Lars Wichert, 37, of Germany, made history on Sunday at Ironman Hamburg, breaking the amateur Ironman record with a staggering time of 7 hours, 50 minutes and 42 seconds.
Wichert, a two-time Olympic rower for Germany, is a father of three and works part-time as an editor.
Wichert is a three-time world champion in rowing, runner-up at the Ironman 70.3 World Age Championships and winner of the European Full Distance Championships in Hamburg.
Dan Plews experiences record drop
The previous record of 7 hours, 56 minutes and 56 seconds was set last year at Ironman California by Dr. Dan Plews, coach of former Ironman World Champion Chelsea Sodaro.
Proulx has also trained with two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion Javier Gomez, who broke the record last October when he won by more than 20 minutes.
It was a much closer race for Wichert, with Australia's Chris Beckmans also beating Proes' record to come second in 7 hours, 55 minutes and 55 seconds.
Miao Hao of China, who came third, recorded an incredible time of 7 hours, 58 minutes and 4 seconds, meaning that three runners in Hamburg finished in under eight hours.
How did Vichert do it?
Wichert, who swam the 3,800m in 57:48, was 22nd in his age group and 86th overall going into the bike race. By comparison, Plews ran a record-breaking race time of 36:27.
On the bike, Wichert set the fastest time of the day, covering the 180km course in an incredible time of 4 hours, 3 minutes and 55 seconds, with an average speed of 43.67km/h, and he really began to emerge as a star.
In the race, Vichert recorded the second fastest time in his age group by just a few seconds, 2 hours 41 minutes 48 seconds, taking home the victory and the best time ever.
The German won by just over five minutes and thanked Australian Beckmans for pushing him to the end, saying: “It still feels incredible, I never dreamed I had this much strength left in my old body.”
