Sandra for Chancellor

Kevin Mackinnon catches up with Sandra Wallenhorst

If, as many of us do, it's easy to picture Chrissie Wellington someday leading Great Britain, it's not hard to imagine that Germany's political scene will one day be led by one of her Ironman rivals. In fact, Sandra Wallenhorst is one of the only Kona contenders who can actually say that she's ahead of Wellington in something: she's already got a job working for the government.

None of the moms at Philip’s (Wallenhorst’s 3 ½ year old son) kindergarten better be into trying to one-up their Ironman champion neighbor – they don’t stand a chance. The two-time Frankfurter Sparkasse Ironman European Champion is tall, blond, a lawyer and one of the world’s best triathletes. Oh, and the German government has already hired her to work in the Ministry of the Interior – letting her work as much as her athletic career will allow at this point.

Which doesn’t seem like a lot. Wallenhorst somehow manages to balance that work time, being a mom and also following one of the most demanding training regime’s on the planet. Heading into the race in Frankfurt last month, she’d done seven training camps, including one at altitude just a few weeks before the race in St. Moritz. During that camp she completed an eight hour ride in snow, sleet and freezing temperatures.

I wonder how many of the moms at the kindergarten can claim to have done that?

Philip didn’t get to come to any of those camps, but he appears to be well on his way to a life filled with sports himself. Wallenhorst was introduced to her life-long love of sports by her parents when she was six. Philip is already turning into a runner. After watching his mom running on television, he couldn’t figure out why he held his fingers out straight when he ran, while his mom closed her hands. When she got back from winning the race, he asked how you were supposed to run.

“Run like mommy and you’ll be fast,” she told him.

You think? Mommy ran a few seconds over three hours last month to take the race in Frankfurt, passing Caroline Steffen with eight km to go and once again putting her name down in the “contender” category for Kona.

Wallenhorst , of course, burst onto the triathlon scene in Austria a few years ago, where her 8:47 clocking remains the fastest Ironman time ever at an official Ironman event. Later that year she finished third in Kona.

“It was a good start after I gave birth to my baby son,” she says. Umm … that would be a bit of an understatement. “After having Philip I decided to come back to the sport, but I thought I would do it properly. I found some coaches and now I just live it. It’s my religion.”
Wallenhorst isn’t afraid to work hard to achieve her results, either.

“It’s a job. It’s not always fun. Sometimes I say, in training, that I can’t do this anymore.”

During that ride in St. Moritz, sitting at a desk working as a lawyer seemed like a much better option.

“I kept telling myself I wasn’t going to do this anymore – I could be sitting at a desk and having coffee, chocolate and ice cream. It’s not always that you love it, but then, in the end, when you cross the finish line, you love it.”

After her win in Frankfurt last year, Wallenhorst rolled into Kona as a possible contender, but was never in the picture on race day. Two weeks before the Ford Ironman World Championship she crashed on her bike. On race day she lost a pad on her aero bars and almost crashed on a fast descent. She was well-behind off the bike and never got into the picture.

Hopefully that will change this year. The 38-year-old might have a job waiting for her when she’s ready to quit the sport, but I bet that won’t happen any time soon. Sure, she might be on her way to a stellar career in law or politics, but when you get her talking about racing, she sounds like an excited teenager.

“To compete against some other girls that are just perfect in the sport is just so exciting,” she says. “While you’re racing against them, you are thinking that they’re much better than you are, but then you get thinking that here you are racing with them. You start to feel goosebumps. It’s such a kick.”

So, let me get this straight: a mom who’s smart, organized, attractive, athletic, competitive and already in politics? She’d get my vote.

You can reach Kevin Mackinnon at kevin@ironman.com