He lost his job. He dehydrated himself to the point of needing hospital treatment, and his delirious state caused him to cut the course short, which got him disqualified from a triathlon in Taiwan in the summer of 2011. Yet, Olaf Kasten didn't give up the sport. Instead, the combination of those episodes actually motivated him to become a world-class triathlete.
Kasten, 40, always had his eye on the World Ironman Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, but his dream seemed impossible. A triathlon consists of 3.86-kilometre swim, 180-kilometre bike ride and a 42-kilometre run, and three years earlier, the German native could barely swim 50 metres without losing his breath. Although he was a talented young athlete, he let his fitness slide in his 20s as his climbed the corporate ladder by leading trading teams in Asia.
Then suddenly, he lost his job. With time on his hands, he planned to set up a new executive coaching business. Kasten also decided it was time to turn his dream - to compete in the 2012 Ironman - into reality. His coach, Andrew Wright, was sceptical. "But I'm a very disciplined guy, so when I have a programme, I do exactly what is on there," Kasten says.
It began to work. He trained intensively and intelligently, gradually increasing his training load to 25 hours a week. By finishing 55th in a field of more than 1,400 in the Melbourne Ironman in nine hours, 10 minutes, 46 seconds in Australia, he qualified for Kona in October. There he emerged a true Ironman, completing the course in nine hours, 31 minutes, eight seconds. He placed 118th overall and eighth among men in the 40-44 age division.
While Kasten believes an iron will was a key to his success, he says could not have achieved his results without the coaching.
"A lot of people say that it is 70 per cent mental," he says. "I don't know if it's really that high, because if you haven't done the work, you can't invent it. You can't go half an hour faster just because you want to."