Gustav Iden:
“It was pretty close to perfect”

A two-time winner of the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, and just announced as an On athlete, Gustav Iden didn’t enter his first Ironman World Championships quietly. And his performance will be hard to beat: The Norwegian set a new all-time course record of 7:40:26, with a record 2:36:15 marathon split. We sat down with the champion to unpack his incredible debut.

On:  Congratulations on an incredible race. Can you summarize the experience for us? 

Gustav Iden: “I had a really good plan. From the start I tried to be in the first group, but I wasn’t going to stress if I didn't make it. And then to be controlled on the bike. And in the last 10K I felt like I had an advantage going back towards town. Not only with the shoes [Gustav wore a racing shoe evolved from the Cloudboom Echo], but that's what I was envisioning the whole time, going the last bit back to town. The shoes were a motivation for me because when you really put the power on, you get the sense of speed straight away. 

“My plan was always to go out of the Energy Lab [a notoriously tough section of the marathon course] and then push it to the city [Kailua Kona]. So when I came out to the first group on the swim and felt quite comfortable on the bike, I knew that this was a plan that could lead to victory.” 

So everything went to plan? 

“Yeah, I would say it was pretty close to perfect. I didn't struggle too much until the very end. The last 5K was really hard, and I was just waiting for the last downhill down Palani [Road]. And when that finally came, I realized, you're actually not done with Palani at that point, you have to go an extra loop. And that loop felt so long – even though I had good control over Sam Laidlow and Kristian [Blummenfelt] behind, I was running a bit stressed, and I didn't have the chance to really soak in the atmosphere until the very last bit. 

“And then it just came over me a bit – all the work we’ve done with the training and what we've done with developing the shoe and everything come together there. It was special.”

How did you feel physically and mentally coming into the race? 

“The preparation has been pretty good. We had a good altitude camp and everything went as planned there. Some small breaks with sickness, but nothing major. We had some very interesting days testing the shoes and with the whole On team, and it gave me a lot of confidence.

“That was also what the plan was built around. When I ran with the shoe, I noticed that it was extremely fast in the downhill sections. So when I saw there was most likely going to be a tailwind and a slight downhill from the Energy Lab and back, the plan was built around that. 

“Last Sunday [a week before the race] I had my final big session in the super shoes. That was 40K at race pace and obviously, you're tired afterwards. But I think the Clouds saved my feet because I was ready to push quite hard again already on Wednesday. And now today [in the race] I was feeling good from the start. 

“The partnership with On gave me extra confidence. When I first met with the On team, I knew it was something special. There’s such an amazing team of dedicated professionals who all work towards creating the fastest products in the world with a personal touch for each athlete – that is really unique. [On Co-Founder] Olivier [Bernhard] had this sense that winning in Kona with On would be something so special and it really was. It was so emotional to see how many people my victory affected. You really win as a team in Kona and On showed that today as well.”

Can you describe what it felt like to cross that finish line? 

“I had a belief that I could win from the start – you always envision yourself doing that as an athlete, but actually bringing it to the finish line is another story. I've been seeing myself winning here for years. And today my dream finally came true.”

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