Challenge Roth 2013 – back at the heart of Triathlon!

Wrists from left to right: Jürgen Metzler, Tim Stutzer, Julia Ertmer

Roth and I we are going into our 20^th season. It was back 1994 when I first went there to coach my dad in his first attempt to qualify for the Ironman Hawaii. I remember like it was yesterday that we took the borrowed RV to scout the bike course and just how slow the thing crept up the ascent of Kalvarienberg hill. Seven years later I would do my first and Roth’s last Ironman there – the only finish time I still recall to the second (12h 11min 51sec). In 2002 Roth was run as “Challenge Roth” for the first time and we were back as a realy. Since then I have been to the race many, many times and am on a streak as a relay cyclist since 2011. This year Julia, Jürgen and I secured our relay only one month before the event. Nonetheless the thrill was there immediately. We somehow thought we could – if everything went right – podium in the mixed category, but dismissed the thought immediately upon arrival in Roth when we were told just how much money some firms do spend on their relay project. So we went for the fun option and made the best out of it.. until the gun actually went off…

Jürgen as the One-Eyed-Racer

Friday and Saturday saw us going through the usual pre race routines and meet what felt like hundreds of familiar faces. Familiar faces not only from over here in Germany but also from the US. Here we spotted Mr. Slowtwitch Herbert Krabel, there was Bob Babbit of Competitor/Triathlete Magazine and many, many more. It seemed as if Challenge had picked up on the media thing quite a bit this year. We had a great Saturday with an early morning swim in the Rhein-Main-Donau-Canal and a delicious breakfast at Café Schmitt, Hilpolstein and one of us made it into Herbert's "The Lava Java of Roth" picture gallery on Slowtwitch.

 

 

We then hung out with the German Quintana Roo crew and chatted a bit with ABG’s Steve Dunn at their expo booth.

 

Stopping by at the Quintana Roo booth before heading off to the bike check in

When race day came all three of us got a little nervous because Julia had never swum 3,8km in a race, I was a little unsure of my bike legs and Jürgen had increased the run training volume only after we had registered some five weeks ago. Our team started in the last wave of the day at 8:50am. After high fiving Julia one last time the only thing we could do was wait for her to keep her promise of swimming sub 1:06h. And that she did. When she arrived at my and my noble steed in transition no more than 1:05h had passed and off I was. Little did we know that her performance would be the only one that was delivered as promised. I went off in what I perceived a solid effort but still the numbers were telling me something different. As always the adrenalin and little taper does miracles to how you feel in the first hour on the bike. I thus reached the first waypoint of the day – the foot of Kalvarienberg hill in just over 56min which was more than 3min faster than last year when I had posted my best time here yet in 4:26h. It was the wind I thought and took on the longest ascent of the course deliberately easy the first time. From then on I was only looking forward to the Alpe d’Huez of triathlon, my first ascent of Solar Hill. And it delivered! Reports say never have there been as many people as this year and they are right. When I looked up the hill all I saw was a wall of people. And they parted for us athletes like the sea parted for Moses. It gives me goose bumps every time. Full of adrenalin again I continued at what felt like warp speed. So I was still more than three minutes ahead of last year’s split after lap one and began to get a little worried of what would happen. And then it happened: the second ascent of Kalvarienberg hill did not feel at all comfortable and the watts were significantly lower than the first time. Well, temperatures were now in the high 20s on the Celsius grade and that usually weakens me a bit and so I slowly lost the time I had on my time from last year. And I was neither thirsty nor hungry also a sign of the heat effecting me a bit. One thing pushed me though as there were very few spectators when I passed Solar Hill on my second lap in the last years. This year though even when I went up there the second time there were many, many spectators and gave me a final push. Regrettably the wind did not help me this year for those last 10k back to Roth and I lost some time there, too. Bottom line was a net time of 4:28:30h compared to 4:26:38h in 2012.

Power file overview.

Dismounting my bike I ran into transition and screamed “Jürgen, Jürgen!” just like last year. Strangely of all first names, my of 2012 and 2013 runners shared first names. We had calculated that a time of 8:30h might be enough to podium in the mixed category and so Jürgen took off like a rocket. With Julias 1:04h swim and my 4:28h bike we were down four minutes on our race plan and Jürgen tried to make up some time. The risk being to blow up badly later on the run. His motto at the time “Pokal oder Spital” (Podium or the ER). He went through 10k at 41 minutes flat and passed the half marathon mark after 1:29h. Even then though he showed signs of trouble. When I saw him at the 22km mark he said something about his heart rate being all too high for the effort he was running at. We waited from him at 36km next and it was clear that he was in serious trouble when he arrived there some 15 minutes down on the 3h marathon splits he wanted to run. He was able to tell us that he had some strange kind of cramps and that running was not at all possible any more. He had to stop several times at that point to stretch his calfs. But when he did this his quads started to cramp. He was in serious trouble for sure but there was nothing we could really do other than to encourage him to “Keep it up!”. When Jürgen went on the final section inth the city of Roth Julia and I headed for the stadium where they have a relay meeting point some 300m from the finish line in order for the relays to be able to run those last meters together. And there we waited and waited and there was no sign of Jürgen. When he finally came around the corner some 150 meters away he was walking or rather limping and obviously in pain. When he reached us he was just barely able to communicate that almost every muscle in his body was cramping up. Thus we trotted along the last 200 meters to the stadium single file and were passed by a lot of athletes as Jürgen had to stop another two times to stretch his calfes. When you enter the stadium to finish your race in Roth this usually wipes away any and all pain you might be in ant the crowds just overwhelm you. You can see from the following picture that this was the case for Julia and I but regrettably not for Jürgen.

 

Two thirds are overwhelmed by the finishline!

He collapsed right after the finish line after what was “The hardest thing I’ve ever done!”. This hardest thing came to an end after 3:43h and a total time of 9:20h for our relay which was still good enough for 16^th place among the mixed relays.

Right behind the finish line he tried to figure out what had gone wrong. He has some 12 marathons under his belt, six of them in between 3:02 and 3:07h and has even run 3:23h in an Ironman. But never had anything like this happened. After some thinking and the obvious signs of a salt deficit we think to have found the reason: A less than sufficient salt intake in the 24 hours before the race. IF you run a marathon on its own your whole weekend is geared towards this thing. If you run the marathon as part of a relay you “only” do one part and perhaps this got us all carried away a bit in those crucial 24 hours pre race. Race day especially was far, far away from an optimal preparation for a marathon. We got up at 5am prepared the swim and the bike, did not have a decent breakfast and for Jürgen the race started right in the heat of the afternoon at 2:30pm. In between breakfast and the start of the run he might not have taken enough salt & water and thus have already started the run in a dehydrated state. That backfired badly. And other than a 3,8k swim or even a 180k bike ride a marathon by itself remains a serious challenge not to be underestimated.

But even though the race did not go according to plan the weekend was just great! Sunday came to an end with some great fireworks celebrating the last finishers of the day and Monday saw one of the most emotional award ceremonies I have ever been to.

Bottom line: We were at the heart of triathlon and will be back in 2014!

 

 

 

 

Fifteen Hours One Minute and Twenty Seconds…

… sometimes is not enough to beat the time limit of an Ironman but still one of your the greatest achievements! Fifteen hours flat is the time limit for Ironman Germany in Frankfurt. And it was close last Sunday for Team Timex athlete Luis Alvarez Gonzalez.

An eye witness account of one great race!
Some say reasonably fast Ironman athletes can’t really imagine how it is to be racing at the back of the pack. For me though that’s not really true as I started out with 12:11h and also have an finish oat 13:26h under my belt. And just this last Sunday I got a first hand lesson just how close it can be when things go seriously wrong in your preparation and your race. Not even back in 2006 when I was shouting at the TV to make Normann Stadler reach the finish line in front of Macca to win his second Ironman Hawaii did I suffer that much stress spectating at an Ironman.

But let’s start from the beginning
The Timex Multisport Team has a few very unique personalities on board and among them is The Most Interesting Man In The World aka Luis Alvarez Gonzalez. He’s the gus who wants to finish his 100^th Ironman at Ironman Hawaii this year. He is combining his crazy race schedule with an even crazier work schedule so he is not always that fast but always finishes. And he told me in Februars “No problem I only have to do another three before Kona this year”. Little did he know that he’s suffer from a herniated disc in his back in mid April and had to have surgery. This resulted in a “No sports for 2,5 months!”–order from the doctors and so he was not able to compete in Ironman Lanzarote in May.
Eighty days after surgery – he was allowed to do some sports now after all Luis flew to France. Not for a holiday but to pursue his second sports project, the Seven Summits. So off to Charmonix he was and up to the top of Europe, Mt. Blanc, he went an Wednesday, July 3^rd. Ans as the sports break had officially had ended he went on the Frankfurt, Germany to do the Ironman only four days later. Train for this he did… NOT!
Race Weekend
That was where I came in when we met at the Ironman Expo Friday afternoon. Luis his legs still a bit sour from all the climbing asked for a massage therapist to work on his legs. So I made a few calls and 20 minutes later he was lying on a bench in downtown Frankfurt receiving his massage of the day.


All the mountaineering gear had lead to Luis not having and airline luggage capacity left for a bike and so he had to borrow one for the race, he told me. So I offered mine for him to at least have a Quintana Roo triathlon bike for the race instead of the road bike he had borrowed. Regrettably my bike was a bit too large and so he went for the borrowed bike in the end.



Then came race day which saw me heading out for a bike ride myself so that I could follow Luis’ race only through the web. 1:15h for the swim looked very good from where I was. On my way back to Frankfurt I crossed the Ironman bike course once and it was meant to be that Luis was just passing by kilometer 120 at that time. We managed a quick exchange of words that was not very promising: Luis had already had two flat tires, the second of which had cost him a precious 20 minutes as he had had to wait for the support vehicle due to only having taken one spare tube. I said “See you on the run!”, he said “See you on the walk!” and I remembered that quite probably Luis would be reduced to walking due to his back injury.

It’s going to be very close!
I put up shop at the 8,5k point of the 10,5k loop of the run course and it took very long for Luis to come by the first time. In the end the 180k bike ride had taken him almost 7:30h. Even though he knew even at this point that it would be a close thing to reach the finishline in time to beat the 15 hour time limit he was still smiling.



It seems the doctors had told him to walk the entire marathon. But that would have meant that he would never be able to reach the finish line in time. He finished the first of four ron laps after eleven hours into the race. So he faced a tough decision and at the beginning of lap two started a run/walk mix to beat the time limit. We on the side of the course did our best to cheer him on every time he came by. And when he headed out to the southeastern turnaround of the run course it was already 9:25pm. His face was a grimace from the pain at that point but he was determined. There are only a few athletes still out on the course but everyone is determined to make it in time. Two of the athletes that were behind Luis going out to the last turnaround come back in front of him. When we spot Luis again he still has 2,5k to go with 18 minutes left. It’s going to be very, very close now.

In the Tunnel
The three of us who are left give our best to give him the final push to the finish line. The other two leave for home at this point and I follow Luis for the last stretch of the run. First I wait for him at the last bridge to cross. Then I follow closely behind. I talk to him all the time for him to forget the pain and focus on running. But even then his mind seems to work better than mine or he is just better aware of the speed he is running at. He mumbles “One minute!” and keeps on running. Not giving up hope we continue on.
We now pass by T2 where other athlete are just picking up their bikes. Those guys are just amazing. Realizing how close it might be for Luis they all scream and shout for him to “Go! Go! Go!” At this time even I am in a kind of tunnel forgetting to look at my watch and just focusing on getting “my athlete” to the finish line in time. It’s funny how the spectators at such an event seem to somehow adopt certain athletes during a race. We always stay until the last athletes finish the race and always there are a few you identify with. First they smile, then they suffer, have cramps, are hot or cold, but they all share this common determination to finish this thing. Right in this tunnel I take a last picture:



It’s only a few meters that I can accompany Luis from there as the red carpet they lay out for those last 150 meters up to the finish line is for athletes only. And just there where Luis turns right and takes his first steps onto the red carpet I hear them ringing. The church bells of Katharinenkirche strike 10pm and I know that Luis is not going to make it in time. He won’t make it into the official results list this time. Nonetheless I think this is one among the almost 100 Ironman he has already done that he won’t forget. And just to prove this Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman, goes all out for Luis. The PA has to be turned off at 10pm sharp and so he shouts out his trademark line to Luis from the top of his lungs: “You are an Ironman!”
Half an hour after crossing the finish line Luis exits the post race recovery area with a big smile on his face. The pain he is in is very evident but he is so very proud to have overcome so many obstacles this year and on this day.

Congratulations Luis!

Tim