Bart Maljaars: "That's the moment you train for"
Bart Maljaars doesn't train for comfort. As an Ultra Endurance Athlete, HYROX Pro competitor, and 2025 Sportsman of the Year, his entire career is built on the ability to keep moving long after his body has asked him to stop.
We sat down with Bart — Ironbound's own "Dutch Bullet" — to talk about pacing, pain, and the razor-thin line between fighting fatigue and losing to it.
When my body feels empty but the challenge is far from over, I rely completely on mindset and routine. I make it small in my head. I stop thinking about the total distance or time, and focus only on the next point — the next kilometer, the next few minutes. That way I stay in control.
I also accept that it hurts. That's part of ultra. The more you fight it, the harder it becomes. So I tell myself: this is the moment you train for.
My only real rule is: keep moving. The pace can drop, it can hurt, but stopping is not an option. As long as I'm moving, I'm still in the race.
And ultimately, I draw strength from my identity. I know I'm someone who keeps going when it gets hard. In those moments, I'm no longer training my condition, but my character.
For me, it's about knowing yourself and pacing intelligently. The biggest mistake people make is starting too fast. Ego at the start line, logic switched off. But you don't win an ultra in the first hour — you can only lose it there.
I deliberately start controlled, sometimes even too slow. I want to be in a pace I can sustain for hours, where I can still eat, drink, and think clearly. Ultra endurance is not about peaks, but about managing energy.
If you truly know yourself and stay disciplined with your pace, you can stay strong much longer while others are already fighting just to survive.
You only discover your real limits when comfort, motivation, and control are gone. Long sessions reveal that. A heavy endurance workout followed by another one the next day — you're not just training your body, but your ability to keep going while fatigued.
Training when you don't feel like it is also crucial. After a long workday, early in the morning, or in bad weather. Not because it's heroic, but because you learn to perform without motivation.
In extreme endurance, mental resilience ultimately weighs more than physical capacity. Of course your body needs to be prepared. But when a race truly gets hard — when you're empty, in pain, and your brain tells you to stop — that's where mental resilience is the deciding factor.