"I plan to get to Roth around 4am or so. (check the bike) Then Hilpolstein hopefully around 5-530. "
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Either I don't understand what you are talking about or this doesn't make any sense. You enter and exit the swim at the same place so you can check your bike right there at T1 before going to the swim start. What wave are you in? Why in the world would you get there at 4:00? Or, perhaps I just don't understand what you are asking.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

You're absolutely right! I'm going crazy!!! Not helped by a shocking ride this morning where I felt like I was made of Lead!

I've been massively over thinking all this, since I've never done split transitions before and I'm making it into "a thing" and getting muddled which is stupid since its not my first race by any means! (My Dad has been on calming duty for a couple days!)

Apologies!

My wave is 0755. But everyone talks about the roads being snarled up with traffic given how many competitors there are so people talk about getting there as early as possible. I hate being "late" or rushed, but tbh I could be over thinking this as well!

I actually go as late as I can . . . it drives my homestay family crazy. After the pro start you still have almost 1.5 hours in transition before your start. That is plenty of time to care of everything.

RELAX! The race goes off with German precision. This will be my 8th time and I have never had an issue.

Best wishes, and I hope we cross paths. I'm 2308.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

I'm trying. :- )



Thanks. I'm 3218.

I am exactly the same way. That's why I got to the lot (that I linked to) uber early. Just sat in my car for a couple of hours, then strolled over to the swim start/T1 area, checked my bike to make sure it was OK, and then did the race

Sorry one more Q - have you thought about how you actually get back from the finish line back to the swim start after finishing (where most likely we will have parked our cars?) Guess it will be dark by then but we'll have our bike (+ bags) as the only option correct? Unless one parks in Roth in the morning and then takes the shuttle bus which makes it an even earlier wake up time (hope not).

I am flying the next morning on Monday so I don't see how i can do all this, watch some of the finish line party and drive back to Nueremberg...may have to miss all the fireworks and stuff :-(

David:

This discussion has been helpful. I am also doing the race- here from California. Thanks for the info. I am #3239 and in the 7:55am wave. How late is it reasonable to get there to load my bike with water bottles and get to the start for my wave? Will there still be spots to park?

-Tim

I'm not sure about parking . . . I just get dropped off on the road 1/2 mile away or so.

I always have to negotiate with my homestay hosts on time - They don't speak English and I don't speak German :-)! I usually get there as late as I can before the pro race, which means getting dropped out at about 5:45. As I recall there are still parking places.

It is a fabulous experience!!

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

#1224...flying in next Wednesday morning...staying in Nuremberg. Ride a pink/camo QR...hard to miss. I'm ready to get excited!!

There is a shuttle bus with a trailer for bikes that leaves the T2 area on a regular basis until just after midnight. It will take you back to the bridge at T1 and drop you off and from there you walk to wherever you parked your car at the swim start. So this can be a bit of a walk depending which lot you parked in. A suggestion...it's really dark when they drop you off and you will be tired and cranky. I recommend a headlamp or flashlight to help you navigate the field to find your car in the dark.

I finished my race about 2 hours slower than planned. Then I watched the finish for an hour or so. Then strolled over to the buses, waited maybe 30-45 minutes to get on one and got dropped off at the start with my car. It was still light out when I got dropped out. Just around dusk.

As far as the party afterwards, I skipped all that. I was so completely drained, like never before at any IM, that I just wanted to get in bed.

Cool! Thanks for the info.

My options are then to leave my bike in T2 after the race, go and collect the car from near the start then come back to Roth and load up.
OR
If they permit it, take my bike and 1 relative on the shuttle bus back to the Swim Start. And load up there, but as people have said, you miss the finish line atmosphere and part of me really wants to experience that at least once if possible.

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.

You must have done a different race than me. Did you read the pre race athlete guide and all of the information that was e-mailed? Every single thing that you appear not to have known about was clearly indicated and communicated in advance and on site. I didn't experience a single one of your problems AND I thought the new run course was great - lots of hot spots with large crowds at many point on the course including along the canal, market place, landing, Buchenbach, etc. I have now done that race 8 times over the last 29 years and it appears to me they went back and improved, if even just slightly, every aspect of the race which was already the best in the world.

Why did you have a terrible week before hand and why was everything so bad? I was just grateful to still have the opportunity and ability to do that great event.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

I agree you need to read all the documentation. Only thing I also find mind boring is the 25k up and down the canal. This is not really my thing also, rather have 2-4 loops.

The only things I really struggled with was finding the registration tent. A sign with an arrow and just saying "over the bridge" would have sufficed. Maybe there was one I didn't see. A large Map with a "you are here" would have been helpful too. It's not the end of the world, but I was already running 2 hours late at that point so what I needed was simplicity! haha

Re: the bag pick up, I forgot. The fact that very few of the volunteers weren't armed with this info is odd.

I don't know where you parked your car. Car parking on the map turned out to be insufficient imo. I parked in side roads at least 15 min walk away. Friday and Saturday.

Large Crowds? On the Run course? Past 8pm? I don't think so. And the various others out there would potentially agree! .

I can't speak for others. I didn't hate it, just bits griped. The run course being the main reason I wouldn't rush back. And for reasons I wont go into, I was far from fully relaxed and tapered, going into the race which may have explained why I didn't perform as well as I wanted. Which again may affect my overall opinion of the last week.

You obviously enjoyed it. But then perhaps having done the race numerous times previously will give you a different opinion. The lines about "improved every aspect slightly" and "best in the world" smack of hyperbole to me though...

Funny , I look for races without loops. Liked the Roth course in 16, and was glad to hear they went almost back to it this year.

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-shoki

Perhaps a bit of hyperbole . . . I'll plead guilty - I tend to see the biggest and best of things. I consider myself very lucky to have done a LOT of races around the US and around the world. I've done numerous "world championship" races and US championship races. If I put on my critical eye I could certainly critique ALL of them. I am also a fan of the other race producers and actually think our little niche sport is lucky to have such good producers. In my opinion on the totality Roth is perhaps the best of them all. It certainly had larger crowds in all three aspects of the race than any of the WCs I have done.

No, I wasn't on the course past 8:00 pm. That is the +/- with all the waves is that the pros and early waves are off the course way earlier (comparatively) than in some races. I thought the crowds on the run were pretty good even on the canal compared to any other triathlon. Much, much, much larger crowds everywhere than in races such as Hawaii, or anywhere else in the US. BTW, after 8:00 in Hawaii and in other IM races there is almost NO spectator support after 8:00. Now, if you compare it to the London or New York marathons then that really wouldn't be fair . . . but for a triathlon the crowds were the best I have seen. The only place where they were less than before was in Eckersmuhle, but that may be because the "fever" was lower because the run no longer goes through there.

I was amongst the first at the registration tent. I walked over there from the other side of town not knowing where it was other than at the expo but was able to walk right to it no problem (I don't speak German). The fact that you couldn't find registration in the expo certainly points out that the expo is huge and is the best triathlon expo I have seen. Where else is the expo so big that you can't find registration in it :-). Yes parking is tough, but Roth is small and this is a huge event . . . that is just part of it. We stayed in town and my family rode bikes to the various venues.

I sure hope you enjoyed Solar. If not, then this just isn't the race for you, which is fair.

Obviously I don't know why you were "far from fully relaxed" but didn't you have a large PR? If so, it sounds like you had a great performance. Best wishes,

EDIT: I just realized that you were the guy all worried about logistics before the race including how to get your stuff from the swim start to T1 . . . I think you need to relax a bit - as I recall your dad was telling you that too. How old are you?

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Let's see the lock broke on my Nuremberg rental apartment leaving me stuck outside for 2 hours with my bike but my passport, clothes and wallet were in the apartment; there was no transponder in my registration packet; our original rental bike fell thru on Friday afternoon.....but ROTH was the most amazing race experience!!


I have to agree with David....we completed different races. I will agree with the lack of signage ....I think they could use a little bit of improvement on that....I went to the Expo on Thursday.....walked around, couldn't find registration so just asked someone and they pointed me in the right direction....easiest 140.6 registration I've ever gone through.

Other than that I was "concerned" about where to park for the open swim (previous IMs include IMMT which does not happen at the exact swim start for the course)...but I just figured I'd go to TI and sure enough there everybody was....glad I got there early...that parking was ridiculous!! And having parking attendants yelling at us in German was a bit much on race morning as we were looking for the Drop Off zone. I think its more the shear amount of people that makes the post-race area tough....it's small for that many athletes ....but most of the volunteers seemed to know where to go.

Roth is a small town....after Thursday--I started using the train more...I also stayed in Nuremberg and found it much easier to use the train and walk to/from. Also I would advise anyone who is spectating the race to rent a bike....so much easier for the husband to get around...he had a better day than I did....was able to get a place on the bridge and across the canal during the swim, toured around Hilpostein and then found a place on Solar Hill then hung out at the beer garden in Roth until I started the run....caught me on the canal and again in the city.

I LOVED the run....I would do this run over and over again. I wish there was more canal....I found it so peaceful and relaxed...even with the amount of spectators. I couldn't get over the amount of spectators on the run course....honestly, it was hard going through Roth with everyone cheering with beers in their hands....motivated me to finish and grab one!

Sorry you didn't have the best experience but this was an unbelievable race!

Sorry to hear about your race! I had a completely different point of view- started at 7:55am and finished a bit before 10:00pm. I had no problem asking about and finding registration- and there was no line at all on Thursday morning. I found some side streets with parking to go to the expo and only had to walk about 200-300 yards. The expo was the bigeest I have seen. All the pre-race events were well done. The instructions and pre-race meeting was thorough. The drive to the parking at the canal on race day was fine. I left the Hilton in Nurnberg at 4:30am and was parked by 5:00am, with time to rest before going to transition. The swim was fine, with only a little bit of a swimmer log jam in the first 500 yards. The bike course was nice, not too warm, but a bit of a wind on the 2nd loop. The run course was fine by me, just a bit long into the woods before the turn-around. The atmosphere, spectators, and volunteers were amazing. Perhaps a few more signs would have helped here and there (e.g., a cyclist zipped by me early on then ran into the sign showing "go left" for the 2 loops of the bike course versus right to the finish). This was a well-run race, 1st class in my book. There are little things I might change, but no serious complaints! Challenge Roth is a excellent operation! I would recommend this race to anyone. I hope others enjoyed this race as much as I did. It took longer than I would have liked, but I would not significantly change the operation or course. Well done- to the Challenge Family!

-Tim

"I LOVED the run....I would do this run over and over again. I wish there was more canal....I found it so peaceful and relaxed...even with the amount of spectators. I couldn't get over the amount of spectators on the run course....honestly, it was hard going through Roth with everyone cheering with beers in their hands....motivated me to finish and grab one! "
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Yeah, it was so packed and so loud that my host family was there screaming for me and I never ever saw them! I had to make it up later :-)!

Glad you had such a great experience.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Looking through some of the 2019 info and this caught my eye:

''Attention: Please bring your identity card, your own chip, start pass of your national federation and your start number when collecting your start documents.''

From this I read I need to bring my ID (passport), my own timing chip (odd), BTF card (why?), and my race number (imagine emailed out before race).

passport - no issue
timing chip - really? that seems really strange, where does one obtain a stand-alone chip?
national federation card - I wasn't planning on BTF membership this year, as my scheduled races are Roth and Kona so a BTF membership isn't going to get me very far. needed?
race number - no issue

I can get the BTF membership if this is going to save me a load of hassle... otherwise i'd think a race day membership (as with Kona) or any other race would suffice... as for the chip i have no idea and assume I'm misreading something.

Any corrections/advice is appreciated.

Thank you

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________________________________________________________
Taylor Rogers

2024: IM Hamburg

When going to registration you need ID, USA Triathlon Card, and look up and know your race number. IF you have your own chip that you are using bring it and they will program it - never a worry for me. I believe getting a USAT card is cheaper than joining the German organization; but, yes you need an organization card.

BTW - I found this NO hassle at all. On site packet pick up/check in is about as easy as anywhere I have ever been.

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Thanks! Assumed the check in was pretty straight forward but always best to ask the stupid questions and be prepared.

Well if it makes sense I’ll re-up on my BTF membership (don’t live in the USA) . Thanks for the info that it’s not required to bring a chip and they will provide one.

Thanks again for the info!! Really Appreciated!

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________________________________________________________
Taylor Rogers

2024: IM Hamburg