On any weekday at 4.30am, when most of the business world is still fast asleep, Stef Oud, a senior partner at consultancy Deloitte, tiptoes through his house in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven, quietly closes the front door and launches himself into a bracing 15km run with his pet Labrador at his side.
“Most mornings it is still dark and often cold and raining,” says Mr Oud, who, at 50, has participated in seven triathlons, including four world championships.
The kind of triathlon Mr Oud favours is called an Ironman 70.3, a torture test involving a 1.2 mile (1.9km) open-water swim, a 56-mile bike race, topped off with a 13.1 mile road race. Then there is the “full Ironman”, which is twice that distance.
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