PRO Chasing The Dream

by Rasmus Henning, Morten Busk (Editor), Ole Sønnichsen (Editor)

"When I arrived in Hawaii in September, I was more than confident that I could win the Ford Ironman World Championship – or at the very least, a spot on the podium. - I couldn’t help but feel the pressure to deliver a top performance – a lot of people saw me as a medal contender. My 2009 debut in Hawaiicertainly piqued many experts’ interest, placing 5th – with a broken hand, no less."In the book we follow triathlete Rasmus Henning for a full year in his attempts to win the biggest race in triathlon - The Ironman Hawaii. We follow him while training, in competition and balancing a family life.The Great Dane Rasmus Henning has been one of the top male triathletes in the world for over 10 years and recently won the 3rd edition of the prestigious Abu Dhabi International Triathlon - an emphatic win where he ran down Faris Al-Sultan on the 20 km run (3:18/km pace!) to take a great win. 

After 8 years of Olympic Distance racing with numerous big results to his name, he swiched back to irondistance racing in 2009 and immediately became a succes. He won Ironman China in April 2009 with a 30 minute margin and qualified for Ironman Hawaii. In August the same year he became European Long Distance Champion and thus became the second male to have won both short and long course European Championships. 

After a perfect build up to Ironman Hawaii, Rasmus crashed on his bike 17 days before the race and broke his right hand. He decided to be at the start line anyway despite the broken hand and managed a fifth place finish in his debut in Kona.

In July 2010 came the biggest irondistance result of Rasmus Henning's In fashionable style he demolished the run course and ran a 2:39:42 marathon to take the Challenge Roth 2010 title with the fifth best ironman time 7:52:36 hours - only two minutes short of Luc van Lierdes world record from 1997. He went on to Ironman Hawaii in October as one of the main favourites, only to experience a devastating day of embarrasing mistakes, major misfortunes and huge dissapointment - and ended up in 23rd place.

In 2011 Rasmus struggled with severe cramps in several races during the season. He came into Ironman Hawaii in good shape but only managed to finish 14th on a day where the body didn't co-operate as it should. 

His goal for 2012 is the same as To become Ironman World Champion in Hawaii this October. 

Long distance racing - most important 
- Winner ironman Challenge Roth 2010 - 7:52:36 
- 5th in Ironman Hawaii debut 2009 
- ITU European Long Course Champion 2009 
- Winner Abu Dhabi International Triathlon 2012 - Winner Ironman China 2009 
- Silver ITU World Championships 2001 
- Won in debut ironman in Fredericia at the open Danish championships 2000 Olympic distance racing - most important 
- 2004 European Champion 
- 5 world cup titles, including Des Moines wins in 2008 and 2007
- 8th in Beijing Olympics 2008 and 7th in Athens Olympics 2004

282 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2012