"My biggest challenge was myself"

Tell us your story - Rasmus Kristiansen did promise himself never to run a marathon again or anything more crazy than that, but that was a promise he couldn't keep. He started from scratch - and this year he is one of the trainers on the Fitnessdk team. He took the challenge and succeeded and this year he returned to challenge himself once again - this time borh in KMD Challenge Aarhus and in KMD Challenge Copenhagen.

The basics

Rasmus Kristiansen form Islands Brygge in Copenhagen, working in Nordea.

Why have you given yourself the challenge of doing a full iron-distance triathlon?

When I ran over the finish line in Berlin in 2009, after having completed my first marathon, I decided never to do such a thing again. But…. only a month had to go before I made my biggest decision in life until now. I was attending a presentation for a project in Fitnessdk, where they wanted to give “normal” people the challenge to do an Ironman.

I knew I couldn’t swim more than 200m crawl, I knew I easily could bike 180km, but never run a marathon after that. With this in mind it took me one week to convince my girlfriend that it was a good idea. And maybe also to convince myself that it was such a good idea.

I signed for the project before middle of Oct. 2009. We were about 150 people who took the challenge to train for Challenge Copenhagen 2010 and we were 125 who completed (all starters completed).

Why are you doing KMD Challenge Copenhagen?

My biggest challenge was myself and my eager to do the best. I had made this deal with myself that this project would change my way of living that it would change my life for life. When I decide to do something, I want to do my best with all that it takes.

It started the first of November with hard training in the pool and besides that a lot of spinning and running. Then we came to march I was able to swim 1km without stopping, but there was still a long way to go before my swimming goal was fulfilled. In March I was at Playitas with about 30 others from the group and we did a lot of training and compared us against each others.

My feeling was good, I did okay in the pool, was fast on the bike and an okay runner. I had planned a meeting with a dietician when I was back from the camp, my goal was to loose 10 kg fastest possible. I succeeded by loosing almost 12 kg in 10 weeks. When the bike season started I took a lot of responsibility for the team and a lot of times I was in front of the training. It was a great feeling that we were this big group and we learned a lot some each others doing the training and all that covers triathlon. Before Challenge Copenhagen I did two half Ironman in Jutland and in Sweden. It was great to train the transitions and discover how the body reacts on great exhaustion.

Then I woke up at 4 am. Sunday morning the 15. Of August 2010 I was ready, ready to do my best and ready to have the greatest day of my life. My family was supporting me all the way and only a flat tire was the only bad thing that day. As the whole team were in the same cloth we could support each other on the running course and it made the marathon not quite that hard. I did my best, finished in 10:29:46 and it was the greatest day of my life.

Tell us your greates experience in sports

My biggest experience was to be able to change myself from who I was in late 2009 and to the person that crossed the finish line in August 2010. But the way doesn’t stop there…
Now I am in the middle of a new season and I am once again training for Challenge Copenhagen. This time going for sub 10! On the way I want to do my best in Challenge Aarhus, maybe about 4:30:00. I am using my experience to train the new group that this year counts more than 350 people.

What motivates you?

My motivation is driven by the power of changing people and being able to do something that others think is impossible.

This is my story for now…