Race Report Roth 2007

The "Quelle Challenge Roth" was my second IM distance race. It is one of the classic triathlon races and is very well organized. Usually, a lot of excellent athletes show up, and every long distance triathlete not totally focused on IM Hawaii and qualifying for it should take part in Roth at least once!

In my first race, IM Germany in Frankfurt two years earlier, I finished in 12:26 without running into any major issues. I swam a 1:13, rode a 6:21 and ran a 4:42 (plus some change for transitions).

I was hoping to improve quite a bit on that time, as I had a very solid preparation with some more volume than in my first IM. Also, Mitch made sure that I added a lot of running while keeping my bike and swimming at record levels.

Swim

The swim in Roth is in the Main-Donau-Canal - no problems at all with navigation - just go straight with two turns.

The spectators are quite close, I even heard my wife shout out some encouragement and she managed to take a photo of me. Also, there is a wave start, so things are quite civilized.

My swim was quite relaxed, tried not to waste any energy. Had a little cramp in my calf, but when I stopped it went right away. Strange, never had that before.

Ended up swimming 1:11:31 - I had hoped for a 1:10, but no need to worry.

Bike

After a quick transition (no change of clothes this time!) I was riding away. The course in Roth is very beautiful, through small villages and with quite some undulations - never boring. My personal highlight was the "Solarer Berg", one of the big spectator spots. Probably 15 to 20 thousand (!) people line a one kilometer, pretty steep hill. The elite racers had started more than an hour before me, so I - being on my first loop - was passed by Macca and Thomas Hellriegel alredy on their second loop shortly before the Solarer Berg. The crowd was still buzzing and cheering the other racers on. Then it got even louder, and I was barely able to hear the honking of the camera motor cycle filming the third rider Eneko Llanos flying by me. It was pretty close - almost like at the Tour de France where the spectators only open a little space right before the rider almost crashes into them.

My bike time was just a few seconds over 6 hours (maybe I shouldn't have stopped quite so often to pee), which was still a big improvement over my Frankfurt time. I tried to eat as much as possible and to ride as steady as possible, but it was very tricky with all the hills and I had some fade towards the end.

Some Ergomo data: 1st loop 209AP 235NP 31.5 km/h; 2nd loop 198AP 226NP 30.1 km/h (plus a short relaxed ride into T2).

Run

I took some time in T2 to get some sunscreen and for a toilet stop. Saw my wife, my parents and some friends right when I started the run. The plan was to run the first 5 to 8k very relaxed and to get my HR to under 125. I managed to do that quite well (even walked a bit on one of the short, steeper uphills). I had some spikes, but cooled down, was eating and tried to relax as much as possible. Also, my pace was okay - just a bit under 6 minutes per k.

After the 8k mark, I had planned to run with my HR at about 130, with a cap of 135. I eased into the higher HRs, and my pace got considerably faster (under 5:30/k). I was feeling absolutely great and probably overpaced "a bit". By the half marathon mark, when I ran by my fans, I already had some doubts if I could hold that pace. After 25k, I just exploded.

I had to walk most of the next 10k which took me 1h25. I tried a couple of things (1 min run/walk, counting steps, drinking Coke), but nothing really worked. I don't know what it was, but around the 35k mark I tried some more running. I at least wanted to try to improve my Frankfurt time. Everyone who has ever done an IM knows that the advanced math to calculate what pace you have to run to reach your goal time is impossible at this point. All I managed is that walking in would not be enough .. so I continued to run. Strangely, it worked and after a bit I was able to get back to running a 6 minute pace. Again I was not able to figure out where exactly I would end up .. somewhere around 12 hours ... maybe I could still break 12 hours?! I ran on ...

I got the finish line, was very happy to see my wife and my parents and made sure to take some time to wave at them. At that point - if my watch was correct - I would be able to sneak under the 12 hour mark with just a minute to spare .. When I actually got to the finish line and saw the clock at 13:03:something .. I was surprised but managed to do the math .. I had started exactly 1 hour and 5 minutes after the elite .. so my time was 11:58 - YES!!!

My official finish time was 11:58:48 with a marathon of 4:36. So I managed to improve in all three parts - four PRs in one race! But did I race to the best of my abilities? Probably not ...