Sorry, it's taken so long to write this report. I started it in July but then found the joys of BBQs, beer and cake over the summer and forgot to finish it! But reading other's race reports spurred me on to complete it!
Plus I gather a few of you reading are targeting Roth one day. It's certainly a bucket list race for any Ironman.
I always intended to tick the Ironman box but never got around to it or had the time to train for it. There was always an excuse maybe in a few years, maybe next year.
Having got the ok at home, I decided 2019 was the year. If I could choose to do one IM, it was always going to be the famous Challenge Roth.
I figured this would be a one-off and if I didn't do Roth, I'd always regret it.
For anyone wanting to enter my advice would be to be online as soon as entries go live! I was and still wasn't successful initially. I'd liken it to trying to get tickets for Glastonbury. I only got in as there were some duplicate entries (Mr Overment!).
Another thing worth considering is the logistics of Roth as it isn't straight forward:
It's in term time, so means taking kids out of school.
Roth is a tiny place with nowhere to stay, so we had to stay 30 mins away in Nuremburg.
That means two hire cars for race day travel
Another annoyance is T1, T2 and the finish are all in different locations.
Also, do you fly to Nuremberg or Munich?
Fast-forwarding a year and training had gone well. If any of you want to step up to IM I'd recommend getting a coach, it took a lot of the planning stress out of it, and I improved my half ironman time by over 20 mins in the lead-up.
RACE DAY
Fast forward to race day and I woke up at 3 am to thunderstorms. The day before had been over 30degrees, so hopefully, it would be cooler.
I nearly didn't make it out of the car park as my water bottle leaked during the night and soaked my wallet, meaning the machine wouldn't accept my sodden banknotes! Thankfully we got over that speed hump, and it was off to Roth with about 4500 other athletes.
Roth sets you off in waves of about 250, they aren't seeded, and I was in one of the last waves. So I had over 2 hours to hang about in the rain before I started.
Before race day there was a lot of nervousness over the water temperature. It was probably slightly above the temp for wetsuits, but they allowed them anyway.
The water was so warm it was like swimming in a big muddy bath!
I felt the swim went well; the second half was spent weaving in and out of the earlier waves. I was probably 5 mins slower than I hoped but still in good shape running through a near empty T1.
The first couple of hrs on the bike, my moral was probably the lowest it would get all day.
My HR was high, my power meter wasn't working, it was pouring down, and I was getting passed by every triathlete in Germany! Including the lead pro men and female winner Lucy Charles Barclay.
Second Lap
By the second however lap I felt much better and spent the whole lap overtaking other riders. I was cautious not to get done for drafting as the penalties in Roth are pretty stern: 5 min penalty then run an extra 1k on the marathon!
If anything I got too comfortable at times and caught myself coasting a bit too much.
I'd look down and see my HR was too low, I had to give myself a good talking to that I was here actually to race!
The high point of the ride was Soler hill! The atmosphere was incredible, like the tour de France, going up single file surrounded by cheering drunk people!
The rest of the ride went well, and I felt stronger as it went on. I had read that I'd feel awful by the time I got to T2 with running a marathon being the last thing I'd want to do.
I can honestly say this didn't happen. I was happy to get off the bike after 6 hrs in the saddle, and after a high five from my family I felt pretty good setting off on the marathon.
In my haste, I ripped off my timing chip when changing my socks in T2! I realised this at about mile 1. I panicked and considered running back to get it but thought surely I couldn't be the only one this has happened to!?
I decided to push on, my pace and HR were good, and my morale was high. It was tempting to up the pace, but I thought no keep to the plan! The sport is littered with stories of athletes blowing up having gone out too hard.
The run was going well, and I was continually passing people. In fact, I'm pretty sure I only got passed by the occasional relay runner all day.
I would slow slightly at the aid stations and then try to claw back any lost time to keep each mile pretty similar.
There were numerous 'hot spots' dotted throughout the marathon, here they had loud music, beer flowing and MCs calling your name and high 5ing you as you passed.
My one regret (apart from ripping off my timing chip) was not taking in the atmosphere as much as I could have. Instead, I was continually focused on how I was feeling, pacing, cadence, hydration etc.
I expected to hit the wall in the latter stages but never did. I considered upping the pace in the last few miles but remembered those videos of people blowing up and crawling to the finish.
I was glad I had stuck to my race plan. If you ever do Roth the last 6 miles of the run are definitely the toughest. I guess this is true of every Ironman 🤷♂️
The course gets quite hilly as you head out through a forest to a neighbouring village and back. Again the locals were out in force cheering everyone on.
Back into town and only 1 mile to go. I seen my family for the 3rd time, which was a welcome boost, my dad shouted only 5k to go, and I thought 'Eh!?' I hoped he was wrong!
Luckily he was, I upped the pace a bit in that last mile and entering the finishing stadium I got pretty emosh!
They reckon the finish stadium holds 10k people, all cheering the finishers.
When I finished all I could think about was getting my time recorded. Which they did manually but said it would take a day or 2 to show on the results page. It meant my run time of 3hrs 44 was missing my finishers certificate but hay ho.
Surprisingly that is my best marathon time! My overall time was 11 hrs 11 mins how's that for synchronicity!
I felt pretty good after the race. The shower area was interesting! In Britain we'd have separate changing areas, not in Germany!
The organisers had laid on a massive pasta party I tried to force some food down but didn't really feel like it.
I found my family, by this stage, it was getting on for 7 pm. With little people in mind, we had to head back to the airport hotel in Munich. They headed on while I tried to figure out where T2 was! It was a good 20 min walk from the finish.
Then we had to load our bikes onto a lorry and get the bus back to the car at T1! It was dusk by the time I had loaded the bike back into the bike box. Had it been during the school holidays, it would have been nice to stay a few more days.
Munich was a couple of hours away and by 10pm I was ravenous! The only place open was McDonald's, so I had my first Big Mac in years!
I didn't sleep much that night as I was high on caffeine. The next day I surprisingly felt pretty good. I've felt worse after shorter events in the past.
If you're still with me then thanks for reading! I hope this is useful to anyone wishing to do Roth one year. As I said at the start this was always meant to be a one-off but I quite fancy doing another one day now I know what's involved and I can actually do it!
I'll wait a few years though as it's quite a time commitment and you definitely need the support of those around you. Special thanks must go to my wife Martine and daughter Belle for their understanding in the months of build-up. Also, to my coach Matt Sandersen of Triathlon coaching UK whose help and advice were invaluable, I can't recommend him enough. Thanks for reading everyone.