That Steadfast Champion: Reinhold Humbold

Fran Arfaras profiles 2007 Men's 55-59 Age Group Winner Reinhold Humbold of Bavaria, Germany

An interesting phenomenon has taken place with those 55-59 age groupers during the last 10 years of Ironman.

Esko Stromsholm (age 55) set the record time of 10:44:04 in 1997. That record held until
Rolf Masius (age 55) set the record time of 10:22:08 in 2003. That record didn’t hold long as
Yves Tabarant (age 55) set the record time of 9:53:14 in 2004. That record fell when an older Reinhold Humbold (age 57) set the record time of 9:47:29 in 2005 that stands today.

In 2007, Humbold was unaware he was well ahead of the other men in his age group, so he had no idea during the race that he would finish first. It was his run split of 3:28 that gave him a good feeling about winning this age group three years in a row, and his winning time of 10:05:34, just shy of his goal to finish under 10 hours, proved to be the number to make it happen.

Someone else has a chance to break his record this year as Humbold has aged up to the 60-64 age group. Now he’s eyeing that record time of 10:40:49 set by Takahisa Mitsumori in 2005.

Since last year, Humbold is General Manager of a Logistic and Transport Company. This new position required him to put in 50 to 60 hours of hard work per week. As a result, he had a three-month training break after last year’s race that he feels cost him wins in the two early 2008 races he competed in. He finished third in the 2008 Freudentstadt ITU Winter Triathlon World Championship and second in the German Duathlon Mastership.

Humbold’s usual 15-hour training week includes:
Four days a week:
• 07:00 in the morning he bikes to work (25km)
• Lunch time he runs 10km
• 19:00 he bikes home (25-40km)

Then July through September he will make longer training distances on the weekend. He will bike in longer training-units of 180 to 200km and once a week will get in a two-hour run.

Later this month, Humbold will compete in the Duathlon Championship in Rimini, Italy where he hopes to pick up his ninth championship title. Then hopefully number 10 could follow in Kona 2008.

Humbold has done his math and “Anything Is Possible” means to him: if he swims 1:05, bikes 5:15 and runs 3:30 with nine minutes in transition, his projected “dream finish time” of 9:59 in 2008, would be well below the record. Judging by his times in 2006 and 2007 (10:05) this could certainly be doable, and even a repeat 10:05 would give him the record.

Our Amazing Age-Group Winners are the backbone of the Ironman race and bring excitement and incredible stories of courage and determination with them. Stay with us throughout the year as Ironman.com’s Fran Arfaras introduces them to you. You can reach her at fran@ironman.com