Magic Moments/Dept. Athletics

The only thing stronger than their muscles is their will: The heroes and heroines of the athletic department astounded us with their superhuman achievements yet again in 2007 – and also the categorical refusal to accommodate their vocabulary with the words ‘give up.’

The race wasn’t even three hours gone and it was already clear who had the fastest legs at the Red Bull X-Alps hike-and-fly contest. ‘Raging Romanian’ Toma Coconea stormed the first control point as the fastest on July 23, the Dachstein Mountain in Austria. Two weeks later he would cross the finish line with almost twice as many kilometers behind him on foot than the winner Alex Hofer: Coconea walked and ran 1020 of his total of 1350 kilometers; the victorious winged Alex Hofer only covered 588.

On July 1 Kate Allen was also quick on foot at the triathlon European Championships in Copenhagen. As the last runner of the Austrian relay team, she bagged second place in the team contest – not even 24 hours after her solo silver medal in the individual competition. Her time there over the Olympic distance: 2:03:22.

Not a championship title but a world record was what Natascha Badmann secured at the Eagleman Ironman 70.3 in Cambridge, Maryland, USA, on June 10. The Ironman race (2 kilometers/1.2 miles swimming, 90 kilometers/56 miles cycling and 21 kilometers/13.1 miles running) she covered in 4:08:18 hours, faster than any woman before.

Jonas Colting used the classic Ironman course distance just to warm up. In three days at the Ultraman World Championship in Hawaii he swam a total of 10 kilometers (6.5 miles), cycled 420 kilometers (261 miles) and ran a double marathon. The worst part for him was the last bike leg of 40 kilometers on November 24, when he actually managed to gain the biggest advantage. Colting remembers: “I was fighting every fatigue symptom known to man; muscle cramps, dehydration, mental distress, energy depletion ...” On December 21 Christian Schiester was spared the heat and humidity that make the Ultraman contest twice as tough. Yet, at minus 20 degree-Celsius-temperatures and through heavy snowstorms, the Antarctic 100k Ultra Race wasn't exactly a walk in the park for the victorious Schiester.