glowstickgirl wrote:
Wondering how the day went, if the logistics worked out, and how was the new run course?
Well, I will prefix this by saying. I had a terrible week before hand and the day wasn't how I hoped either. So it may colour my opinions slightly!
In terms of the race, I swam very well (1h15) great by my standards! The bike was OK but as a Brit abroad it was only a matter of time before I got monumentally sun burnt! (despite sunscreen) I would suggest temps were high 20s / low 30s. There was a breeze, but nothing too bad, I think I got dehydrated on the bike, so when I tried to force down my 4th (of a planned 5) energy bars it was hard work. Of course when you are dehydrated that food doesn't digest either. It just sits in your stomach in a lump! So my Run was just awful! I'm no runner at the best of times, I was hoping for 4h30ish run. But ended up walk/running in 6h! I beat my previous IM PB by 40odd minutes. But overall, I'm very disappointed with how the day panned out.
Race Logistics. So, I had a hire car but the car parks listed on the Roth website in Roth itself are simply inadequate for 4K people plus spectators! This is regardless of Friday, Saturday or Sunday.They are all relatively small, say 50 cars! So get full really quickly. As do all the side streets that have parking options. The swim start parking is a bit better. We left our hotel in Nuremberg at 420ish and were in a field parked up 30mins later. I have read of others who got stuck in terrible traffic. So early is the key for anyone doing this race next year. It's not the most organised of races. Forget what people tell you about "German efficiency" All it needs is more signage. It took me 20 mins to find registration tent. The pasta loading party was on Friday not Saturday??? Post Race, I asked 6 volunteers before I found one who knew where our Bike and Run bags were post race (with the bikes in T2 as it turns out! Yet the "post race" green bags were in the cool down tent) A guy in bike pick up had been there for 2 HOURS! and Challenge couldn't find his bike! Yet they had made a big thing about how it was very secure, "we have people with guns and Dogs" which is a little worrying!
The shuttle buses need to be overhauled/changed imo. If you park in Buchen-Bach (park n ride system) and get the coach into Roth on race day. It's another coach from Roth to Hilpolstein for Swim Start. Of course the latter is for athletes only. So spectators are kind of forced to drive to Swim Start anyway if they want to see it. So why would anyone use it at all? (On a side note you cant see your athletes go off from the canal bank with T1 in. You need to be on the other side of the canal!) At the end of the day the coach was going Roth to Swim Start and had a trailer on for bikes. If I was to repeat the race, it's what I would use. Leave the car in the car park at swim start, any spectators can get a cab to Roth (or ride a bike) then go and collect the car at the end of the day.
Also like Zurich they need a shuttle bus between Swim Start and Solar Hill IMO
Run Course. I didn't like the course AT ALL! There was NO atmosphere and hardly any spectators on most of the run course. (those that were there, were trying hard, as were the volunteers, and I really appreciated their efforts) The drag up and down the canal is half the marathon. And is mind crushingly dull. (Probably why they allow MP3 players on the run!) Apparently previous events had MORE time on the canal path! A multi lap course round the town would be far preferable. Also I'm obviously in the last 1/3rd of athletes. But I find it unacceptable that some of the aid stations were packing up at around 8pm! Or had run out of products.
I will repeat that the Volunteers and Spectators are enthusiastic and really get into it. They are the best asset the race has! It's more some organisational niggles that bother me the most. Challenge have sent me a post race questionnaire that I will fill in accordingly. I fear that because the race sells out so quickly, they have rested on their laurels a little. It's one of the reasons I wasn't back in the village the next morning to get a guaranteed place for 2019.