Marlene de Boer X TriathlonWorld

April 24 2023, by Marlene de Boer, 5 min reading time

We have super cool news! TriathlonWorld starts collaboration with professional triathlete Marlene de Boer.

We have super cool news!

TriathlonWorld starts collaboration with professional triathlete Marlene de Boer.

Together we will build a great partnership for the future with passion!

For those who don't know me yet, my name is Marlene de Boer, I live in Amsterdam and since this year I have been competing for the Netherlands as a professional triathlete on middle and long distances.

I come from a fairly sporty family. I have a swimming background and my sister Sophie de Boer has won world cups in cyclo-cross. I, like many of you, have a love for swimming, cycling and running and a deep desire to be the very best version of myself.

Only recently, in 2019, my triathlon career started. Fairly unprepared, I registered for a competition in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. I won that competition, as well as the next two competitions in which I participated. This left me wanting more and I decided to take it more seriously.

In 2020 I trained hard with my then coach, but due to COVID-19 I did not get the opportunity to participate in competitions.

The IRONMAN events took place again in 2021. I registered for IRONMAN Finland 140.6 in August 2021. In that race, my first full distance ever, I qualified for the 2021 IRONMAN World Championship (with a 7th place including the PRO women).

This was followed by a series of victories that led to a victory in the ultimate event an amateur triathlete can win: the 2021 IRONMAN World Championship in St. George, Utah . At the World Championships I became the overall AG world champion among women. This qualified me for the 2022 IRONMAN World Championship, which would traditionally be held in Kona, Hawaii.

Due to a flat tire I was unable to defend my world title in Kona. Nevertheless, it was an incredible experience that I look back on with a good feeling. My performance showed that I was more than ready to compete against the best triathletes in the world and start my pro career. I was able to build on the foundation and experience I built up in my age group competitions.

As you can read, I was able to make big leaps within a relatively short period of time. I am an example of hard work, setting goals and achieving them. I hope I can inspire you with this.

Whether your goal is to finish a sprint triathlon or become the next overall amateur world champion: believe in yourself and go for it! It's an achievement on every level. This year, together with TriathlonWorld, I hope to be able to take you along in my experiences and adventures.

On March 5, I was at the start of my first pro race during IRONMAN South Africa. A race early in the season, deliberately out of the spotlight. There was no live reporting, little known audience and no sponsors from Europe. My goal was to gain experience, because professional racing differs significantly from AG competitions in terms of tactics and race rhythm. Unlike amateur races, the professional race starts in one go, without a rolling start, which makes it more challenging.

For me, a race early in the season meant that I had not yet swum in open water and had very few kilometers on the odometer on my outdoor time trial bike.

The race was a fantastic experience. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome to my first pro race. Unfortunately, the swimming part was shortened due to bad weather conditions. This meant we were only allowed to swim 800 meters instead of 3.8 kilometers. I came out of the water as the 4th pro . I had to get used to taking off my wetsuit again (this could have been a little faster) and quickly got on the bike.

Here a group of four ladies quickly formed. Rain, poor visibility, cold. Port Elisabeth is known for stormy weather and we got this too. The asphalt is heavy, you have to work for every meter and you don't get anything for free. I've never had such neck pain after a race. Just within 5 hours, after two cycling laps, I was back in transition for the marathon.

Glad that I had completed the cycling part this time without any breakdowns and was looking forward to running. In the marathon I stuck to my own plan: not taking too many risks and running a steady 4:30 min/kilometer pace. While a number of others initially ran away from me, I slowly rounded them up after a few kilometers. I managed to maintain my pace, resulting in a 3:10 marathon and a fifth place!

I am extremely happy with this myself. There is still a lot to learn and a lot to improve, but no one can take this away from me. The rest of the season is slowly starting to take shape and there are a lot of fun things coming up. More about this later. I'm really looking forward to the start of the European racing season and hope to be able to take you along with me. FindYourBest