Quelle Challenge Roth - TriathlonFull Ironman

The 5 minutes between crossing the mat, getting in the water and the start went very quickly so I was still a little ways back from the start line when the gun went off. I just put my head down and said 'lets do this' and got going. It was congested and there was a little bumping but nothing too bad although I did have a guy swim right over me at one point. My goal for the swim was just to find some feet and follow them so thats what I did. Started drafting one guy and even though he was zig-zagging and I kept runnning into him since he seemed to slow down to sight I stayed with him for a bit. Eventually I got frustrated though and just went around him. Since the swim was essentially an out-and-back it was kind of cool to see all the other color swim caps going the other way - you could keep track of the waves and as you would see waves that started just before you you knew you were getting closer to the turn around. Of course you could also just look for the bridge up ahead too.

I was happy to get to the 1st turnaround and found a much better draft for almost the entire back stretch. He was just slightly slower than I would have preferred but figured I was going to be slow anyway so I'll just follow him and take it easy. The distance past the start to the 2nd turnaround and then back to the finish seemed farther than I thought. I lost my draft and figured I could make it on my own but then I found another pair of feet so I just settled in again for the short swim to the exit. There were some volunteers standing in the water to help you up the ramp which was nice. My left shoulder was pretty sore and my lower back was definately sore and I was very happy when I was done, I knew the least enjoyable part of the day was behind me.

Not a whole lot I would have done differently other than working more on my swimming before the race.

They had your gear bag laid out in rows by number as you exited the water so you were out, picked up your bag and entered the changing tent within about 200ft. There was just one changing tent for both men and women (all the women were in the 1st wave with the pros) although all the volunteers in the tent were women. I stayed in my wet tri shorts but I was second guessing that decision as I looked around at everyone getting into nice warm dry cycling clothes. I was shivering and soaked and my hands were numb so I had a little trouble getting everything out of my bag and sorted but I got my arm warmers and rain coat like top on and headed out into the rain to find my bike. The field was pretty muddy so I just hoped it wouldn't clog up my cleats.

Not much. I didn't rush much but I didn't forget anything so it was a success. Should've had one of the volunteers help me since between the shaking and being completely wet I had trouble holding things and especially pulling on my arm warmers. In a way it was lucky it was raining because I didn't see any sunscreen people and I'm pretty sure I forgot to bring any.

Headed out into the rain. The course winds thru some beautiful patchwork farmland and every 2-4 miles or so you come into a small town where there would be a small tent set up with people cheering. Then every 3rd or 4th town you came to would be a larger town with many more people lining the course. I tried to settle into an easy pace and keep my HR in z1 for the 1st 30 miles or so, so I had a lot of people passing by me even though I was in the last wave and a slow swimmer. I was immediately amazed at how many people there were lining the course and cheering despite the rain. The first town I came to (aside from a small one made up of just a few houses) had tables with umbrellas lining the course - the beer mile. The tables were facing the course so they could sit there with their beers and cheer and EVERYONE seemed to have these loud noisemakers. Not far past this town I got pasesd by the race leader (Sindballe). I kept an eye out for Macca but didn't see him.

Settled into an easy pace and started my nutrition right on schedule. There is one big hill on the course about 1:15 into the loop, it starts steep for about a mile and then turns into a steady climb about the grade of say, Deer Creek. As with almost every real hill on the course this one had tons of people out cheering and an annoucing booth with music blaring to help you get up it. I just had no idea what they were yelling. It was very cool having people I didn't even know yelling my name and runing along side me up the hill though. The top of the hill opens up to more of an open area with larger fields and as soon as I got up there the wind picked up and it turned from a steady rain into a downpour with a headwind and stayed that way until past the switchbacks coming down and past the next village. Aside from having to corner slower I found that any time I would get any speed I would just start shivering from the cold wind so it was more comfortable when I was going slower. After a few miles you enter bck into the woods and begin the descent off the plateau. I took the switchbacks pretty slow but once past them I let my speed go and passed a few people who were riding their brakes. It actually made me a little nervous since this was my 1st time riding in the rain and I was wondering if they were riding slow for a reason or if they were just nervous. Once back in the valley it's more of the long gradual ups and downs and winding thru towns that characterized the 1st part of the course.

The hill in Hipoltstein, one of the bigger towns is called the Solarer Berg and that's one one that you have to go up single file due to all the people lining the road, and even with it raining there was still people two and three deep urging you up the hill. I just powered up it, the more you looked like you were trying to go fast the more the people cheered so I figured even if it caused me to walk 6 miles of the marathon it was worth it for the experience. Cat and moused with Alessandro from Italy for a while thru some more small towns and then I was back to where I started for another lap.

Towards the end of the 1st lap the rain slowed and then stopped. I hit the 1/2 way mark in about 3:06 which kind of disappointed me. My Hr (and strangely my cadence) were lower than planned and I knew I hadn't been pushing hard at all so I decided it was time to up the effort, especially since I was still in low z2. Other races were spread out a bit more now, especially on the last 20 miles or so before Greding, but I just kept going - my nutrition was going fine, stomach was fine and even though it was still overcast the roads were starting to dry out a little bit. There were fewer people out cheering for the second lap too although the ones that were there were getting rowdier since they'd been sitting there drinking for a few hours now. The people were amazing, all you had to do was give a little smile or wave to acknowlege them (especially when they yelled your name) and they would start yelling louder. Made it up the big hill ok but back down in the valley the long gradual hills were getting a bit harder to push up and my legs were definately geting tired by the second time up the Solarer Berg. I was still holding a steady pace and the only people passing me were relay teams so while it sucked to have them go flying by me on fresh legs I was passing a lot of people doing the full distance and not getting passed by any of them which was a nice mental lift.

Overall it was a pretty quiet ride. Partly because of the weather, partly because it's such a competative field and partly because I don't speak German. Every once in a while someone would say something in German and I'd just smile. Sometimes they'd see the US flag on my race # and repeat it in English ("we better hurry, it's going to start snowing soon" - Marcus, Germany; "Beautiful bike" - Franc, France) but mostly everyone just seemed very focused.

I had 3-hr and a 2.5-hr bottles of perpetuem and I actually finished then early so I picked up a bottle of the sports drink supplied by the course for the last 30-45 minutes or so. In almost all of my training rides my stomach was shutting down and getting nauseous this far into the ride but during the race it was the opposite - I was actually getting a bit hungry so I picked up a banana as well after the last climb up the Solarer Berg. I figured if I'm feeling ok I might as well try & get in as many calories as I can.

Everyone just had their heads down by the turnoff into Roth and I was definately ready to get off that bike. Went back & forth with Chistiano from Italy as we headeed for Roth and I could tell he was struggling too. I was happy to be done but at the same time apprehensive because my legs were tired and how was I going to run on them, much less make it through a whole marathon??

I could have upped the pace a little more after the first 20-30 miles. I was a little scared to try & push the pace too much but it's obviously better to take it too easy than too hard so I'm not upset with the decision.

No flying dismount this time. They took my bike and as I entered the changing tent my gear bag appeared. A volunteer helped me sort out my stuff and I have never been so happy to take off a pair of wet socks. I had a packet of sport beans for the ride (they tasted AWESOME!) and I was liking them so much that when I cleaned out my pockets and a couple fell on the wet, muddy floor, I just wiped them off and ate them. Warmed up my feet and enjoyed the feeling of warm dry socks, stopped in the bathroom, walked up to the timing mat, high fived the volunteer manning the timing mat area and I was off.

Nothing, it was fine.

My plan was to run at an easy jog, a pace I could run at forever for the 1st 4-6 miles, and after that to move from a jog to run. There's a short steep downhill and then a long gradual uphill out to the canal and then it's flat for a while. It was fairly crowded and even though I couldn't really talk to anyone it was nice to have people all around. I settled into my run all day pace quickly - although I didn't want it to be too slow so I set an upper limit of around 9'/mile although I was aiming for 8:45'/mile. Then after about 4 miles tried to raise it just a little bit and get closer to 8:30's although that pace felt a bit hard at times. I was passing a lot of people and my legs felt great, like I was hardly working but I kept reminding myself not to get too excited. I could see a lot of the people going back the other way were struggling and I knew I still had a long way to go.

It was down a hill into the 1st village and it was a great feeling, a very welcome sight after the monotony of running along the canal. It was one of the most picturesque of all the villages and it seemed like eveyone who lived there was out cheering, drinking beer and eating brats. As I ran past the announcing booth I heard "*german* *german* Andrew! Vernatten Staten! *german* *german*" and all the people around cheered louder which was way cool. Left the village and headed up the hill back up to the canal for the return trip and back came the rain. Ducked into the woods off the canal for my only bathroom stop of the run. The first major waypoint I was looking forward to was the 21km marker which is the 1/2 way point. It seemed like the km markers were starting to get farther apart but I just tried to keep my pace steady. I must have repeated to myself 'this is your run all day pace, you can run all day like this' about 500 times during the run. Not long after the 21km marker the sky opened up and it poured. My shoes were making a squishing sound, but what could I do but keep going? The sooner I finished the sooner I could get out of the rain and warm.

There was another long stretch along the canal out to a small group of houses and another annoucnig booth where you left tha canal. Then its was downhill (ugh because you know you are going to have to run back UP it on the way back) through the woods along a dirt road to small village and thru that a up & down miles to the turnaround. By now my legs were getting tired. I took some gels with me but I only had two, they just weren't appetizing. Starting at the 1st aid station I alternated coke at one aid station, water and sports drink (The company supplying the sports drink was called Sponsor from Switzerland and it was delicious, perfect really, not very sweet with a nice easy taste) at the next - they were every 2km.

Hit 2nd turnaround & it was tough going now to get up these shallow rolling hills, probably the hardest of the race. I followed Adam's advice to wait as long as I could before having to walk the aid stations and made it pretty far. And I never stopped to walk aside from that, the desire to just finish and be done with it was strong. I was starting to get really hungry though so when I came thru the 2nd village on the return leg (around mile 20 or so) I stopped at the aid station and had a couple of pieces of banana and a big piece of this thick custard type cake. I immediately thought it was going to be a mistake because it was about the same size and weight as a brick, and maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have that in my stomach and run, but oh well. And it turned out not to bother me at all. In fact, the entire day my stomach took whatever I gave it, never shut down at all except for the gels being unappetizing.

Passed the anoucing booth and back to the canal - I only had 10km, thats just two 5ks, it won't be long now! And happily it stopped raining right around here. The next 5k were the hardest of the day from a mental standpoint, but I was still holding a good pace and passing people which made it easier to keep running. I knew there was going to be a point when I would hit the wall and really have to talk myself into keeping going - it was definitly not easy now but I never reached that point where I had to have that conversation with myself.

FINALLY hit the split and made the turn into to forest to head back to Roth. Happily that long uphill on the way out was now a long downhill and I could feel the finish line pulling me forward. With only a 5k to go I knew I was going to finish & I really started smiling now and thinking about how long I had been training for this moment. I didn't really have any extra energy to get emotional or anything but I had been working towards this for 8 months, had training runs (and rides!) in the freezing cold & snow and the summer heat so I couldn't help but smile and savor the final pain and sacrifice of this accomplishment. Before long I could start to hear the loud speakers and the music and the big crowds starting appearing along the course as we came out of the forest into the town. I powered up that steep little hill and suddenly my legs felt fine, the adrenaline was flowing and I cruised along the streets into the stadium, high fiving everyone and soaking it all in. I thought about slowing down so I could cross the line by myself instead of in the little group I got stuck behind but it was hard to slow down with all the people cheering.

Not a damn thing. This went better than I ever could have expected.

Crossed the line, got my medal, saw Christine and gave her a hug then went into the finish area, got my finishers t-shirt, a beer (have I mentioned they like beer in Germany? A lot) and then into the tent for the rest of the goodies. Got some strüdle and chocolate milk, got a massage from a cute German girl, changed into some warm dry clothes and then ate some more, I was starving.


Still need to work on my swimming and my bike pacing on the first lap could have been a little faster I think but I definately made the time up on the run so no complaints. The rain also slowed me down a bit on the bike due to having to slow down to corner and it causing me to get very cold.


Christine was waiting for me when I came out of the tent into the spectator area. This was her first time watching a race and she was worried about me during it because she kept seeing people taken away in ambulences during it and thought people were dropping out because it was so hard. Until she figured out that almost all of them were spectators and were being taken away because they were so drunk. She had finessed her way into the VIP parking area so we had a short walk to the car, dropped off my wet race clothes and walked back to the race.

We hung around the finish line for a little while watching more people come thru and enjoying the spectacle and the rainbow behind the finish line. After a little while we walked over the t2 which was about 1/2 mile away and picked up my bike and soaked thru gear bags. As we were walking someone heard us speaking english and stopped us - 'are you on BT?'. There was one other BT person doing the race (he did the swim and bike relays) - I'd inspired him just to say hi a while ago and here he was! Crazy!. We put my bike into the car and went back into the stadium. This was a fairly competative field so almost everyone had finished by now (10:30 - the cut off time) but they did an interview with the two winners in fornt of the crowd and put on a pretty impressive fireworks show. I had felt pretty good up until this point but now I was starting to crash so back to the B&B we went.