Facts
- Name: Martin Kraenzmer
- Age: 50 (1965)
- Club: Triathlon Väst
- Place: Lindome
Who are you?
Only a couple of years ago I discovered that I enjoy life the most after a long exercise, e.g. a long run, coming back home, getting in the shower, eating a late breakfast and taking a nap. What makes this even better is my partner, we basically do all the training together, and she will be my support as well this summer. Being a father, working full time at Volvo Cars as a patent attorney and training for the UltraTri pretty much cover all my hours not sleeping. My two sons (15 and 12 years) are the main reason I started training in 2011; I wish to be there for them as long as possible.
What is your training/competition background?
In my youth I played soccer and badminton, or at least until the age of 15. Then I did a couple of years in the gym, didn’t we all. At the age of 19 I started my military services. In my case it contained a lot of physical activities, and when leaving I was in a pretty good physical shape. From then and on, however, it went downhill both literally and figuratively. On average I’ve managed to go downhill skiing a couple of days each year. During my time at the university I had a really good time partying and therefore put on some weight.
My father passed away 8 years ago as a result of prostate cancer and my older brother was diagnosed with prostate cancer only a year after that. These sad occasions together worked as an alarm clock and I started reading about cancer to find out how to prevent or at least minimize the risk of getting it myself. I learned that physical exercise as well as avoiding sugar are important measures to reduce the risk of getting cancer and other endemic diseases. Luckily I had already significantly decreased my intake of sugar. But what do you do as a Swede to challenge yourself and at the same time get the motivation to exercise? Well, you do the Swedish Classic, and so I did, twice. The first time, in 2011, I completed the four different races basically without any training and rather overweight. The cross country skiing and the biking hurt like hell but I managed anyway. In 2012 I was slightly better prepared and improved my results apart from the swimming, which again was executed by breaststrokes.
I then came in contact with Ultra running and became curious. My first ultra was the Swiss Alpine Marathon in 2013, I would say it has the most beautiful scenery during a race you could possibly imagine. 2014 I ran the first edition of Ultravasan 90, i.e. the ultra running version of Vasaloppet (cross country skiing). In January 2015 I mud wrestled through the first edition of the Sandsjöbacka Trail Marathon 82k and later in August I ran Ultravasan again. I think I have to admit that I need to challenge myself to feel alive.
What made you register?
I got it as a gift on my 50th birthday, and what a gift, it is right up my alley!
What do you long for the most come July 2016 and UltraTri Sweden?
I long for the challenge, experiencing the nature (or at least the countryside of Sweden), getting to know the others, the inner battle when I am tired, and the feeling when I realize that I will be able to cross the finish line and then of course crossing it.