Anne Haug entered the 2018 Ironman World Championship in Kona as a bit of an unknown in the long-course scene. How would she fare against the world’s best on the biggest stage in triathlon on the Big Island? A dominant force in short-course racing, she successfully transitioned to middle-distance racing after the Rio Olympics, quickly proving her talent with three wins and two runner-up finishes in just five races. Using excerpts from interviews and my in-depth conversation with her, she shares her perspective on the highs and lows of her 2018 season, including her full-distance debut in Frankfurt and a podium finish at the 70.3 World Championship. Finally, we break down her Kona 2018 race, analyzing her performance on the Big Island and what it revealed about her future potential.

Short-Course

Anne Haug, born in 1983, was always a sporty kid: “My father was a sports teacher, we always used the bikes more than the car. I learned to ride when I was three, so I was used to riding the bike, that was my way to get everywhere. I’ve tried every kind of sport: When I was five, I started to play tennis, also badminton, volleyball, basketball, judo, soccer, synchronized swimming, modern pentathlon, everything. In the winter I skied a lot.”

Anne was already at University when she started triathlon. “When I was nineteen years old, I wanted to do a triathlon. I couldn’t swim, so I watched YouTube videos, then went to the pool and tried to get my swim right. When I was able to swim 1.500 m in a row after three or four months, I signed up for my first triathlon.” A fellow sports science student, her current coach Dan Lorang, gave her some coaching tips. “Dan said you are a good cyclist and you look like you may have some potential. So I will write a training plan for you.” She hadn’t been swimming as a kid (“I was allergic to the chlorine”), so her first wins were in winter triathlon (run, mountain bike and Nordic skiing) and duathlon (bike, run), winning the German Duathlon Championship in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, just two years after starting to work with Dan, she won the big traditional German season opener in Buschhütten (of course with the fastest run split) and raced her first World Cup in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary. 

Photo: Anne at a bike turnaround on the way to win Buschhütten 2009 (Credit: Ingo Kutsche)

After finishing her university degree, Anne became a full-time professional triathlete at the age of 27 years and quickly established herself as one of the highest-potential German female short-course triathletes. “When I started ITU my swim was just not there, and I always ended up being the last one out, behind the last pack. So 2010 was quite frustrating because I never made the pack, but I always believed there is more in me. If I just improved my swim a bit, then maybe I can do very well.”

At the start of 2011, she decided to take responsibility for her improvement and joined the international training group of Australian coach Darren Smith. “I had a look into where’s the best training squad in the world and who is the coach. Darren Smith had the perfect training squad and the best girls in the world. I was a bit too chicken to ask him because I thought I’m very bad so why should he ever consider taking me in his squad. But then I had a Skype conference with him and two weeks later I was in his training squad in Australia.” Training with great swimmers like Lisa Norden and Sarah True (then still racing under her maiden name Groff) wasn’t intimidating to her: “I knew I was a bad swimmer, so everyone is better than me. It was my biggest motivation ever. To train with the very best in the sport, you see every day how much you have to improve to be on top of the game, and I improved a lot.” Under Darren’s guidance she qualified for the 2012 Olympics in London, finishing eleventh. (Her teammate Lisa Norden took the silver medal in a thrilling photo finish to Nicola Spirig.) After the London Games Anne won the ITU Grand Final in Auckland, New Zealand, and finished the 2012 World Triathlon Series in second place. The following year she was third in the overall series and won the Mixed Relay World Championship (with Anja Knapp, Jan Frodeno, and Franz Loeschke) in Hamburg, a venue she still considers her favorite.

At the end of the 2013 season, she ended her work with Darren Smith and moved back to Germany to train at the Olympic Training Center in Saarbrücken. After a second place in the 2014 season opener in Auckland she crashed on the bike in the London race, breaking her already aggravated hip and was injured for most of the 2014 season. In 2015 she was conservative coming back, laying the groundwork for her second Olympic Games. She was dreaming of an Olympic Medal, but in the Olympic race in Rio she lost too much time in the swim and was the only one working to make up time to the front group – in the end she lost more than six minutes and finished a very disappointed 36th.

To try something new, Anne decided to race the Frankfurt Marathon in October 2016. “I was pretty disappointed after the Rio games. It didn’t go the way I planned, so I wanted to do something where nobody has any expectations on myself. My coach Dan said, ‘Run a marathon: You haven’t done one before so no one can expect anything from you and you shouldn’t either.'” Though she barely had six weeks of focused marathon training (“only one week with more than 100k”), she was able to finish in 2:36:13. “It was a fun race, and I took third at the German champs.”

“ITU racing had changed a lot, all the good swimmers from America came in and the swim got harder. And the bike was not so challenging anymore – no more Auckland; now it’s definitely impossible to have a bad swim and still end up on the podium. So I didn’t really have the belief anymore that I could make it. When I had another stress fracture, I took that as a sign that I needed something new. When I was able to start training again in the summer of 2017, I was looking for a new challenge, something new for the mind.” She decided to give the longer distances a go and was adjusting to the changing demands. “The change from ITU racing to 70.3 in terms of the bike leg, it was terrible for me. I had to work so hard on the time trial position and to get used to my TT bike, and it wasn’t working at all in the beginning.” Nonetheless, she won her maiden race on the 70.3 distance in September 2017, beating Lucy Charles in Lanzarote. “I was happy that Lanzarote was quite hilly, so I didn’t have to stay all the time in my aero position. I didn’t know what to expect, so I didn’t care what the watts said, didn’t care for heart rate or anything, just race and figure out if it’s something you like or not. In addition to winning I definitely liked the format. It’s still close to ITU; you can still run pretty fast and that’s something I really like.”

Anne ended her first, short season on the longer distances with a second place at 70.3 Bahrain – behind 2016 70.3 World Champion Holly Lawrence but in front of 2017 Kona and 70.3 World Champion Daniela Ryf. After a promising start in longer races, she planned to chase bigger goals in the 2018 season.

Anne’s 2018 Season

Anne built her 2018 season with a focus on 70.3 World Championships in September. “70.3 is a distance that I’ve been doing for a year now, and I want to focus on it and be really good.” But before that fall race, she also planned to race her first full-distance race at Ironman Germany in Frankfurt in the summer. “Kona is a dream, but it needs time. My main goal is to race 70.3 Worlds and medal there. If I can get a slot in Frankfurt then I’ll accept it and use the race in Hawaii to gain experience.”

Ironman Debut in Frankfurt

After racing three half-distance races at the start of the season (two wins, one second place), Anne was getting ready for her first full-distance race, Ironman Frankfurt, on July 8th. “It’s my first Ironman, so anything can happen. I want to have a good race for myself but I can’t predict what’s going to happen. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I just want to keep an open mind, be curious and go out and do it. 

“The best of the world are on the start line, that’s why I’m here as well. You don’t often get a chance to race the very best, especially in an Ironman where you don’t want to race all that often. I want to see how I compare to the best, even if it’s my first. Then you’ll know what you need to work on and how far away they are. It’s great to have the chance to race against all the good athletes.”

Photo: Anne giving an interview to German television before Ironman Frankfurt 2018 (Credit: Ingo Kutsche)

What’s different in training to short distance? “The biggest change was the new bike, to time trial over a long distance. Of course the overall volume increased a bit, especially on the bike. There was a bit of a shift, I’m not swimming quite as much and ride the bike more, the running volume has stayed the same. Of course the sessions are a bit slower and longer and the top VO2max intensities have been replaced by longer threshold intervals. 

“I really struggle with the long bike rides. I love to go out for two hours and do strength training on the hills or really hard efforts. Come back home and you feel ‘I’m so tired’ but ‘good tired’. And now you come from a five-hour bike ride and think, yeah, I don’t know if I have done much but I feel terrible. On the run, I always go way too hard. I think that if it’s race pace, then it has to hurt, you must have this lactic acid feeling in your muscles. That’s maybe the reason my body doesn’t adapt in the way it should be because I still have a Ferrari engine that should be a little bit more like a diesel engine. Maybe I have to listen a little bit more to the coach and stick more to my training zones.

“The biggest unknown is race nutrition. For short course it’s pretty much unimportant, sometimes you have a gel but if that’s not possible it’s not too bad. For the middle distance it’s more important, but you can still finish even when you make a mistake. But I think that for Ironman it can be crucial. I don’t know how my stomach is going to react after nine hours of racing. I’ve never done this before, let alone under race conditions. I’ll just try to get my 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrates per hour and will see what’s going to happen.

“I have always raced by feel, I never looked at a power meter or heart rate or anything. I talked to Dan that I want to do that in my debut Ironman, too, and if it goes completely wrong maybe I change it. But for my first one, I just have to do it.”

Race

“I was out of the water with Sarah Crowley and wanted to stay with her. Then I looked at my tire, and the tire had no air. When I started after ten minutes, I thought to get on the bike and just give it everything. I obviously rode way too hard, but I had a really, really great bike leg. I felt amazing! The run started well, I was making up time. I didn’t have a watch, so I had no idea how fast I was running – probably way too fast. At around 10k there was an explosion. I was so messed up after 10k that I couldn’t even figure out how much distance I have left. Oh my god, 42k is really, really long. All I could think of was to get from aid station to aid station. I was really in the hurt box.”

Photo: Anne on the run in Frankfurt (Credit: Jürgen Matern / Wikimedia Commons)

“I recovered a bit for the third loop, but at 35k there was another explosion. I felt that I walked more than I ran. I just made it from one aid station to another and then I had a little picnic there and then I started to run again and then I walked. My hands got tingly and I had to stop. I really had to rally to make it to the finish line. It was just a horrible, horrible race and I learned a lot.”

After a 3:04:32 marathon, Anne finished in fourth place, earning enough points to qualify for Kona. Daniela Ryf dominated the race: Not only did she bike more than 25 minutes quicker than Anne but then also ran a sub-3 marathon. Anne’s old training partner Sarah True raced her first Ironman, finishing in second place after a controlled bike followed by the fastest marathon of the day in 2:54:58.

Ironman Frankfurt 2018
1. Daniela Ryf 8:38:44
2. Sarah True +26:35
3. Sarah Crowley +32:47
4. Anne Haug +35:22

Post Race

“I’m happy to have finished my first Ironman after only four middle distances before. You can’t simulate that; it’s a big unknown. I’ve definitely suffered a lot. I have to pay more attention to nutrition than in a 70.3 or in a short distance. After the swim you’re already in an energy deficit and need calories. But then I had the flat, so the first time I ate anything was after an hour and a half. I also didn’t have a watch so I never knew when half an hour was over and I should eat some more.

“I was very happy with my swim and the bike, but it was strange to struggle in what I thought would be my best leg. And I’ve never had my run fail me like that before. I just didn’t have a plan at all. But it was the first time, you’re allowed to try a few things and I definitely learned a lot. I know I have some homework, and I hope to do better next time.”

Anne’s coach Dan Lorang was also happy with her first Ironman: “Mentally, that was a great performance. We have so much room to grow; this wasn’t about pacing or wattage. The detailed work is ahead of us, but it was important to see that she can do long-distance and enjoy it.”

Dan further explains Anne’s takeaways from her Ironman debut: “One lesson was that Anne doesn’t forget to eat, it’s just more important than on the short distance. It’s not unimportant on the middle distance but she can recover if she doesn’t eat or forgets about it. On the long distance, that can be fatal, especially with the challenging conditions in Kona where the risk of blowing up is even higher.

“Anne raced Frankfurt completely by feel. She is an athlete who goes hard as soon as the gun goes off. That’s what she had to do on short-course, and something she did on the half-distance, too. It was important that she experiences for herself that long distance is a bit different, and to gain that first experience was our main goal. Her first full-distance race had exactly that effect, now she knows to pay more attention to the details and how to deal with them. Whatever the final result, gaining that first experience was our main goal.

“For her next Ironman in Kona, she now has a better understanding of how to pace properly. With Anne, there are very few ‘hard numbers’, it’s more how a pace feels to her: Is this easy, is this threshold, is this hard but sustainable? We talk through different scenarios: How to manage the swim? What am I capable of, what strategy should I use? What section of the course is suitable for launching an attack? Where can I pick up the pace on the run? We go through certain scenarios before the race, but it’s the same with all the athletes I coach: They always make the final decision during the race.”

70.3 World Championships

In September, Anne raced her main race of the 2018 season, 70.3 World Championships in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. “I just want to have a good race, which is always hard on the half distance. With smaller 70.3s you have three or four good people, but here you have the best 45 in the world, so you have no idea where you are and how the race will develop. There’s going to be groups and that hasn’t happened in the races I’ve done so far – everyone raced on their own there. I hope to get as close to the front as possible. But I can’t offer a prediction because it’s the first time for me and the dynamics will be different. Everything is possible in sports, but when Daniela has a good day, she probably cannot be cracked. Some people only need a decent day to win, others a super-duper perfect day. Of course she’s the big favorite, also Lucy Charles who I see at the very front as well. But it’s a World Championship and that race has its own rules.

“I had a controlled swim and was safely in the group. That’s what I would have needed at ITU! I was really pleased, it was a surprise, but a nice surprise! When you race a normal 70.3, the depth of the field is just not there so everyone is doing their own little race. The better the races are – 70.3 World Championships or World Champs in Hawaii – the athletes are just so great. On the bike, everyone was so close together, and it turned into an ITU race. So we were a bunch in the first pack, everyone is just so strong and no one really did a move except for Daniela Ryf who passed everyone. Daniela was super strong and I had to find my own rhythm first. It would have been harakiri to stay with her, and in the end she was a lot faster than everyone else.

“I was racing my own race, riding as hard as I could. I was leading the chase group until about kilometer 60 or 70, no one was helping. The two up front were also riding solo, but when they rode further and further away I thought others should do some work as well. We ended up with quite a big deficit. The group stayed together and then it was pretty much a running race.

“I usually try to find my rhythm in the first five k, but it was really hard with the headwind and the uphill at the far end. I thought that was really hard but back down I finally found my rhythm. I was surprised I wasn’t able to start closing the gap to the front but I couldn’t do anything else than run my best. I had to think from kilometer to kilometer, keep calm, don’t think about the medal, think from one step to the next. When you’re good enough, you’ll get the medal, and if someone else is better, then you won’t. I’m super happy to be third best in the world. The other two were better by a good margin and I gave my all, so I’m more than happy with third place.”

70.3 World Championships 2018
1. Daniela Ryf 4:01:13
2. Lucy Charles +03:46
3. Anne Haug +06:09

Expectations Before Kona 2018

Anne tried to keep the expectations low for her first race in Kona. “I’m not putting any pressure on myself with regards to time or placing. I didn’t really expect to qualify for Kona, I just had that one shot and it worked out. I’ve learned in Frankfurt that my body is still tuned for speed and Ironman is a different sport. My body is just not that economical yet, that just takes a bit more time. To me this race is a bonus, to gain some experience. If I qualify next year, then I can race with expectations and goals. Of course Lucy will be at the front after the swim and I think that a group is going to form behind her, and I’d like to be in that group. I have the capability to swim with them, but a race is a race. I hope to be in the big front group, but things will be different when you’re behind, you probably have to ride to the front then. I also think that Daniela will storm to the front and that those two will be gone, but I definitely want to stay in the group. I’ll stay there and see what’s going to happen. Listen to how I feel, but definitely not go too hard, then see how much energy is left for the run.”

Dan adds, “Frankfurt was completely by feel. Anne is an athlete who goes hard as soon as the gun goes off. That’s what she had to do on short-course, and something she did on the half-distance, too. It was important that she experiences for herself that long distance is a bit different. Whatever the final result, to gain that first experience was our main goal.”

Dan says that one of the main things she learned from Frankfurt was a better feeling for what’s an appropriate pace: “With Anne, there are very few ‘hard numbers’, it’s more how a pace feels to her: Is this easy, is this threshold, is this hard but sustainable. 

“I’ve only been racing the middle distance for a year and on my time trial bike, so I hope that I can eventually run a fast marathon. Right now I’m not even sure I can run a full marathon. Running is different after 180k on the bike, you’re already running on empty. I hope that I’ll be able to pace the bike leg better and then have enough left for the run, and that I’m able to use my strength there. I have been working hard, I have an experienced coach and I think I’m fitter than in Frankfurt. I just need a solid race to have a baseline that I can build on – that’s what I’m looking for. 

“Ironman is always going to be extreme, regardless of conditions. I have big respect for the conditions, the heat was just incredible. I prepared in Lanzarote and it’s hot there but you just don’t have the humidity. The week I arrived it was like running against a wall. I really needed the first week just to get used to these conditions. I just ran three kilometers from my house and back because I thought I would run out of water, I was so afraid. I just went out once with my bike when I had the photo shooting with my wheel sponsor. They constantly provided water bottles to me, that was the only time I went out on the highway. And the other bike sessions I did at home, I even did my five-hour bike ride on the balcony. Even the swim was a challenge because the pool has 33 degrees, it was so hot it felt like grease. I realized it heats up during the day, so I went in the morning but it still had 30 degrees in the morning. You definitely have to get used to that and I’m so glad that Dan told me that I have to show up at least two weeks before the race and get used to the climate.”

Kona 2018 Favorites

The main focus was on the top finishers from 2017, especially champion Daniela Ryf and long-time leader Lucy Charles. Daniela Ryf had won Ironman Hawaii in the previous three years, and she’s also had a great 2018 season with wins at Ironman Frankfurt and the 70.3 World Championships. Her strength on the bike was her main weapon in her Kona wins. Lucy Charles was expected to lead from the start. She won at IM South Africa at the start of the year, then was second in a close a sprint finish at Challenge Roth and also second at 70.3 Worlds (behind Daniela). Would she be able to challenge for the win or at least be able to hold on to the lead for longer than in 2017? Behind these two, there was a long list of candidates for a podium finish. Mirinda Carfrae won in 2010, 2013 and 2014, and in her 2014 win she was the only athlete to beat Daniela on the Ironman distance. Heather Jackson and Sarah Crowley were third in 2016 and 2017, while other strong athletes such as Corinne Abraham, Kaisa Sali or Melissa Hauschildt looked for the next step-up in their careers with a podium finish at the Ironman World Championships.

Rookies such as Anne or Sarah True were often not given too many chances for a good finish in their first race in Kona. It was believed that first they had to learn how to race the Hawaii course and conditions. Anne’s Frankfurt debut didn’t create too many big expectations. Sarah True was seen to have raced more smartly in Frankfurt, and that having the fastest run split in Frankfurt was a good indicator that she might do well in Hawaii. However, both would have to improve their Frankfurt bike splits (5:08 for Anne, 5:10 for Sarah) significantly – in Kona 2017 there were nine athletes who rode under 5 hours. And riding harder typically hurts the run legs …

Swim

“I switched back to my university swim coach, and I really enjoy the swim programs, it’s more long course specific. We changed a little bit of technique stuff and I’m very happy with my swimming at the moment. Not because I’m improving but because I really have fun. It was like a hate-love during ITU racing, but now I kind of enjoy it. Yes, we have Lucy Charles, she sets the standard quite high. My swim is not really good compared to her but if you look at the other girls I can make the front pack. And that’s something you need in order to to be successful, so I’m quite happy with my swim right now. 

“Swimming is extremely different between short and long course racing. I really enjoy that there’s not so much fighting in the water. At short distance, you have the first buoy at 250 meters and you’re swimming all out for this buoy, the position you have there you pretty have the rest of the swim. That’s something that was extremely hard for me, it’s brutal, a mass brawl, something I never was able to deal with. I wouldn’t say that I’m such a bad swimmer even though I’m self-taught and will never swim at the front, but I couldn’t show that back then. For long distance the swim isn’t quite that important, not all-out tempo, there’s a long straight-away – it’s easier for me to show a good swim performance.”

The first leg in Kona was uneventful for Anne. “I swam 54 minutes, I’m very happy with that.” She was in the second pack, about six minutes behind swim leader Lucy Charles who was able to set a new swim course record. Anne wasn’t aware until later that Daniela Ryf had painful contact with a jellyfish just before the start and struggled to a 57-minute swim, almost calling it a day.

Photo: Lucy Charles setting a new Kona Swim Course Record (Credit: Tom Pennington / Getty Images for Ironman)

Kona 2018 – After Swim
1. Lucy Charles 48:13
2. Lauren Brandon +02:52
3. Teresa Adam +03:46
5. Sarah True +03:53
12. Anne Haug +06:07
15. Daniela Ryf +09:14

Bike

“Lucy was away at the front, and then there was a group of four with Sarah True and Helle Frederiksen about two minutes ahead. It was my goal to close the gap as quick as possible and then do nothing, that were the orders from Dan. I had to step on the gas for a bit, like in an ITU race, and when we came back to Palani I had ridden up to that group. 

“I was totally surprised when Daniela overtook us at 40k. There’s no chance to ride with her, of course you’d like to give it a try and I really had to restrain myself. She rides at a different level and except for Sarah Crowley who went with her none of the others so much as twitched. Before the race I’ve spoken with Dan to just stay there in that group and then run a solid marathon. Dan told me to just ride with the group and be calm. There was no real urgency in the group, almost like a nice outing with a few friends. The group grew to 15 or 20 athletes, then nobody wanted to do any work. The problem is you can’t really overtake, you’d have to ride by the whole group which doesn’t work either. Everyone is more or less at the same level, so I was just biding my time. It was a very boring way to race.”

Photo: Anne on the bike in Kona (Credit: Ingo Kutsche)

At the turn in Hawi, Anne and Sarah were in a group of 14 athletes within 40 seconds, placed 5th to 18th.

Kona 2018 – Hawi (59 miles)
1. Lucy Charles 03:22:04 
2. Daniela Ryf +07:03
3. Sarah Crowley +07:09
13. Anne Haug +14:05
15. Sarah True +14:10

“This was the first time I was riding with a little bike computer, just to have the time, nothing else. Just so I knew when to eat every half hour or so. The first time something happened was on the way back at about 130k when Sarah True put in an effort. That’s also when the wind picked up and the benefit from riding in the group got smaller. At first I didn’t realize what was going on, but then I thought if she goes, I definitely want to go as well and give it a shot. I thought Kaisa Sali was going with her but then there was a large gap. I thought, okay, I’ve held back for 130k, so the last 50k I just give it a go and see what happens. I was pushing the pace and hoped it wouldn’t be too much. I didn’t look back, rode my pace and tried to keep Sarah in my sights. I didn’t want to stay all the time in the group .. it was just so boring! I’m not used to that, I always want to be in charge of my own race.”

At the front of the race, Daniela had a fantastic return leg to Kona, posting a faster time even than almost all of the male Pros. Daniela was twelve minutes quicker on the bike than Lucy, and she took the lead about ten miles before T2. She also set a new bike course record of 4:26:07, a record previously held for 17 years by another Swiss athlete, Karin Thuerig. Overall, 2018 was a very fast year: Six women rode under the old bike course record. Anne had the thirteenth-best bike time, riding a 4:47. But she raced smartly, closing a small gap after the swim, then investing a little extra energy towards the end to ride away from the big bike group. But she had to make up almost five minutes for a podium finish, and there were also eleven athletes within five minutes behind her. Would she be able to run a better marathon than her 3:04 in Frankfurt? Where would she end up against strong runners such as previous Kona podium finishers such as Sarah Crowley, Heather Jackson or Mirinda Carfrae?

Kona 2018 – After the Bike 
1. Daniela Ryf 05:26:56 
2. Lucy Charles +01:39
3. Corinne Abraham +12:29
6. Sarah True +16:53
7. Anne Haug +17:14

Run

“You’re never fresh after 180k, you’re just so empty, it’s like the car doesn’t have any fuel. Starting the run I didn’t know which position I was running in. But this time I was running with a watch to check my pace. Dan said not to run any faster than 4:02 per k, and I was strictly following orders. I thought it’s just jogging. The run felt very hilly. For the first half marathon I felt like running uphill all the time, I was never able to find a good rhythm. Running uphill on the highway I wasn’t able to hold my pace, but I stayed calm – just don’t run quicker, anything slower is okay. Dan said that until 21k it’s supposed to feel really good, even better until 30k, and somehow I was able to do that. Towards the end of course things get tough, but that’s Ironman and if it doesn’t get tough you’ve done something wrong.”

Photo: Anne running up Palani Road in Kona (Credit: Ingo Kutsche)

“For 30k I saw Sarah pretty much at the same distance in front of me, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. I thought I would never catch her. All the athletes running by said ‘you’ll catch her, you’re coming closer’ and I said look, for 30k I’m running at exactly the same distance, I don’t get any closer but everyone told me that. [Between 8k and 33k the gap fluctuated between 51 seconds and 1 minute and 13 seconds.] In a short distance race I might have put in a surge and closed the gap, but you can’t do that in long distance, you don’t know if you have enough energy even just to finish. I needed to stay in the moment and do everything possible to get my nutrition right, get my fuel stuff right, I can’t do anything more and hope for the best. You have to be patient, stay in the moment, don’t overplay your cards.

“Sadly for Sarah the ‘man with the hammer’ (as we say in Germany) was coming for her. We’re about the same level and sometimes one is lucky and then the other one. Sarah was better in Frankfurt, now it was me. She had to stop for a bit, then started running again. I saw that she’s struggling and realized she’s in a really bad place. I got a second wind and thought ‘fourth just a bit behind’, I wasn’t up for that anymore. The last kilometer was the hardest – I felt well until 41k and then all of a sudden I thought I won’t make it to the finish line. My head was falling back, my neck seized up and my fingers got really tingly. I was so exhausted, I saw little black spots as well. I wasn’t really aware of the finish line, I just wanted to make it and I was so exhausted. I was just happy to have finished at all. But after I was recovered a bit it’s an amazing finish line and I wish I could have enjoyed it a little bit more.”

Photo: Anne finishing Kona 2018 (Credit: Ingo Kutsche)

Anne had the best female marathon split of 2:55:20, the fastest run in Kona since Mirinda Carfrae’s course record of 2:50:26 in 2014 – only three women had run quicker in Kona than Anne! Her run was very even, but again she saved some energy for the final miles when she was able to claim third place. Anne was able to run ten minutes into Lucy Charles but as she was fifteen minutes behind in T2, second place was out of reach in 2018. Daniela’s fourth title in a row was never in doubt on the run, she was able to run the second-fastest marathon of the day with a 2:57. Sarah True was only a few seconds slower than Daniela, but she struggled in the final kilometers and staggered across the finish line. Anne had a very successful race on her first trip to Kona, using the lessons from her first Ironman in Frankfurt. 

Kona 2018 – Finish
1. Daniela Ryf 08:26:18 
2. Lucy Charles +10:16
3. Anne Haug +15:40
4. Sarah True +17:25

Photo: Kona 2018 Podium (Credit: Ingo Kutsche)

Anne’s Career after 2018

In 2019, Anne was injured for most of the season. She validated her Kona slot at the last possible race at IM Copenhagen in August. Then she surprised herself and coach Dan Lorang in Kona: She lost some time to Lucy Charles in the swim, but it was five minutes instead of six as in 2018. On the bike, Lucy was able to extend her lead, but again she couldn’t make quite as much time as in 2018 (2:57 in 2019 vs. 9:35 in 2018). Finally, Anne ran even faster than in 2018, improving her Kona marathon best by four minutes to 2:51:07. She caught Lucy just before the run turnaround in the Energy Lab and won the 2019 Ironman World Championships.

Photo: Anne winning Kona 2019 (Credit: Ingo Kutsche)

Anne would continue to play an important role in Kona after that, but so far hasn’t been able to win another title. At the postponed 2021 Championships (held in May 2022 in St. George, UT), she finished third, as well as in the October 2022 race back in Hawaii, before claiming second place in Kona 2023. The 2024 World Championships were held in Nice, France; Anne had to end her race shortly behind T1 when a cut in her tire proved to be unfixable by herself and tech support was not able to get to her. At 42 years of age, what role can she play in the 2025 season? The first half of the year didn’t go according to plan, an eye infection and heel issues after a scooter accident didn’t allow her to finish anything longer than an Olympic Distance training race. This weekend, she’s finally scheduled for her validation race at IM Vitoria-Gasteiz.