Just wanted to share my experience in Roth last Sunday! Sorry it’s a bit long…
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1hour and 26min PR 
Quelle Challenge Roth Race Report
June 24th, 2007
This year despite the ups and downs in my training due to my crazy work schedule and a pain on my right knee that kept coming on going since the beginning of the year, I have been so lucky to have PRed on my two Halfironman distances earlier this year. Which gave be a boost in confidence for Roth. I had only heard great things about Quelle Challenge Roth. How the field was so competitive, the crowds were amazing, the people so friendly, the towns so beautiful, the race so well organized and the route so scenic.
A year ago, the day before doing Lake Placid IM, Mariana and I met with our friends Pam and Daniel, who had just arrived from doing Roth and they were just ecstatic and excited about the race and were talking about doing Roth again. So I decided I wanted to experience all those nice things and check out if all of the great things about Challenge Roth were true. Then I convinced Mariana to join me (which she is now very thankful for 
)
Pam and Daniel told us that the swim was nice, very calm and in a canal. The bike course was rolling hills and technical but you felt like in the Tour d’ France from all the spectators in the course and the run was nice as a good part of it was in dirt roads.
I knew and felt I was in better shape than last year but I wasn’t sure what to expect. My swimming was not consistent at all, sometimes I was doing my swim workout, but when work got crazy it was the first thing out the door (which for a poor swimmer as I am should be a priority…but you know how that is?!) I did lot of biking this year (at least more than last) and was feeling very good and strong. But I was following HR and had no idea what pace I was generally doing. In the past 2 months I got to bike with some very nice people from the DC tri club( Kirsten, Chad, Eric, Lawrence, etc) and had got some awesome long rides with them. And for running after last year Chicago marathon my easy runs kept getting faster and faster. Especially since Mariana got so fast on the run, every time I would run with her, I would push myself and that helped me too. My easy long runs were around 7:30-7:45min/mile and I was happy with that until my right knee started to give me problems. According to my friend and great massage therapist Raquel, was due to lack of stretching after my workouts (especially the bike rides). About a month before the race when I had my long runs scheduled, I had to miss 3 weeks of running due to pain on the knee. I started to get worried about my run for Roth then…and changed my goals from doing X time, to have a “pain free” marathon.
I got few massages from Raquel, which helped me a lot physically and mentally. As Raquel is always so encouraging and just knows what to say to make you feel better. It was nice good to see her just before heading to Roth!
We got to Roth Wednesday morning before the race. We were very good and stayed up all day until late to get used to the time difference. Unfortunately I had to work that Wednesday and Thursday before the race. Which was a very bad idea as I was very stressed out and worked until very late (German time).
We stayed in a small hotel in Greding, a very pretty town about 30mins from Roth. The owners were so sweet with us, they even got up at 3:30am to make us breakfast on race day and went to cheer for us.
We got registered on Thursday and got to see my crazy and cool coach Olaf. We met with him and about 8 of his athletes who were also doing the race, for dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. Unfortunately I had to work and almost had to miss dinner and was only able to join them 2 hours later than planned…basically when they were having dessert. But it was nice to see him, Daniel, Pam, Jorge (Pam’s brother) and meet few other people who were doing the race.
I took Friday off and finally was first day I started to feel excited and “nervous” about the race. Since I was working until 3am (German time) the day before, I decided to take a little nap before going to the pasta party in Roth. We had the pasta dinner and met Narda, another Colombian girl who was doing the race. Also met Olaf, Pam, Daniel…so nice to see all these familiar friendly faces. It was good to get little tips here and there from people who have done the race before.
Saturday we woke up early, had a nice breakfast at our hotel and went for a swim in the canal. It was nice and calm and easy to sight. Which is good for me as I generally get very anxious on the swim. Then we met a group of Portuguese friends of Mariana, who were doing the race. We went for a short bike and run. We also got our bikes checked at a local bike shop, which was a great idea as they were very thorough. .
Then we went for a nice pasta lunch, then off to our hotel to get things ready for the race. Had another pasta dinner around 6pm…and felt we definitely had done a good job with our carbo loading…
Finally race morning came, got up really early 3:15am for a nice breakfast and the good vibes that our host family made for us. They looked so excited for us and wished us well.
We were supposed to met our Portuguese friends at 4:30am and we were almost there I realized we forgot our wetsuits at the hotel. I was upset with ourselves…and the truth I got very nervous…I am so glad Mariana stayed cool and assured me we would be Ok. I wanted to cry…I couldn’t believe how stupid and careless we could be!!! We had rented a huge van, which I normally didn’t drive fast…but then I realized that the Autoban was a great invention! 
As we were able to make it on time to our race and did everything we needed to do before the swim. I couldn’t believe we were able to get everything done! And then it was time…the good thing about the little incident that morning, was that it did not give me time to get nervous about the race. We had 10min or less to spare before we jumped on the water.
Swim:
I was able to find some feet for half of the swim and felt strong and calm…then the other half the girl I was following didn’t like I was drafting of off her and stopped to let me go…then we were swimming together side to side…and the last half seemed eternal…especially after the second bridge on the turned around, then the second wave (who started 40mins after us 
started to catch me) Oh! Well…not much I could do than hope it would be over soon. My goal was not to get negative in the swim…and somehow I managed. It was tough at the end for me…especially when I saw my total time 1:33hours (well…not that I have put the work to improve by a lot) but I was hoping I would do 1:30h worse case scenario. I reminded my self that I needed to stay focus, and not get negative. Patience….Patience…It is a long day. Concentrate, and focus on now…which was the bike. Yeahhhhhhhh…then the fun part begun.
T1: uneventful other than few second of confusion when I couldn’t find my bike!
3:30
Bike:
Well not so fast as I always forget the swim takes a lot out of me. And it took a good while until I felt “the connection” I generally feel with my “torito” (my beloved Colombian bike, for those of you who don’t know). I was worried that the swim got so much out of me…and I was not going to feel my legs for bike. I was also a little frustrated and disillusioned with my swim…and had to work hard on focusing on the present. But when I got to hills in Greding, the spectators just transport you to another place… to the Tour d’ France and I felt like I was Lance and I was leading the race. It was a good hill…but I didn’t want it to end…There were tons and tons of people screaming at the top of their lungs, yelling, and cheering like something I have never experienced before. I was high five’ing lot of kids, I was so excited…maybe a little too excited…when I realized that my heart rate was 170bpm at the top of the hill….oooopss I still have to climb another 3 good Km…then I settled on my seat and kept enjoying the experience. This was the first quarter of the bike, and I reminded myself that there was probably going to be a lot more of this cheering and I should just let the crowd push me along and feed from all than energy. The bike course was hillier than I expected it to be and definitely very technical. I know I have to improve my bike skills, those crazy switch backs on the course were very scary to me. I was also not able to stay aero for most of the race. I think it was a mix of the cross winds, the switch backs, the hills and my lack of bike handling skills. But even after finishing quite last on my AG on the swim, I was able to reel in a bunch of ladies from my AG on the bike. That was a good boost! It was very nice to see Sedi (one of our Portuguese friends) half way on the bike who gave me my 2 bottles of nutrition for the second loop. As in Roth you have to set your own special needs for the bike and the run. The second loop of the bike I felt better than the first, I guess finally I recovered from the swim and was able to have about even splits for the two loops of the bike and a total time of 5:39hours and an avg HR 146bpm. I think I did a good job at pacing myself as on the last 10k of the bike I was checking how my legs were, and they felt fresh…that was a good sign. My back was bothering me a little from not staying in aero position for most of the race. Got to work on that!
T2: Got changed and had my first port-a-potty stop.
3:04
Run:
First Km all I was thinking was on my form, I felt kind of slow, but when I saw my first split (4:30min/km. 7:15min/mile) I was very excited. But it was a little down hill…Umm I thought this race was pancake flat??!!! Liars!! Liars!! Don’t get me wrong, it is not a difficult marathon, I really enjoyed it… but I had heard from lot of people that it was very flat, so every time I saw a little uphill or downhill I couldn’t believe it…I guess I was not prepared for that mentally. But everything went so smooth until around km 25 (15.5mile mark) I was going at a pace between 4:30-4:55 min/km (7:15-7:55min/mile) The best thing was that I felt NO KNEE pain, the soft surface felt so good. I felt so strong, I was passing lot of guys and some women…It was a great feeling! 
About km 25 I started to feel stomach pain, and felt that I had to go to the bathroom real bad. I stopped by 3 food/aid stations, but none of them had port-a-potty. I couldn’t wait any longer so I had to go to the woods, and I was very lucky that a volunteer who was coming from the woods gave me some toilet paper. 
(sorry if this is too much information). That stopped cost me some good mins (7:56min/km,12:46min/mile) I figured I would feel good after that and the bad part was over. Wrong! That was just the beginning…I had to stop 2 more times. One of them I was lucky a nice lady let me use her bathroom.
It was so nice to see Mariana on the run, she looked so strong and happy. Especially the first loop. The second loop I could tell she was digging deep! It was also nice to see Sedi cheering us along, Yolanda and Bea, Hugo, Narda … And again the spectators were just amazing…they knew what to tell you to make you keep going. I kept telling myself to stay focus, to concentrate, to define today myself. I kept telling myself that over and over…especially on the last 10k when I wanted to stop but I didn’t. I only focused on passing the next person in front of me. I saw a woman ahead of me and told myself I would be pissed later on for not having passed her. So I pushed the pace a little and was able to pass her. Then kept going (mainly let the spectator and their energy carry me the last 2km), when I saw 2 other women in front of me. I had mixed feelings, I felt I couldn’t push any harder, that my stomach was so bad, and I just wanted it to be over…but I couldn’t let those 2 other women beat me … And if I looked bad…I think they looked worse as I passed them and they did not make an effort to stay with me or follow me. The good thing is that one of the 2 ladies that I passed just before the finish was from my AG 
The last 200meter of the race of this race are the most amazing experience. I felt I was winning the race, high five’ing everyone, the crowds went insane…I felt chills, I was so happy that I wanted to cry from excitement. I ended up slowing down about ~18mins on the second half of the marathon, but I did not stop for a walk in any of the aid/food stations as I had done in my previous IM marathons. And that was a goal I had, so that was good. Run time was 3:45hours.
I couldn’t break 11hours which up to mile 16 seems to be a very doable goal…But I felt I gave the best I had on that day. I did 11:04:10h (8th in my AG) And it was a 1:26hours PR. (PRed on the 3 sports, even on the transitions!) What a day!
As soon as I cross the line I was looking for Mariana, and a very friendly young guy told me I was lucky to be randomly selected for “doping control”. When I stopped I was not feeling good…and doing the Doping Control was the last thing I wanted. But what can we do? I saw Mariana and told her about it. Then went the tent where they make you pee on a cup…which had to be a certain amount. Well, I was a little dehydrated and couldn’t pee. So I had to drink almost 3 liters of water followed by Sebastian the whole time. The lady at the tent doing the testing was not very nice, the only good thing is that Joanna Lawn was also there getting tested, so we got to talk for a little. She was trying to talk to me in Spanish, as her husband is from Venezuela and she is learning Spanish. Still I did not want to be there even if the king of I don’t know where was there. I had to wait for 2-3 hours until I could pee. Sebastian my chaperone followed me everywhere while the 2-3 hours, but he was very nice. Mariana, Sebastian and I got some food (the chicken soup just hit the spot and made my stomach feel better). Sebastian used his VPI pass to get us to a nice place to see people finishing. He also got has a list with the details of the first 10 women and men finishers.
Mariana had an amazing race (10:31h, 16th overall and 1st in her AG)
Then we met with Olaf, who had a great race too and finished 5th overall (8:15h) and told me that I had to focus on my swim…He asked me if the private lessons were not helping and Mariana was so nice to tell my coach that my problem was that I did not swim much. Thanks Mariana, I love you too! 
Now…. What’s next? First relax few weeks in Portugal, physically and mentally and then start back training for IMC!!!
Thanks for reading!
Andrea
