Website: https://mirandagahrmann.com

Instagram: miranda_gahrmann

How old are you?: 36

Where do you live?: Egypt

What is your history with sports and athletics?: When I was growing up, my father was heavily into boxing and Pencak Silat, an Indonesian martial art. In fact, he later became a Pencak Silat Champion in Austria. Starting when I was 4, my father brought me with him to Pencak Silat five times a week. From then on, sports were an integral part of my life. After doing Pencak Silat for a couple of years, I moved on to horseback riding, but to get to the horse I needed to bike an hour each way. At the age of 16, I joined a gym, and I started teaching sports classes when I was 19. I did that for over 12 years until my digital marketing work became too heavy to fit in with sports and I had to make a choice. Because I like to travel and work from anywhere around the world, digital marketing was better to continue with, but nevertheless, I kept a very high interest in sports. This interest is currently expressing itself through the Ironmans I participate in together with my fiancé.

I met my fiancé at a wakeboarding class when we were both living in Dubai. He was also into sports, but more into Crossfit. Dubai has a race in at least one sport almost every weekend, and we started joining those races together. Every time, we would push ourselves to the next level—longer distances, tougher conditions. This was also the time we started with triathlons. We really liked the dynamics of triathlons and the variation of activities as compared to long-distance running. We did notice that we were often at the end of the results list, so we knew we had areas for improvement. We started taking classes in Total Immersion Swimming, and that made it much easier to swim long distances. We were now able to swim 2000 meters without getting too exhausted—something we never would have that possible before. With cycling and running, we’re making progress, but there’s still so much ahead. Inspired by all the top athletes, we’re pushing ourselves further.

What do you enjoy most about being an athlete?: Sports always give energy, excitement, and the good feeling that comes from working out. When we stepped into the world of Ironman, we were so proud to actually finish such an extremely long and difficult race that we wanted to do it more. I used to travel to salsa festivals around the world, but now that’s given way to sports events. We’ve done the Ironman 70.3 in Bahrain and Oman and signed up for Cartagena and Austria, and we can’t wait until the races start opening again.

Have you experienced any challenges or obstacles?: I tore my hamstring three times when going into a split while dancing. This makes my hamstring especially sensitive. After gyms closed down, I also got injuries from a hip flexor strain and pelvis tilt. These are caused by repetitive movements, such as those in cycling and running, that lead to muscle imbalance. To help me recover from these injuries and get back on the playing field, a trainer in Dubai is guiding me through some strength exercises. This COVID-19 phase is actually a good time to work on my hamstring; it’s limited me over the last few years, and hopefully, when I get back to the next race, I’ll be able to set a better performance.

What is your “why?”: What we love about sports and races is the feeling of excitement and fulfillment. Especially during the Ironman races, we love how everyone is so supportive of each other as we all compete in these extreme distances. It’s super inspiring to see people joining from different age classes and from all around the world.

What’s next?: For the short term, I’m planning on doing more half Ironmans, but we’re aiming to steadily increase our distances to prepare for the ultimate goal, which would be the full one. We had signed up for a full marathon to see how my body would handle that, but that race got postponed. I do think it’s a realistic goal, and this year I’ll be working on my injuries and finding a better work-life balance that allows me to train more. Also, we would like to focus more on nutrition to improve our performance. In 2021, we’re planning to do our first full Ironman.