in Frankfurt,” Lange said. That experience forced him to make some dramatic changes in terms of his attitude coming into Kona.
“I was determined to go into this race mentally well prepared,” Lange said. “I was more relaxed and made sure not to put too much pressure on myself.”
That attitude was obvious all week long, and especially so at the pre-race press conference, where Lange stole the show in many ways, even asking his own questions of pre-race favourite Kristian Blummenfelt.
That relaxed demeanour and confidence remained on race day. Despite being in agony after being stung by a jelly fish just before the start (in desperation Lange swam over to the media boat and asked us if we had any vinegar to put on the stings!), Lange regained his focus.
After a huge swim that saw him come fourth out of the water (Lange switched swim coaches at the beginning of the year to try and work on that leg of the race), Lange found himself in a good position early on in the bike. He rode aggressively to stay at the front of the chase group through the early part of the ride through town with lots of corners. Then, as the group hit the Queen K, while Magnus Ditlev and Kristian Blummenfelt pushed in the early stages of the bike to try and catch up to Sam Laidlow, Lange never panicked about the Frenchman’s big lead off the front. Lange was riding so confidently he even dropped back from the pack to avoid all the surges and breaking, then worked his way back to the mix just before T2.
Dedicated to his mother
Lange worked his way through the field quickly on the run – after finishing the bike in 13th, he was in second place before the 6 km point of the run. Around that time things got emotional, too, as he started to have thoughts about his mother.
“About 5 km it really struck me – I got goosebumps all over my body – the moment I really felt her,” Lange said. “She died in 2020 of cancer. It gave me so much more energy, because then I had a bigger ‘why.’ It was so much easier to deal with the pain, going through all the emotions. All the positive emotions I had with her. It was good to have her with me.”
Lange rode that energy through the marathon, dominating the run as he took his third Kona title. After six years he’d finally overcome all the pressure and challenges to claim another title.
“It’s hard to describe,” Lange said. “It feels amazing. I came second in Nice and the response was quite low. Kona is so much more valued. Winning her for the third time puts me among some really great athletes and I think it’s great to leave that legacy.”
Lange now finds himself on top of the Ironman Pro Series as well. He won’t head to race in Busselton at the end of the season to hunt more points – he and Mark Allen sat down after the race and looked at the standings and figure he will likely take the series without having to race again.
And lest any of his fans are worried he’ll call it a career after this big win, Lange is quite adamant that won’t be happening.
“I’m sticking around for a little bit longer, don’t you worry,” he said.
The post Patrick Lange’s mental journey to a third Kona title appeared first on Triathlon Magazine Canada.