On 3rd July I took part in Challenge Roth which was my 3rd full distance triathlon, the 2nd one over the full 140.6 miles after Ironman UK 2018 was reduced by 17 miles.

Challenge Roth has been a bucket list race for me ever since I first saw videos and photos of the athletes going up Solar Hill with the thousands of spectators crowding around the athletes in a Tour De France style. I signed up to race this one in 2020, we all know what happened to racing in 2020 and travel in 2021 so this is two years in the making.

I had a good training block coming into this one, I was coming off the back of a stress fracture of my sacrum in October 2021 but since then have been injury free, set a new marathon PB in Paris 3 months ago and had a strong race at Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire 3 weeks ago.

My goal for Challenge Roth was to set a new PB and aim for around the 10hr 30min mark, I feel both are achievable.

I travelled out to Germany on Thursday, staying over at the Hilton Munich Airport Thursday night before picking up the rental car Friday morning, driving to Roth to do the registration thing and then will be staying on the South end of Nuremberg Friday – Monday.

Friday – Registration

The car rental pickup went well and I drove the 140km to Roth to complete registration. I got there just after 12pm.

The weather wasn’t great today, it was chilly, cloudy and later rained. A far cry from what was forecast over the weekend.

The registration process was seamless and stress-free. All you need is an ID and your triathlon race license. If you don’t have a race license you can purchase a day license from the DTU onsite.

I also registered for the shuttle from Roth to the swim start. I was thinking it would be easier to park in Roth so that the car is closer after the race and I can load up and get home quicker.

The other option is to drive to the swim start where there are car parks for €3. Challenge then put on after-race shuttles with bike trailers from T2 so you can take the bike and bags back to the car. Both are pretty easy options.

With it starting to rain I had a quick walk around the triathlon park but didn’t stay for long.

In the race pack, we had some vouchers for free food from the food court, I was planning on grabbing some pasta as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast but as you can see from below, the weather wasn’t the best for sitting out.

After registration, I drove up to Nuremberg checked into the hotel and went into town for dinner. Tomorrow is bike racking day.

Saturday – Racking & Bag Drop

The bike check-in opened at midday. I got down there at 11am and went out for a 40min shakeout ride, more or less riding the last 6 miles of the bike course into T2 and turned back to the car.

It was a good job I went for the shakeout ride, the gears did not feel right at first, the indexing was out and I wasn’t able to get into the bottom gear. I managed to sort this on the road and was happy enough with them for race day. I will need to look at this when I get back home though.

As someone who has mostly done Ironman triathlons, things were a little different to what I was used to. Mainly, at bike check-in you obviously rack the bike but also drop off the blue run bag at T1, they then transport this to T2 ready for tomorrow. You don’t need to leave the red bike bag in T1 until race morning. One other small difference was leaving the helmet on the bike overnight.

Not massive differences but some things to bear in mind if you haven’t done a Challenge Roth before.

I did have one issue at bike check-in, almost a big race-ending issue. Somewhere along the way one of the bar ends had fallen out, possibly on the shake-out ride earlier. The DTU race officials didn’t like this and wanted me to fit a new one. Obviously, I had packed some spare bits in case of any issues with the bike but bar ends weren’t one of them. One race official got me some tape to put over the end, another didn’t like that and took it off only for the race referee to say it was ok and the tape went back on. Some stress I could have done without.

One good thing about Roth is the pro field is absolutely stacked. I got to see Sam Long racking his bike whilst I was there. Proper bike envy!

I had a quick walk around to get familiar with where things were ahead of tomorrow morning. Firstly checking out the swim start/exit and then where the red bags and green (after race) bags go.

Once racked up, I headed back into Roth for the race briefing in the stadium. It is around a 20min drive from the swim start to Roth.

As you can see, the weather was a lot nicer than when I was here yesterday. The forecast for today was full sun and 26’c and the same tomorrow but reaching 31’c in the afternoon. Not ideal heat for an English man running a marathon.

The race briefing went over the rules and regs, no real surprises there but worth going to so you know where certain points of note are on the bike course. There are a couple of traffic islands where you have to pass on the left rather than the right. I am always aware of the 5min drafting penalty but in Roth there is also an additional penalty of an extra 1km loop on the run course. So if you are caught drafting and get the blue card you have to spend 5min in the next penalty tent and then have to run the extra 1km at the start of the run course. Savage but a rule I like, that should act as a good deterrent.

Once the race brief was done, I headed back to the hotel. The hotel restaurant had pizza on the menu so I was going to get my stuff together ready for race morning, have a quick shower and head down for the traditional pre-race pizza.

This turned into a bit of stress. The restaurant had changed the menu tonight and was only doing a buffet, no pizza. I decided to order a domino’s delivery to the hotel but then the website would not recognise the hotel address so I went to get the train into town and was going to eat in at Domino’s, after a 10min walk to the station I realised I had forgotten my face mask and had to go back. At this point, it was already 7pm and with a 20min trip into town plus the wait time, eating time and travel back I gave up on the pizza and just went for the buffet.

After all that messing around, I got back to the room at 8pm. Chilled out watching qualifying for the British GP and set the alarm for 3:25am. I had also changed my plan of taking the shuttle to the swim start. I was booked on the 5am bus which would get there at 5:30am but I wanted to take some of the rush out of the morning after issues before the race at Ironman 70.3 Bolton 2021 meant I missed the transition closing time. I was going to drive to the start and take the after-race shuttle instead.

Sunday – Race Day!!

I woke up at 3:25am after just over 6 hours of sleep, I felt quite awake really. I had my two porridge pots in the room, did some stretching and rolling, got my bottles mixed up and left the hotel at 4:30am. I was parked up at the swim start for 5am, just in time for sunrise over the Kanal.

Yesterday I let the air out of my tyres with leaving the bike out in the sun. Finding a track pump in transition was a breeze, there were loads going around plus other athletes had brought their own too. I got the race nutrition loaded on the bike and the bottles on.

We had to leave the red bike bags out by 6:15am, this was something different to Ironman where the bags are left outside in lines, I had been concerned it would be difficult to find my bag but there were signs for every 10 bags so it was simple.

I wasn’t due to start until 7:30am in wave 11, an hour after the pro men go off so there was plenty of time to kill. I had a walk down to the start to check out the course, sipped on my bottle of Maurten Drink 320 and ate a flapjack I had packed for on the bike.

Swim – 2.4 Miles – 01:12.34

The water temperature this morning was 23’c making it wetsuit legal. I had packed the wetsuit and swim skin just in case, thankfully I won’t be using that swim skin until Kona in 3 months.

We were called into the water 5mins before our start time to get some strokes in.

You start in the water when the cannon fires and they lift the rope, this was pretty cool. One issue I had was this wasn’t a seeded wave, the whole 40-44 age group are bunched together with all differing swim abilities. Some people doing breaststroke, overs going out like they are in a sprint tri.

There were 250 in the wave and it took a good 400m to clear up and get some space.

I went out fairly hard, my target was to break 70mins today. I did want to do that but also not go too hard and come out of the water still feeling fresh for the bike.

I got kicked in the face twice, the second right on the temple, this knocked me back for about 10mins but wasn’t too bad in the end.

The swim course is a simple rectangle, you swim out approx. 1.7km, turn and come back, turn and swim the last bit to the swim exit. I got onto the feet of a couple of people swimming at a similar pace to me on the way back, this meant I could relax and take it easier.

The one thing that stood out to me this morning was the crowds on the Kanal bank were insane! usually, you don’t see anyone when out on the swim but with this one, both sides of the Kanal were lined with people and hundreds on the bridges. You can’t normally hear much when in the water but today you could definitely hear the roar.

I missed my target of a sub 70min swim but wasn’t too put off by that, it was only a few mins and I had enjoyed the swim.

T1 – 6.18

Transition is where I lose a lot of time normally, today was a little better despite covering myself with sunscreen. I was out of T1 nearly 4mins quicker than at Staffordshire 70.3 3 weeks ago.

The volunteers take your bag off you, empty your stuff out and sort it then help pull the wetsuit off. Whilst you are putting the bike shoes and race belt etc on, they are packing your swim stuff away for you. This is a massive help and a time saver. You just leave your bag there with them too, no need to take it and hang it or drop it off anywhere, they take care of that.

Bike – 112 Miles – 05:54.43

The bike started off well, I felt good, it wasn’t too hot that early on, although I knew that would change as the hours rolled by. I was hitting my power target and as you would expect that early in the race, holding back the power.

That being said, there were big chunks where I was riding above my target but this was mostly due to being bunched up with other athletes and having to pass them to avoid a drafting penalty.

As the miles passed by things spaced out, in fact, I spent the vast majority of the second lap all by myself, besides being lapped by the leading male pros. The buzz of Jan Frodeno passing me gave me a boost.

For most of the first lap, I had been wondering how far until Solar Hill, the legend of this little hill was the big draw for me, I have seen many YouTube videos of athletes riding up there through the crowds and just the atmosphere is next level. I was so excited to get to ride it myself.

When I got there and turned the corner to see a wall of people lining both sides of the road and converging in as the hill went up, all I remember was smiling ear to ear and saying Oh My God!! The noise was like nothing I had experienced before it gave me such a lift! I was living my dream right there.

Things got real on the second lap. I hadn’t done quite as much bike training with focusing so much on the Paris Marathon for the first 4 months of 2022.

I had gone out a little above target, the heat was building, I was tiring and usually, when I tire, I lose focus on my nutrition and hydration. This was the case today, on lap 1 I went through both of my 900ml bottles and one of the on-course bottles. On lap 2 I drank one and a half bottles of the on-course drink. I have never been a fan of PowerBar so this put me off drinking it. I paid for it.

I slowed and it felt laboured, my heart rate was low due to the lower power but I just couldn’t pick it up. Those demons were creeping in, maybe I should pull over at the next aid station and pull out. My calf started to ache, and the balls of my feet felt hot. Lots of little things started to feel like big issues, all messing with the mindset.

I pushed on through all of that and made it back to Solar Hill, getting to that point had been my big motivation to keep on pushing, I knew the crowds would give me a lift which would see me through the last 15 miles.

I got to Solar Hill and it was so quiet, almost everyone had gone, the wall of people was a trickle now, the noise a mere whisper of what I had experienced just a few hours prior. My heart sank and I lost that motivation to keep pushing. Once again all of those little aches became big issues but I knew I had come too far to stop now and besides, the next aid station was for another 10 miles although that was right by the swim start so my car wouldn’t be too far off.

I put those issues to the back of my mind and just ticked the miles off one by one. I was starting to think that getting to T2 and pulling out would be the better option. My post-race bag wouldn’t be too far from there.

The last 10k actually went by quickly and rather painless. I cycled this section yesterday and it was mostly downhill so I knew what was coming up. I started to focus on the flying dismount, do I slip my feet out of my shoes, ride up to the line and jump out of the saddle handing the bike to the catchers as I run into T2…. you bet I do! this is actually one skill I am good at. Ever since I was a kid I have been jumping on and off bikes so this is second nature to me.

T2 -6.01

Like transition 1, the volunteers do so much to help you out. As you get to the mount line they take your bike off you and rack it, I have seen this at the Ironman events in the US but never experienced it in the UK races. Whilst you are running through T2 they call out your number so someone can grab your bag to pass to you. Again, like T1, they empty your bag out and get the run stuff ready and load up the bike stuff. I was massively impressed with how both of the transitions were managed today, really helped to speed up the whole process.

Run – 26.2 Miles – 04:28.16

So the run… well I didn’t tap out in T2 as I had been contemplating, I did mess around in T2 a bit putting more sunscreen on and going to the toilet but I was going for comfort over speed at this point.

On the way out of T2 we ran through a mini aid station, I grabbed a couple of cups of cola, I had been dreaming of that sugar rush for hours and boy did it deliver. That combined with a Maurten Gel in transition got me moving. I was actually running well and passing a lot of people.

The first 10k went by like a whirlwind, a sub 50min 10k off the bike in 31’c heat was something I wasn’t planning for, especially considering how the past 2-3hrs had gone. It felt great to be running well and crossing off the miles quickly.

I got to the first turnaround point on the Kanal and was heading back seeing people on the other side who I had passed.

Then just before 8 miles in I had a big rush of heat and started dripping with sweat, not that I hadn’t been sweating a lot anyway but I just felt off all of a sudden. At the next aid station, I walked through it to take on more water and cola as well as tipping a few cups over me.

This continued for the next 7 miles as I ran along the Kanal to the far point and back. There was little shade along here and little chance to cool off. Those walks through the aid stations got slower, occasionally standing still to drink more and soaking my cap in the ice buckets.

The run from the Kanal back to the road where we turned out of T2 very nearly broke me. With 10 miles still to go I was struggling, clearly went out way too fast and made a rookie mistake by not holding my pace back knowing I had struggled on the bike so much. In my excitement of feeling good early on, I skipped a couple of aid stations. Passing up that chance of hydrating set me back later in the run.

I spent a good 5 minutes walking up this stretch. There were a few of us walking this part and we had a good laugh chatting. Whilst walking I took on a Maurten Gel and I think the combo of that plus not burning much energy gave me a good boost. I started to run again, albeit slowly but at least I was moving faster than a walk.

Those final 10 miles were actually fairly good in comparison to the previous 10 miles. I was back to running around 8:30/mi and got into a routine of walking for the first 0.1 of each mile. I had a good laugh with a German guy who was running a similar pace and also doing a run/walk routine, one of us would pass the other then be passed when we were walking, we were YoYo’ing back and forth.

After running around the lake in Büchenbach I knew that it was 4 miles to home. This was the first time I actually knew I was going to finish this race.

That boost of knowing I am now running straight to the finish line pulled me home, only stopping once in those last 4 miles and clocking my fastest 5k outside of the first two 5k’s.

The excitement I got as I was approaching the stadium was something else! I have crossed some special finish lines around the world but never inside a packed stadium like this.

Thinking back now as I write this, I can’t remember what the noise and cheering was like but I do remember running that lap of the stadium with a big smile on my face.

Overall:

11:47.49 – 231st in 40-44 Age Group, 1,087th overall

Final Thoughts

Challenge Roth has been a bucket list race of mine for a number of years. I was lucky enough to get a bib in 2020 yet at the same time unlucky that it was 2020 and don’t we just know what 2020/21 was like. To be here in 2022 was like a dream come true and in a way, I feel lucky to have been racing in 2022. This year the full crowds were back on the course, in fact, probably more people out than normal.

The memory of riding up Solar Hill will live with me for the rest of my life. That was the absolute highlight of this race.

In terms of the actual race for me, a lot didn’t go well, I struggled with the heat again as I did in Mallorca 2 months ago but despite the struggles on the bike and the run and finishing some way off my goal time of 10hr 30min, I did still actually set a full course PB. At the end of the day, a PB is a PB and today was my fastest ever full-course triathlon.

As I said, a lot didn’t go well but I pushed through and got it done. I messed up the hydration on the bike and then again early on the run. This impacted my race. That combined with my lack of training in hot weather made today a tough day at the office.

It does give food for thought as I now take 7-10 days off before beginning the training for Kona. That one is going to be just as hot but far more humid and a lot of crosswinds to contend with.

Hats off to Challenge Family, they put on one heck of an event today. Nothing but praise for them and Challenge Roth, so many things that put the athlete and families/friends at the centre of the decisions. Small things like offering a shuttle back to the car parks at the start and having trailers on the bus so you can take the bike back with you. This took a lot of stress out of race day planning and just made the logistics easy.