It was an attempt and the attempt succeeded. Two weeks after St. George, Katharina Grölz started again for the REA Card Triathlon Team of TuS Griesheim and won the middle distance in the age group 40. Katharina Grölz came out of the water in third place after 1.9 km, ahead of Elisa Razzi from Italy and Anna Kaisa Pietilainen from Finland. Elisa Razzi set the best time in the swim, 32:18, which was enough for her for the 1.9km. Katharina came out of the water after a good 37:13. Already after about 40 km on the bike Katharina took the lead. “The cycling was then a very lonely thing. I never had the whole road to myself and was the first age grouper to enter the transition area,” said Katharina Grölz. On the 90km bike course Katharina Grölz set the best time in her group with 2:29:14. The run, according to Katharina, “felt rather mediocre, grass and uneven ground are just not my thing – pure stumbling around. I am all the happier that I was able to keep the lead in the overall classification and that my increasingly tired legs brought me to the finish line”. After the 21km half marathon, which Katharina Grölz completed in 1:36:31, she crossed the finish line first in the age group 40 after 4:59:45. Second place went to Anna Kaisa Pietilainen from Finland, 4:50:53 and 5:04:06 were enough for Kaisa Kaczkowska from Poland for third place. Best time of the day in the run was set by Mata Rayss with 1:32:59. Rochelle Youngson from New Zealand set the final time for the day, which was 6:26:35. The women’s AK40 started directly in the start wave after the pros. “This was a very special start for me”, said Katharina Grölz. Now it’s time to recharge my batteries, recover and work on my weaknesses. The next big goal is the IRONMAN World Championship in October. There will probably also be a few “smaller” intermediate goals. We are keeping our fingers crossed for Katharina Grölz.
