Diana Riesler's Blog

Wow, after 1 week I managed to take some photos;-) I wrote in my last blog about my dog but I didn’t tell what a great welcome she had here! She got not only the Suisse dog cakes – no – the best of all: she got a Suisse basket! Yeah, a basket with the flag of Switzerland! It’s so cute!

And it seems that she likes Leysin as much as I do! Today she run for the 1^st time for weeks over the fields and was hunting birds! No real hunting: it’s more a game between dogs and birds. The birds fly over the dog’s head and play with them;-) I was that happy because over the last months you couldn’t really move her to do anything. When I had an early run she looked at me, let her head down and went to her basket. But things has luckily changed!

Sunny greetings from Diana

…not only back to Leysin, also back into full training! After my cold I spent 1 week with Joseph Spindler and Christian Nitzscke in Bad Tölz. While Christian had to leave us a little bit earlier because he took part in the Ironman Lanzarote and became 7th in his 1st Ironman – Jospeh and I used the time to do some hard run sessions. Afterwards I and my dog Laika drove straight to Leysin where Brett and a few team members are – and I’m sure it gets more and more athletes every day here because most of them are still doing races around the world before the big season in Europe will start. I found a really nice apartment – a Suisse lady was so kind to me that it’s more than amazing! I have to say a few times THANK YOU to her although she won’t understand me because she only speaks French and my French is not that great… Merci beaucoup Michelina! I arrived and she unpacked my car, prepared a snack for my dog Laika, fit the kitchen with tea, coffee, herbs and different kinds of oil and sugar. And last but not least she gave me a great discount for the flat. She won’t earn money with me – what luck! And the best: we swim every morning in the pool and the apartment is opposite of the pool – I get up and fall directly in the water;-) Almost because 1st I had to do a little walk with dog Laika who really enjoys the mountain air. Yesterday we swam in the pool down in Aigle because our piscine was still closed. But it was great: we swam in a 50m pool, the sun over us and the mountains in the back = Suisse from its nicest side! Try to take some pictures in the upcoming days that I can send you some more impressions from this beautiful place!

4 weeks ago I finished my 1^st Ironman on the podium – you can’t imagine on which height I was! Everything went easy before and during the race – I had no big trouble beforehand. What a great luck! But how did it look after the race? I couldn’t walk 4 days because my whole forefeet were one big blister! 1 night without sleep because of too much pain:-(

Then my flight back was a big mass at the beginning. It’s always amazing how arbitrary some people make their decisions. At the airport the man behind the desk told me I’m not allowed to take 1 piece over 20kg – but all in all I’m allowed to have 40kg. So I had 1 bag with 27kg – oh my dear! I had to unpack everything 30min before the plane was starting! My heart was pumping much higher than in any competition;-) 5min before check-in I arrived in the hall. And the best: at the next airport I had to wait 10 hours and were allowed to have 1 piece with 30kg!

Back home it was a big mass: 8 weeks away from our flat and I needed 3 days to get it back to normal. Between the spring-cleaning I met my family and friends. After 1 week of hanging around, went late to bed and didn’t do so much training I was really happy to get back to normal. But after 8 days I caught a really bad cold – and it’s still lasting:-( It’s always hard to slow down within 24hours! And I’m not really good in it – you can ask my husband;-)

But therefore I found time for other things… and I recovered my old hobby: photography! I have a new SLR! Juhu! And it made great pics…

Hope to go back to normal training the upcoming days – although I love taking pics, I love more my sport!!!