You can get around easiest during race day as a spectator with a rental bike. If you pick up a local map once there
taking the back roads you can see a lot of hot spots, including Hilpostein(Solar Hill). You can rent a bike for about
10 euros a day.

From T1, Solar Hill is about a 25 minute walk. It is easy to find even if you don't know the area - you just need to follow the massive crowd headed out of T1 and you will get there.

Solar Hill is at mile 50ish of the bike course, so you have plenty of time to watch the pros come out of the water, see the person you are there supporting get out of the water, and make your way to Solar Hill before the pros hit it on their first lap.

The bike course does a 12km jog around Hilpolstein there, so once you see your person come up Solar Hill, you can walk the 1km to the top of Hilpolstein and you will get to see people a second time only a few minutes later.

As for what I did: I said good luck to my wife, and sent her to swim start. Pros kicked off at 6:30 right on time (German efficiency for the win!), her wave was 6:45. I made my way up to the bridge and watched the swim from the bridge. The pros got out of the water in just under an hour, and I set myself up on the bridge to see them come flying out of T1. Then I went back down to the swim start just under the bridge and saw my wife come out of the water. Then I ran back up the bridge to see her come out of T1.

I then walked to Solar Hill and spent the next two hours there. I saw the pro men, pro women come through, and eventually my wife. Then when she passed I walked back to the top of Hilpolstein and saw her again a few minutes later. I then walked back to T1. By then the pro men were approaching the end of their second lap so I got to see them fly past. I then walked to my car which was parked near T1. I had been on my feet for 6 hours at this point (5am to 11am) with no rest, so I spent a few minutes chilling out in my car. I then drove it out of the parking area and made my way to Roth. I found a spot in one of the parking garages and left it there. By this point it was just after noon. The pro men and women were already out on the run course and the faster AGs were starting to stream into T2. I walked from the parking garage to T2 which was about a mile, bought myself a bratwurst, and made the dumb decision to walk to the "beer mile" in Eckersmuhlen. It was supposed to be a big party. It was a 4 mile walk from T2 to the beer mile but I figured it would be worth it. Turns out it wasn't. Was pretty lame there. No real party. So I walked my ass all the way back to T2 with about 5 minutes to spare before my wife rolled in. She was fast in transition and I had to run from the Bike In to the Run Out quickly to catch her.

At this point it was pretty hot and the map of the run course indicated I wouldn't really be able to find her out there easily without running like crazy so I went back to the finish line. Was just in time to see Yvonne van Vlerken come in to win for the women. A few minutes later one of the guys I knew that was also there racing came through the finish. After that I decided to go find a shady spot and took a short nap. There is a ton of stuff to see around the finish line. The expo is hopping, so if you are interested in that stuff its a good place to hang out. There are a couple biergartens in the expo/finish area which are also fun and had oompa-bands playing. When I saw on the live tracker that my wife was getting nearer the end I got out to the 39k mark and caught her there to encourage her for the last 3k, then got myself back to the finish to see her come across.

I made it in. I had my email already copied and ready to paste. Living in Naples, Italy at the moment. Roth was on my must do list loving to Europe from the states. Excited to have gotten in on the first try.

Big thanks, this info will be great for my girlfriend. =)

For those who pre registered: have you received the follow up email with registration instructions yet? The original email states a follow up email will come out in 24 hours. Thanks!

Yes I received mine the afternoon after pre registering on the Monday morning

I got the email with the username and password for registration last Monday at 4:15 pm CEST. I completed registration as soon as I got home from work that day.
My last fear is that my bank could screw up the money transfer. Hopefully I'll get a confirmation soon.

Thanks for the replies! I find it buried in my spam folder.

Wondering out of curiosity what the cost was for the room. Managed to get two slots for Roth 2016 for my wife and I but need a second room for our son and mother inlaw. Cheers

Fiddy euros

Hi Guys,

It's taken me a while but I've finally got around to doing my race report from this years race.

Check it out if you are interested or possibly racing next year.

http://ironpiper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/challenge-roth-2015-race-report.html


Cheers,


Al

I was able to preregister this morning. Time to figure travel and lodging arrangements

On January 22 it was announced that a 'unique waiting list' was to be introduced for those (like me) who had not been able to get a spot for Challenge Roth. I e-mailed immediately and got a mail back this morning that I'm in. I was about to register for Ironman Maastricht which is 2 weeks later, but now I'm going to Roth instead. It's about 750km from where I live (The Netherlands) and since Challenge Roth takes place in the first week of school holidays I'll take my wife and kids (and dog) with me.

Looking forward to July 17!

I'm in via the December thingy...

2nd time out. Let's hope it's not as disastrous as last time out. :o)

Schedule starts today.

What was disastrous about your first time in Roth?

I'm working with a new coach, my schedule has been going for a couple of weeks already.

Also in within the dec 6th lottery. Didn't fever over it, so just tried on time. Was still suffering whacked legs I gave myself the first LD 6 weeks before, and those were talking to me after the confirmation email.....sounded something like "you mamaluke"
Short later a friend called excited about him getting a slot for is first LD and I replied, okay...."looks like you got company" haha.

Friends of mine living about 40 mls away, looks like we can crash there but I will doubt there is much available nearby the event site.

---

-shoki

Nothing to do with the race itself in terms of disastrous. Long story short, the first calories I managed to hold down was about 4.5 hours in. I had about 300 cals in total when starting the run. Totally delusional I set off at 8min/mile pace. Needless to say, I went to sleep about the 7k mark. I think it was a combination of nerves and drinking too much canal water (basically rubbish swim technique).

It's an amazing race. And im buzzing to go back. totally different mind set this time.

I booked and paid for an accommodation ~half an hour south of Roth immediately after I got confirmation I was in. My wife, kids and dog will come along, so I found some sort of holiday home near a camping site. It's not very luxurious, but it will do for a couple of days. I understand there's virtually nothing available in Roth itself, so you'll have to travel anyway on race morning. In Nuernberg there are still plenty of hotel rooms available.