The Day I Became an Ironman

Put those hands in the air. Today you will swim, you will bike, you will run. You will be a Viking. You will be Ironman! Ironman!

Doing an Ironman was definitely not something that I intended to do.

I wanted to set really high goals for myself. What did I do? Well, I signed up.

It's Wednesday morning. We're down to the last swimming sesh before race day. We're 3 days out today, so just going to do a couple intervals, uh, short swim, keep the body warm and, and nice. We did a 4K swim 2 days ago, so Monday, with a 4K open water, and so just gonna take it easy today. Nice weather, sun is shining, pretty good conditions, not a lot of wind, so it's nice. My name is Lucas, Lucas Heddenbeck.

I'm a 23-year-old guy from Stockholm, Sweden.

I run my own business and I create content, but to be completely honest, at the end of the day, I'm just a regular guy.

Doing an Ironman was definitely not something that I intended to do growing up. I've always been into sports Skiing, motocross, soccer. But on the pitch, I never took one step more than I had to. I never went that extra mile. I would say that I was more of an explosive guy, short bursts. And I guess also that's why I ended up in the gym instead. Ironman Jönköping 70.3 was my first ever triathlon.

Swim, bike, run. Let's go!

To be honest, a year ago I didn't even know what a triathlon was, but I wanted to do that before doing the full distance to just get a feel for everything and also to just understand all the things that goes into the actual race, things as transitions and just rules, and just get an understanding for how everything is structured.

And I'm very happy I did because I did all my beginner mistakes on that.

the race.

First thing I did in T1 was pick the wrong, wrong bag, open that up. Oh, this is my, my running stuff. This is not what I should have right now.

I should have my, my bike gear. So all those beginner mistakes I got out of the way and also got a feel for how the actual big race was gonna, gonna feel and gonna go.

Let's go! Feeling good? A bit sore in the legs, not gonna lie. And sharing this moment with Ludwig is...

Something that I'm also truly grateful for. And throughout this whole journey, we've been doing this together. We've been pushing each other. We've been training together. We've been holding each other accountable.

Even though this is an individual sport, it felt like we're a team.

We're in this together. We're helping each other. We're uplifting each other.

And this journey has brought us even closer together.

När Lucas berättade för oss att han skulle göra Ironman så tänkte vi bara: Okej, ytterligare en tävling. Efter ett tag så började vi förstå vilken träningsupplägg det här kommer kräva.

Ja.

Det kan ju ha varit riktigt bra att kanske börjat med att träna för ett maraton. Testa att köra det. Kanske skulle det varit bra att ha varit med på något form av cykelrace. Men framförallt simma.

Feels good.

Shoulders moving.

Massive.

When Lucas first told me that he has signed up for the Ironman, I didn't realize what the competition it was. Lucas never had biked before or crawled or swam. You know, I was that athlete at home. I, I'm the one who's running a lot, and when Lucas said that he's He's gonna sign up for an Ironman, and at the end of the Ironman, it is a marathon. And I was like, no, no way Lucas is gonna start running. He's not that kind of person. He's like this muscular guy.

Think about it. Imagine how many hours that has been spent not only here but in the, in the pool as well. I feel like swimming is something very meditative. Or what is it? Just you're alone with your own thoughts. Especially out here when it's just pitch black everywhere you look. So yeah, because swimming was the one thing that I've never done before this as well. Like the first time I ever swam was obviously I thought I could crawl, but like 10 meters with my head like this over the water, and then I was completely drenched. So Obviously biking, I've done my whole upbringing riding with friends, etc., or running as well. But swimming from scratch, so that's also naturally been the discipline that we've— where I've put the most amount of effort and energy towards. And yeah, we'll see where the day takes us. Not that long ago, I was the opposite of who I am today. During COVID I hit rock bottom in my life. No direction, no ambition.

No care for my health whatsoever. Weekends were wasted drinking and partying, pretending everything was fine, while inside I felt completely lost. From then on, I became obsessed with the process of getting better.

I learned that when you put in the work, you get results.

Input equals output. That simple truth changed everything for me. I began to eat better, read self-development books, and treat my health as the foundational pillar of my life. And what I realized throughout this journey is that before this, I'd been living at maybe half of my potential, 40, maybe 50%. I was operating at a very, very low state without even realizing it. I didn't take care of myself. I didn't eat good.

I Completely wasted my life.

Of course, you're not going to feel good. I never want to go back to that dark point in my life where I felt like I had nothing to live for.

Annars får jag bara komma imorgon på fem i den.

We have Park Bageri to thank for fueling us throughout this whole prep. To be honest, our principles always stay the same. know, quality over quantity. And actually, this bakery, 100% local ingredients, 100% organic everything. So it's very, very good. You know, you can eat buns, chocolate croissants, as long as it's good quality. That's the most important thing. And that's the, like, that's the philosophy that carries us through in life, to be honest. So We'd rather have this as kind of the— not cheat, but whatever you want to say— rather than some bullshit carb powder or some cyclic dextrin, maltodextrin carb mix that everyone uses on the bike. We'd rather have some good, like, real food.

And we have actually compared the ingredients when it comes to certain things.

So if you look at the chocolate croissant at Park, Bakery, for example. Organic butter, organic wheat, organic cane sugar, and organic chocolate as well.

It's four ingredients.

And then you go to some commercial place like yeah, yeah, pretty much everywhere except for all the all the commercial commercial places. And it's a list of thirty to forty ingredients in in one chocolate croissant, which is absolutely insane.

Around a year ago, I felt like I'd lost my drive. Things that I had in, in my mind, all these goals that I'd had previously, I'd kind of already reached them. I felt a bit stagnant, and I'd felt a bit stagnant for a couple of months, and that feeling is terrible. It's the worst feeling you can have, in my opinion. That goes against all the things that I've learned Throughout the years, feeling like you're running around in circles takes a hit on you. And that's when I also sat down and started to reflect, and I had to set a crazy goal for myself. I'd been putting in the work in the gym, and at the beginning of my lifting journey, one of the things that I wanted to do was, you know, a bodybuilding competition and things of this nature. But I felt like that was almost too easy. And that's when I stumbled across Ironman. There's a lot of competitions around the world, Where you're doing either one of the disciplines. There's swimming competitions, there is biking competitions, there's marathons all over the place. I should set a goal that gives me goosebumps when I think about it. That's how you know it's a good goal. So out of reach. But thinking about an Ironman and actually looking into what it takes to complete an Ironman, that literally gave me goosebumps.

I almost started to cry when I saw other people completing this.

With all the struggle that they went through, all the other people that have documented their journey. I just knew that I have to do this. I have no bike, I have never crawled before, I have never once again ran more than 10 kilometers, but I signed up because all these things, if I started to bring some logic into this, I would most likely not have signed up. So I signed up on the spot, no refundable ticket, no nothing. I'm gonna do this. And I think that's the mindset you have to, to have going into things like this as well.

If I do the work, I'm gonna accomplish it. I'm gonna achieve it. I'm gonna get through. It's happening. It's happening. Boom.

That's it.

We're doing it. Ironman 2025.

Let's fucking go.

Good morning.

Now we have the most important task for the day coming up. Go to Park Bakery and buy every single piece of pastry that they have.

Really good salt. I'd recommend.

Now ready.

Let's go.

So, we're in occupator.

Occupator.

Ja, jag kommer.

Så.

So some last-minute problems, as always. Never thing just goes smoothly. But we're trying to look at this from the bright side, because if this, this would have happened during the race, and if it would have happened then, I would have been fucked. So my, what do you even call, my cleats, I think you call them in English, which is basically the part under the shoes that you like hook into the pedal on the bike or clip into the pedal on the bike. They're very, or I have never switched those out, so they're very well used. And a part, like a front part of this clip thingy broke yesterday. So a part fell off, a plastic part, and now it doesn't like clip into the, to the pedal on the bike, which is a big problem because you need to be hooked in in order to get max effort and power out of, out of your legs. To be honest, not a crazy big problem. Hopefully we sort it out.

We should be sorting it out.

It's just, oh, headache. I'm gonna pick up Luda and go destroy park.

A day of struggles. My bike, your bike.

Yeah, could have worse problems.

Just hold on. Yeah, probably.

No one is dying.

Can't be too easy, right?

Yeah.

No, but we will see.

The door was secured.

Swedish Apple must be on the note.

Packing wetsuits, goggles, cap— oh, we're getting a new cap, so don't really need that—

running shoes.

Socks, helmet, bike shoes, tri suit, the belt to have the number thingy, and then my little Philips OneBlade because I gotta take off all of this lovely hair to make myself maybe 3 to 5 watts more aerodynamic on the bike.

And, uh, I don't know, how much time do you think, Mr.

Cameraman, how much time do you think that's gonna shave off?

The running.

Two minutes.

Two minutes, and two minutes during an eleven to twelve hour period is a lot. So now we're ready to rock and roll. Throughout this whole preparation and training, I've been taking a very controversial approach. I'm not trained even close to as much someone that knows what they're doing. would probably have done, and not even close to as much as what pro triathletes or coaches would have told you to do. People train years for an Ironman. People train 10, 15, even upwards towards 20+ hours, weeks. Calculating the average of what I put in hour-wise, I think it's probably closer to 6, between 6 to 8 hours per week. Why I did this also in the first place was because I truly believe in your intuition. I truly believe in adapting your training based on how you feel. The days where I feel good, I'm going to push harder. The days where I don't feel as good, I'm not going to push as hard. And adapting based on your body rather than just following a script. And at the end of the day, I think that's a healthier approach. The benefits from a mental perspective you get out of setting crazy goals, pushing your mind to the limit and beyond, and executing when you don't feel like it. One of the things The day before the race that I felt was pretty fun was when a pro triathlete commented my training journals. He took a look at all the training that I've been doing, the sessions that I've been doing, and he actually was a bit worried. He said that if you were my client, I wouldn't even let you start.

I don't think you're going to make it through.

I view that as, okay, perfect. Now I'm not just going to prove myself wrong, but I'm also going to prove Everyone else wrong. Once again, I'm doing this solely for myself, but this ties back to to my view on setting goals. You should set goals that no one believes you will achieve. That's how you know you've set a good goal, and that was exactly what I got confirmed on the spot there when I got that comment. How I've gotten to this point is just by stacking the small wins. You know, it can be as hard for me to complete an Ironman as it can be for someone to not pick up their phone. Phone the first thing they do in the morning when they wake up. It's just about stacking those small wins. Resist your temptations and train this part in your brain that people often refer to as the willpower muscle. If you want to pick up the phone the first thing you do in the morning, but you don't do it, that's a repetition. And with time, it will get easier and easier. It's just as going to the gym and lifting weights, work your way up. And eventually, You'll be able to take on bigger challenges and bigger goals and train your willpower muscle to be one of the strongest muscles that you carry on with you.

Registration is done. Bag is packed.

Picked up. Yeah, it was pretty hectic. We— they close at 6 and we just arrived here like, uh, the clock, it's 6 now, so we arrived with like 10 minutes to go. So just straight in. Uh, Luda's dad dropped us off here. He went straight to where we're gonna stay. Just in here. Yeah, pick up the stuff, hectic, but now we're done. Now we're gonna go eat. I think that's the plan. And then go for a nice little walk back to our place. It's like 3 kilometers, 3 and a half, so should be nice. Beautiful weather here in Kalmar. Let's see what, what this city is all about. First time actually being in Kalmar for me, so yeah, good vibes.

And Kalmar is also— we should say that because Kalmar Kona is voted to the best Ironman in the world, actually. So interesting.

Let's see if we think that as well halfway through on Saturday, if we agree with that statement.

Yes.

But let's see. Sun is out, beautiful weather, nothing to complain about so far. Time to eat some more food. I think that's the plan. And then we'll see where the day takes us.

So we came down to Kalmar after driving for probably 4 and a half hours. I didn't really remember the car ride because to be honest, I slept a bit in the car. Slept and ate my buns from Park Bakery. First day in Kalmar, we went into the city center to check out the finish line and to check out the whole core of Kalmar. And going up to the, to the finish line, we stumbled across this local legend. This guy has done Ironman Kalmar 22 times.

This year was going to be the 23rd, and his record time was just about 11 hours.

Of course, we asked him for some, some advice, and one of the things he told us, that the main thing that people are struggling with during the race This is not a physical challenge. Yes, it's gonna hurt. Yes, you're gonna experience pain. Everyone already knows that. But people have no clue about the war they're getting themselves into with their own mind. You're about to have a long, long, good old meeting with the devil. And this is the thing that breaks most people.

Just had a very good talk with a local legend. We must say, Mr. Put the Ironman.

28 times.

28 times he's done an Ironman, 22 times here in Kalmar. So he knows what he's talking about for sure. We got some really good advice from him as well.

Nutrition-wise and weather.

Nutrition-wise, weather-wise. And one of the main things that he, he also told us that is like one of the most important things that overlooks things is the mental aspect of all of this. Because like, we're gonna be out and about for, you know, depending on how long it takes us, 11 to 12 hours with a heart rate between 140 to 160. That's a lot of hours. And he, he told us like the main thing that people miss is like tracking Yeah. That the time rather than— everyone is just practicing distance, they're not practicing time. So that was very, a very interesting take. He's also coaching people as well, so he has a lot of insight. And another takeaway which we already knew, everyone knows this, biggest mistake that people do is they push the bike too hard, and because they feel like it feels too good, and then And they're chopped by the run. So even though it feels very, very good, we should stick to the—

Being too slow.

Yeah, rather be too slow because it's not going to be worth pushing super hard and then go out and have a big struggle on the run. So rather take it easy, stay between our targeted heart rate, I guess, and just stick to that. And even if it feels amazing, Amazing. Stick to to the plan and execute on that. So yeah, amazing guy. Putte, Patrik, shout out to you. Thanks for the advice. We'll see you on course. And as he told us as well, may the force be with you. May the force be with you.

No good luck here.

Nice.

Now it's time to to grab some food.

After speaking to the local Ironman legend, we went to grab some food and we found this Vietnamese place where they had pho, which is one of the best things that you can eat in my opinion, especially eating out. We're very tired of eating the classic pasta, bread, wheat. We'd been shoving bread down our throats the whole day in the car and before that, so wanted something fresh. Some pho, some rice noodles, beef and bone broth. Perfect.

This is actually— if I'm eating out, this is 100% my preferred restaurant or the Vietnamese kitchen.

Pho.

It's literally gains in a bowl. I'm not in charge.

You guys can see right down in the outdoor classroom.

Exactly what we needed.

Then we actually decided to walk from the city core home because the way we walked is also a part of the running track, so we wanted to get a feel for that. And I think it was around 4 kilometers, the walk. That felt very, very long when we went there. It felt like it was taking forever to get home and then realizing that we're gonna run past this like back and forth, not just one time. But 3, and it's just a fraction of the course.

You know, that made you, made you question your life decisions a bit.

But we got home, got in bed early, stretched, red light, the usual recovery protocol to try to loosen everything up a bit. Because after a long drive in the car, I don't know about you, but I usually feel a bit stiff.

Good night.

Time to hit the pillow.

Peace out.

Woke up the next morning, very slow start to the day, easy, chill. This is the day before race.

Had our door, our door, um, open. There's a lot of sounds outside, uh, and some light coming in, but, um, Yeah, still feeling pretty good. So now let's continue with the evening.

Buns, pastry.

We haven't really planned what the game plan today is going to be, but we managed to pick everything up yesterday, so we don't have to go in to do registration because that's done. And we're waiting for the bikes to arrive. They'll be here in 1 hour, 1 and a half hour maybe. And what we do know is we're gonna do a very short swim, a very short run, and a very short bike ride as well. And then obviously we have to drop off all the bags and the bikes later.

Good morning, aye!

Feeling pretty, pretty good. Nerves obviously starting to creep up a bit. Just been sitting here and reflecting a bit as well.

Like, actually, one of my clients that, that said this to me the other day, he asked me like, Lucas, what is your What's your secret to being as mentally tough as you are and as having as good of a mindset as you? And I think both me and Ludvig can agree on this, but we're no different than anyone else. Like, I wouldn't say that I'm even close to mentally strong. It's just repetitions. It's showing up for yourself, doing the work, and getting proof that you You can achieve what you set out to achieve. That is the secret behind it. I struggle just as much as everyone else. Do I feel super, super confident going into this? No, absolutely not. There's so many things that can go wrong, so many things that are outside of, you know, my control that I, yeah, simply just can't control. But one of the things that I do know that I can control going into this is My mentality and mindset and how I view this whole thing and trying to see everything from a positive perspective and just trying to be positive in general.

We're not the fastest, we're not the best, we are— we are probably quite average. Why be bad at one sport when you can be average or bad at 3 at the same time? But still, I think we're doing pretty good, and we've learned so much from the Ironman prep, not only sports-wise, but when it comes to mental—

Like knowing yourself and pushing your mind to its limits. And the thing is, we're not doing this for anyone else, we're doing this for ourselves. So no matter what time we're gonna cross the finish line, no matter any of these materialistic attachments That, that comes with this. It's just about kind of, once again, as Ludde said there, like pushing our own boundaries and challenging ourselves. That is the main thing here.

So we have a quite big challenge coming up on Saturday, which is tomorrow. We can think about everything that could go wrong, being as hard as it is, which is the reality. That's one choice, and only see and frame the hard things, everything that could go wrong or not go as planned. Or we can think about the outcome, probably what we're going to learn from it, like you were talking about earlier, positive effects of it, how we're gonna feel. What happens when we feel exhausted and quite tired and pushed to the limit? Pushing through, what comes with that? Yeah, we're pushing the boundary, and that leads to growth and overall a better life. That's a quite common question as well: Why do hard things? Why? You have to try to do the stuff to to really get the results and outcomes and feel how that is. Otherwise, if you don't know, if you don't try, it's quite impossible, or it is impossible to. To feel the results from doing what you're doing. So if you just try the small things and see what comes with it, it's gonna be way easier to push even further.

I've always had this mindset of if I'm doing something, I'm doing it not just 100%, I'm doing it 110%. Throughout my life, that has been It started with the sports, started with soccer. I got really good at that. But at one point in time, I actually lost my interest for it and it went over to gaming. I started to play a lot of video games. The main ones that I played was FIFA and Fortnite, and I became very, very good. I was one of the top players in, in Europe in Fortnite, and I actually placed top 100 in the weekend league for FIFA. Multiple times, right? But I think the video games was one of these things that started to steer me towards the lowest point in my life, because having this all-or-nothing mentality can be a very good thing, but it can also be a very bad thing. Because if I'm locking myself in a room and I'm not having— I have no contact with the outer world, I'm just sitting in front of a screen all day, I don't think that's super healthy. And I understand, looking back to it, why I probably felt the way I did, because I had No drive outside of that. I had no will to do anything else. I didn't want to go out in nature. I didn't want to do anything. I ate shit, and all these things led to me feeling pretty depressed. So I'm truly grateful as well that I found the gym, and I found this purpose in health and in becoming better and in pushing myself and improving myself because this is not what I'm. Putting 110% towards, and that's never gonna change. I feel like I've truly found my thing, and it's this: butter, rice, eggs.

Real food.

Got a good breakfast in us.

Then the rest of the family members arrived.

Vi ska bära.

Ja, just det.

Vi är.

Timbiffarna.

Timbiffarna.

Den här resan har verkligen inspirerat oss personligen.

När Lucas var liten så började han tidigt med fotboll. Han åkte skidor. Han tog bussen själv ut till Ekerö till skidbacken och åkte upp och ner. Sen testade han på lite motocross. Ja, han har hållit på med alla möjliga sporter.

Fy fan vad snyggt alltså.

Fy fan vad snyggt.

Det är ett härligt tema.

Fortsätt Lukas.

Ja, det ser skönt fysiskt ut.

Nej jag tror inte på det. Det här ser ju asögt ut.

Men det som fastnade mest hos Lukas det var ändå fotbollen. Och där blev han ju också väldigt bra.

Fast och engagerad. Och försökte alltid vara bäst.

Sen var det andra runt omkring. Omkring Lucas som började se hans driv. Bland annat var det Lucas lärare i skolan Marika. Hon berättade för mig att hon kallade Lucas för hack i hälen. Han var alltid hack i häl på henne på alla utflykter. Vad de än gjorde på sina utflykter så var Lucas först.

Alltid först i kön.

Alltid.

Squids. Hopefully no squids. Just some jellyfish. We'll see. Yeah, we're used to seals in, uh, in Mälaren. I'm usually having Lucas behind me, so that's—

Not true. Ludwig is struggling behind me every single time in the water, so he's trying to draft me. And then I know what happened Monday, like when I was done, 5 minutes it took before they came. That's a lie. No, it was 5 minutes.

And then we were on to the regular stuff, some shakeouts. We started with a shakeout swim, went down to the swim exit.

So we're heading for a small tryout swim. This is actually the end of the swimming. So we're probably gonna hit a few hundred meters and just see how it feels. So yeah. Here's the transition as well. Everything. We probably have to run like, yeah, 50 meters or something. So that's, that's nice. Otherwise, we're feeling good. So I'm going to strip here for some time. Lucas is wearing his, yeah, gloves.

We jumped in just to get a feel for the water.

It felt pretty good that day. One thing we noticed though is in the water there's a lot of— it's not that deep, so it's a lot of seagrass and also jellyfish in the water where you swam.

Felt good. Just a couple of hundred meters to get a feel for the water. Now let's head back home, grab the bikes, go for a quick little spin, pack the bags we gotta do as well.

Time is always flying.

I don't know where it's going. It's just It's disappearing. But, um, yeah, we have a couple things to do.

First of all, quick bike, quick run, pack the bags, go drop that off, and then I think we're about to be done with all the to-dos.

Um, let's go home.

Up from the, from the swim, headed back home, prepared our bikes. Went out for a little spin on the bikes.

Aircraft is ready.

Shake out the legs a bit because that was one of the the main things that we really needed to deal with. I know both me and Ludwig said like the day before it didn't feel that good. Our legs were very, very stiff and I had these like lockups that I just felt like they, it's not releasing. We jumped on the bikes, took it for a spin.

Okay, little ride is done. To be honest, we're feeling very, very sore in the legs, both me and Ludwig. So we're probably gonna skip the run. Maybe go for a super, super short shakeout, like 500 meters or a kilometer later. But I think we're calling it a day here with the swim and the bike. So let's pack our bags and head into village to drop everything off and Yeah, I think we'll be happy with the day there. Yeah, both legs aren't feeling the best, to be honest. So let's just hope that a few hours of sleep and some food will sort that.

All good.

But nice to spin out the legs a bit.

Done deal.

Jag tycker något känns konstigt när jag trampar här.

Så, done deal. Bra, då är det.

And later on, heading into center to drop everything off, drop the bags off, drop the bikes off, check out the transition zone.

And this is where things really start to, to hit you.

So slowly but surely it starts to, to land and you start to build up a bit of tension inside of you. As I said previously, the main thing that I always focus on here is I can't control the past. I've done what I've done. Time will tell what— if that was enough or not. There's nothing I can do in this point of time, so there's no reason to stress about that. Just accept the fact that that's how it is and get on with it. After we've dropped everything off, we went back home where our lovely families had prepared an amazing dinner for all of us. And I think one of the key variables here that we messed up a bit in Jönköping is that we ate mostly homemade food, didn't eat out a lot. To eat the food that we're used to eating is— was definitely a beneficial thing and something that I'm truly grateful for that we got to do. Just enjoying that time together as well, all of us outside. It was amazing weather as well in the sunset, just preparing for the big day that was ahead. After an amazing dinner outside in this. watching the sunset with the whole family, it was time to start preparing for bed. This is most likely going to be some of my most important sleeping hours ever in my life. So got to try to do everything in our power to make sure that we can get a couple, couple hours worth of good quality sleep because we're going to need that. So usual stuff, red light therapy. Both me and Ludvig was using the massage gun. Stretching and once again trying to do everything in our power to just calm our body down and wind down before, before laying in bed. And I think we were in bed by around 9-ish, 9:30, 9:30 PM. And I remember me and Ludwig laying there talking to each other and be like, this is it. This is, this is literally it. In 24 hours, all of this is going to be done. It's going to be completed. All the work, all the days, all the sessions leading up to this point. And just like that, it's going to be completely out of the way. And it felt— you start to feel very emotional. And I also remember me and Ludwig saying to each other that no matter what happens tomorrow, we're gonna push through. We're gonna make this happen. We're gonna do it, and we're gonna do this together. And this once again ties back to what I said earlier about me being so grateful to have such a friend nearby or close to me that I've went through this whole journey with. I haven't just done this with myself. I've gone through all these things with one of my best friends, and this has really built our bond even stronger than before. So I'm truly, truly grateful to have Ludwig. In my life and by my side throughout this whole journey and process. Time to hit the pillow. Some high-frequency music, red lights, brainwaves. But as you guessed, could barely sleep anything because of the nerves. I tend to to say and want to believe that I'm not that nervous. You know, it's just whatever. But hey, right there and then, not being able to sleep. If I'm being completely honest, I was pretty nervous.

Good night. See you tomorrow, Mr. Cameraman.

There's no difference between you and me. It's just about stacking the small wins, letting that compound, and once again showing and proving to yourself that you can achieve anything that you put your mind to. If you believe it yourself, you can do it.

Put those hands in the air. Today you will swim, you will bike, you will run, you will be a Viking.

Started going down to the swimming start. So many people out of nowhere, from nowhere, it was just boom, jumped in. Now it's showtime. It's 6 AM in the morning and there's the whole city of Kalmar is awake. Everyone is there, everyone is out on the street. So many people.

When you're in the water, you're completely by your own.

It's dark, it's soundless. Yes, every now and then you will hear some splashes, you will get a foot in your face or someone pulling your ankle, but, but you enter this very Meditative state. It feels like I've gotten nowhere. So many people around me fighting. It was literally a war in the water. I had someone crawling up on my back pushing me down, so I like got pushed under the water. Someone pulling my ankle. I think I hit someone in the face or something as well. It was just, was just a complete war zone in the water.

I was actually this week when they had Ironman preparing for a show, so I wasn't even able to come and support him and Lude. But then I was like, no, the most important thing this, this day will be everyone around.

Lude, baby!

All the people around you, the support you get from your loved ones is one of the most important things in your life. And the first 500 meters of the swim felt like it took forever. I have this setting on my watch where every 500 meters it gets— it makes a bit of a sound so you can feel it. You can kind of know where you're at. And I remember it just never appeared. It never appeared. So I was starting to think, oh, did I miss it? It must have already happened. But then it came. Next 500 meters after that as well. Felt like it took forever. The third 500-meter felt like it took forever as well. But that fourth notification from my watch, and I was like, my time is gonna be so bad. Then slowly but surely, after around 2 kilometers of swimming, we started making our way back into the harbor. When I started to look up and sight and see all the people standing around the whole harbor looking at you, cheering you up, that kind of flipped the switch in me, and I felt like, okay, I gotta really put in an extra gear here. And that was really the, the push I needed all the people around, all the crowd. Even if you don't hear anything, you just see them quickly when you look up inside. That was the push I needed.

Pulsen av den linjen var nog lika höga hos oss som hos tävlingsgrövorna. Men vi ville ju vara med och se varenda biten av disciplinerna.

Så vi lika snabbt som de tänkte jag säga hur cykeldelen And then we see them together where we stand, and we see them come together crawling, and it was like the most beautiful thing. And when we saw them together crawl side by side, it was just goosebumps. It was just goosebumps. Afterwards that, we had we had to hurry because Isaac, the cameraman, wanted to spot them when they were switching from swimming to biking. But when we came there. We look at the tracking app and saw like, what the fuck? Lucas is so much ahead of Lude. What is going on?

Then I start to see the swim exit. Now it's just a couple hundred meters left. And as I'm coming out of the water, I click my watch and I try to just look at it to see what time I got. And then I see 1:05. I had Quite literally just had the best swim of my whole life. Into T1, and as I'm running in here, I get this burst of energy. I've just smashed the swim. Now it's just two-thirds of the race left. Run towards the bike, jump on, laser focused. Now it's just out on the roads. I was so focused getting on my bike that I didn't even hear everyone from my family cheering at me and screaming at me at the start.

Yeah!

Cycling is the most dangerous discipline out of the 3. Already a couple kilometers in, you start to see people having flat tires and accidents happening. But my focus was just, okay, let's, let's get through this. Let's bring it home safely.

Hello, my name is Flippa. I'm here to watch my brother. Yeah, hang with us.

Yes!

And for the most part, the bike felt very, very good. Felt too good, actually. I was pushing a bit too hard in the beginning. I remember, I think it was around kilometer 20, I actually started to get a bit of cramp in my, in my, uh, left leg, left hamstring. So made sure that I got some salt and some electrolytes in me and, and had to push the break a bit as well because I had been pushing a bit too hard because it was feeling so good. This was actually one of the other lessons that this Kalmar local legend that we talked to the other day was telling us, that people mess up on the bike because they're pushing too hard, not realizing that they're gonna do a marathon after. And I remember us talking about this and really taking in this advice as well, and now I'm here not putting it into practice. I'm pushing too hard and I know it as well, so I really had to pull back because I started to I realized as well, I'm not even a fraction in on the bike race. I'm pushing very, very hard. Not only do I have 4+ more on the bike, but I have a marathon to complete after this as well.

So we had to like get off the island because he was going to start running like real soon, um, and we wanted to time him at the bridge from Öland to Kalmar, but he was too fast for us. But we saw one person. We was like, "Is this Lucas? Is this Lucas?" And then turned our head, and it was Luda.

Luda! Luda! Say Luda! Luda! Luda! Luda! Whoo!

I was just speechless the whole day because seeing, seeing them do this, push through when they had cramps, when they, when they were hurt and everything, it was just, yeah, most impressive thing I've seen in my whole life.

I remember seeing, seeing my family for the first time, seeing Filippa. They already, or they almost missed us, missed me, to be honest. I think the only one that I saw was really Filippa standing there cheering you up. And that was 100% an energy boost that I really needed at that time because no amount of gels, no amount of External energy can even come close to the support you get from your loved ones, and I'm truly grateful that almost all my family was there supporting me. And and that's something that really really helped me.

My God! My God! Yeah, my God! So yeah, my God!

At around kilometer 160, 20 kilometers left. Everything was going so good on the bike. Just the last bit back to Kalmar, then we're done with this. But then from nowhere, the thing that couldn't happen happened. I crashed. I was going downhill 40-50 kilometers an hour, I don't know, and I was in aero. And then from nowhere there was these roadblocks or cracks in the road appeared and And I was going in aero, laying like this. And the next second I know, I'm laying on the road. This can't be true. I remember starting to think to myself, did I just fuck everything up? Am I gonna be able to complete this? Is my bike broken? And as literally a gift from above, I remember clicking off my shoes, standing up, There's not even a scratch on my body. My hand felt a bit stiff, but that was about it. I was looking to my side, a bit of blood on the on the side of my shoulder and on my on my and on my elbow, but that was literally it. We have this Swedish saying called "änglavakt," which basically I think you say the same in English: angel guard. That was literally what I had. It's impossible. That I just fell going in 40-50 kilometers an hour downhill, and you can't even see a scratch on my body. Not on the bike either. Had to just re-rack the chain, started cycling again, no problem. I remember there was 5 people just coming to a complete stop to look at me, saying, how did that go? It looked like you literally was about to die. And I said to them, it's all good, go, I'm fine. I I have no explanation how this didn't turn out to be a complete catastrophe. The only thing I knew at the time was I've just faced the most difficult obstacle you can face on a race like this. But right now there's literally nothing that can stop me. I don't care about anything. I don't care how much pain I'm gonna feel on this marathon. I've just went through a crash and I'm coming out as the winner out of it. I'm not letting this stop me. me, there's no way I'm giving up. There's no way. I don't care how much pain I'm gonna feel on the marathon. I don't care how much my stomach is gonna hurt. I don't care how much my ankles are gonna hurt, how much my, my knees are gonna hurt, how much my head is gonna hurt.

I don't care.

Not even a crash can stop me. I'm unstoppable. And this was the belief that I brought with me throughout the rest of this whole race. Nothing is gonna get in the Way of me crossing that finish line.

Jag måste så jävla bra.

Det är så jävla kul alltså. De är så sjukt duktiga. Man fattar ingenting att de ska springa ett maraton nu.

Det är sjukt.

Vi ska käka lunch.

Getting back into Kalmar for now. Finally, I can drop it off and I only have a marathon left. And I really took my time in the transition zone. What did just happen? I could most likely have been on my way to the hospital right now, but somehow I'm still going. Somehow I'm still in this. After a couple minutes in transition, calming myself down, realizing that we're still in this, Lucas, this is not the end. I'm not letting this crash put an end to this. Running out of the transition zone, seeing my family, and I thought to myself, "I cannot tell this to anyone." If I'm telling if I tell my mother that I just fell on the bike, she would go absolutely crazy. I'm keeping this to myself. Started the run.

Lucas! Lucas! Hey, hey, hey! Do it! Do it! I'm gonna try. Honey, back on there. Honey, back on there. Come in there.

The cutest thing, he came there and he was like, "Where's Luda? Where's Luda?" Oh, and we was melting because they are so cute, these guys. You don't know. They have trained for this like for months, and we just wanted. To see them together, and I think they wanted to see each other together as well, doing this side by side. But he was asking, where's Ludde? Where's Ludde? And Ludde was right behind him. And we were thinking like, how is Ludde gonna catch up with Lukas? Because Lukas had a really great time. When we saw him, we realized that something's wrong.

The first couple kilometers felt pretty good to around kilometer 3 where I entered into an aid station. And at this point, I knew that I have not gotten enough fuel in me and I have to start getting in some fuel, otherwise this is gonna be a nightmare. I'm gonna hit the wall. So I picked up a gel, and as I would have probably expected, the second I put that gel, started to sip on the gel, started getting insane pains in my stomach. But it had to be done. Can't go for 6, 7 at this point, 7+ hours without any external energy. It's impossible. You're gonna run into the wall. I have to start getting something in my system. But I continued on pushing even though I had such insane pains in my stomach. And I remember coming out of that first lap onto the second one, seeing my family again, and the pain I was feeling was insane. How am I gonna be able to run two more laps with this pain?

Okay.

Coming back into the city, first loop is done. Now it's only 2 to go. And I remember thinking to myself, how am I gonna be able to do this?

And to be honest, I didn't have an answer to that question, but I just know that there's no way that I'm giving up.

I'm gonna make, make it through. I'm gonna do it.

How?

We'll have to figure out. I remember thinking to myself so many times that it's okay to start walking, Lukas.

You don't have to run.

It hurts. Your stomach hurts, your leg hurts, your knees hurt, your ankles hurt. You don't have to push. You can, you can, you can start walking now. It's okay. You've been doing fantastic leading up to this point. This constant battle between the devil and the angel standing on your shoulder, and I was just so focused.

I'm gonna make it through the second lap and then I can walk the third.

That's what I said to myself. Continue to say it in my head over and over and over. I'm not gonna stop. I'm not gonna stop. I'm not gonna start walking. I'm gonna continue and I'm gonna run all the way to the end of this second lap. I'm coming— then I'm coming back in after the second loop through the city, seeing the family again. and cheering you up. And I remember hearing Filippa scream, Lucas, you're looking so strong. And I told her back, I'm not strong. It feels absolutely horrible. And, but she told me, no, you look amazing. And I took that. I really took that in. Yeah, I'm gonna do this. Coming into the city, knowing that this is the last couple hundred meters, the Last kilometer, seeing when I have 500, 500 meters to go, my whole family is standing there. They're just about to run up to the finish line where I'm gonna be in a couple of minutes as well. Going out through the last aid station, no way I'm stopping. One foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, rinse and repeat. Then came the last 100 meters, coming into the city the last time. Felt electric. People around screaming, cheering you up. It's literally a party in the whole city. And then started to make my way onto the red carpet. Of course, going up to the bell, ringing that, making my way closer to the finish line. Lucas, you are an Iron Man.

Shh.

Crossing that finish line, I don't even think you can put words to it, but it's the best feeling and it's the best moment of my whole life without any doubts. No matter all the obstacles along the way, you pushed through. Not even a crash could stop me. And just taking a moment to be really proud of yourself.

It's worth it.

A ton of discipline, a ton of regrets.

There were a screen over everyone's head when they run in, saying, LUCAS WILHELM HEDENBÄCK. 10 hours, 55 minutes. Lucas Hedenbeck, you are an Ironman.

It's insane, all the emotions that just lands, and words cannot describe how, how it feels to not just get through, but quite literally crush your own expectations as well. Crossing that finish line is one of the best things I've ever experienced in my life. All the months leading up, all the hours you put towards this. We came, we conquered, and we secured this. For me, this is not just a medal. This is a symbol that shows and tells me that I truly can achieve absolutely everything that I put my mind to. And the only thing standing in my way is myself. Input always equals output. And this symbol I'm going to bring with me for the rest of my life. Zero to sub-11-hour Ironman in 5 months. I'm pretty proud about that.

We fucking made it, boys. Sub-11. 4 months of training, no coach.

Colin here.

Men fattade du vad Lukas?

Nej, jag hade inget tills jag kom in i.

Emma, vi hör dig. Here we are at the end of what has been another historic and epic day. There's a very good reason why Iron Man. Kama was voted the best Ironman in the world, and that reason is you, the people of Kama.

You may leave that haunting breath of you.

Stop it!

Let's push it along!