In 2021 I had a complete list of events I wanted to compete in, this all started with Grafman in early June. Suffice to say that things changed drastically when out in late-May, testing out the bike just over a week before this event. So, over the past two years I’ve slowly been ticking off these events one-by-one in the best way possible, either by doing them as a relay event or by “downgrading” to an Aquabike where possible.
One event that stood out like s sore thumb was Challenge Roth – the flagship event by The Challenge Family based in Roth itself in Bavaria, Southern Germany. This event used to be Ironman Europe many years ago with the complete lack of long-distance events promoted by the Ironman company, this was one of the only events in Europe. The ever-hungry company started charging local companies for just being in the area on the day of the event and so a local man, who used to take part in this event regularly, took it on as his own and instead of charging local business, he included them and paid for their support in running this event. The event has 7500 volunteers on an annual basis and every single one of them are taken care of by Challenge Family so the town of Roth is now centred around this event event each year.
I had booked this event in 2019 but the Covid pandemic put paid to any participation in 2020 and as luck would have it, my 2021 entry was deferred to 2022 because the German government were being quite strict with oversees participants and as such, the organisers offered the deferral. Roll on another 12 months and there was a complete uncertainty of future operations so I deferred once again.
So here we are….
With the event being on the Sunday we set off from Harwich to the Hook Of Holland overnight on the Wednesday. After being woken up and kicked off the ship around 6am we set course to Nurnberg where our hotel was. The road trip was estimated at under 9 hours so we intended to have a few stops on the way. As (bad) luck would have it there were quite a few localised thunder storms and torrential rain so we had reduced to 20km/hr on the autobahn due to tree branches being strewn all over the road and visibility being about 10 metres in the rain. We took a detour into some country roads to avoid the autobahn mayhem and travelled for about 3 hours through some beautiful country towns. Then back on the autobahn where there were an obscene amount of roadworks where speed limits were 80km/hr instead of the derestricted speeds the German autobahns are renowned for. Then into rush-hour Nurnberg where we hit stationary traffic for quite a while before getting into our hotel around 7:30pm – an 11.5hr trip! After a quick bite to eat and a beer it was time to hit the sack and get some well-earned sleep.
Friday morning arrived with the first stress-point of the day, I had not recalled packing my wetsuit in the car! I’ve a fairly good photographic memory and I could picture it on the kitchen floor. So, after having a bit of a meltdown about the whole thing, Suzy set about contacting her mum who lives nearby, collecting the wetsuit, and then getting it to some friends who lived some 25 miles away, as they were flying in to Nurnberg airport on the Saturday to support “Team Esser”. During all this I was having a “senior moment” even though Suzy was sorting it!
We travelled to Roth after breakfast and went to the T1 transition area where I blagged a wetsuit from a Zone 3 guy, saying I was interested in buying one, all so I could jump in the canal to do a bit of a swim recce with quite a few other athletes. The water was quite warm so I was somewhat concerned that it would be a non-wetsuit event, only to be assured by everyone around me that it has never been a non-wetsuit event as the “canal master” opens the dam and lets colder water into the canal to get it under the temperature required so athletes need wetsuits. I enjoyed the swim, handed back the wetsuit to the Zone 3 guy and suggested “I might buy one” just to sound genuine!
Then off to Roth where we walked around the expo seeing what was being offered. Suzy bought a few things and at this point I let on that my Di-2 battery had failed earlier in the week and I had hoped it was a one-off. This was the second stress-point of the day and Suzy demanded I drive back to the hotel, return to Roth with the bike and have one of the expo bike stands repair it – so I did. Returning and going straight to the bike stand and leaving it with them to sort. We then met Jenny & Graham, Beccles Triathlon Club mates who were out on a recce of the event before competing in it next year. They had intended on doing it this year but a serious injury prevented Jenny from doing any running so she deferred it. And so Graham decided to do that too so they could race together.
I met good friend Joe Skipper at the Hoka stand as I knew he’d be there due to professional commitments. There we talked and caught up on a few things and in the process I had somehow agreed with some female athlete that I was going to be her drinker in the beer mile that Joe regularly organises the day after the event. She couldn’t drink and I couldn’t run so it seemed the obvious team. I later was told that I had partnered up with Chelsea Sedero – the Kona World Champion. I mean…I didn’t know!
Back to the bike stand where it was fixed and I took the bike, we then registered “Team Esser” to receive our numbers, stickers & bags and we returned to Nurnberg for food and a chill out at the hotel.
Saturday morning and it was back to Roth, a 25min journey from our hotel, to listen to the athletes briefing in the main stadium. I took the bike and my cycling kit as I wanted to just do a “leg loosener” before the next days’ race and also, the bike had to have the stickers put on it and racked the day before – fairly customary in big races. After the athlete briefing I headed back to the car, put my bike kit on and headed out on part of the course to see how nice & smooth the roads were. During this the next stress-point occurred where it seemed my battery failed again. In saying that, the from mech was working fine but the rear wasn’t – only intermittently. So, in one gear I slowly pedalled back to the expo and got the bike stand to have another look. This ended up as a new rear mech as the motors in the mech had failed completely, trouble was, the bike stand only had a Dura Ace 11-speed mech so I had no choice but to agree to the repair and just take the financial hit on the chin!
Having a quick ride around to check all was ok, we set off to Swim/Bike transition to rack the bike and then we set off to Nurnberg City Centre to meet up with Abi & Ben for us to have something to eat and to collect my wetsuit!
Race Day!
Nice & early, 4am, we were in the hotel’s restaurant, eating breakfast before the race. The hotel staff were amazing and opened up the breakfast area at 3am because they knew a lot of their guests were athletes. Then, off to Swim/Bike transition to wait for the race start.
There was mixed information about the relay athletes, the solo’s needed to be in T1 by 6:30am and then weren’t allowed back out. It turned out that relay athletes could turn up later but saying that, parking our car nearby for me to walk the least distance would be a problem if we did that. So, we were both in T1 early and then picked somewhere to sit whilst all the other athletes scurried around sorting their bikes and equipment and then starting their races in waves every 5-minutes by the sound of a very loud cannon which set off quite a few car alarms in the process!
One by one, each wave started and the T1 area started to thin out a bit, we watched the Pro’s come in from the Wim and head out on the bike, I got pretty close to Joe and was really vocal in telling him to put some effort in the bike-leg. Then back to our pitched area where I got ready for the swim.
Suzy was allowed into the swim start area as she was my “official carer” and I gave her my crutch and jumped in the water.
Race Start!
I stayed out of the way of the main race and stayed quite close to the canal-side and unfortunately scraped my fingers on the concrete bottom of the canal. With just a sore finger (after checking) I swam alit more to the middle and what seemed literally no time at all I came into the transition area clocking a time of 1:11hrs which I was pretty please with. Suzy was waiting for me at the canal bank with my crutch and I was being shouted at by not only Abi, Ben, Jenny & Graham but by probably 5000 other spectators on the canal banks.
Onto the bike I headed out way too hard looking back, the air temperature was in the high 20’s already and although I was keen to smash the bike leg I was well aware of the fact I do not deal with the heat that well so calmed things down a little on the first of the two-lap bike course. When looking at the course profile it doesn’t come across as a hilly course but it definitely was and I was (again) completely over-geared on some of the climbs. First lap done, a quick check and I was completely out of hydration, so over the next 3 feed stations I was grabbing what I could to get back on top of things. In reality it was too late and the dehydration had completely set-in and I was on borrowed time. I rolled in to the Bike/Run transition area, in fact, I had rolled slowly downhill the last 5k’s into T2 as I was completely spent!
The volunteers took my bike from me and there was Suzy, telling me how amazing I was (debatable!) and I then handed the timing strap over to her to run her marathon. I pretty much collapsed in the now 34+ degrees weather and hid under a hedge to get some shade. My thoughts quickly focused on Suzy’s marathon. Was her calf going to hold up? Was her basic fitness going to see her through the 42.2k? How was she going to handle the heat?
The run course is just one big 1-lap course so getting to somewhere to cheer her on was pretty much impossible so I had to just watch it all on the athlete tracker as she passed each checkpoint. During this, I collected my bike after scoffing my face full of cheese rolls, cake and apple juice, I headed to the car along with Abi & Ben who were just outside the T2 area waiting for me, to where we agreed to park. We then headed into the expo area where the finish stadium was nearby and Abi bought me a Lemon Erdinger and some food – very much welcomed. Jenny & Graham joined us in the food area and then they all headed to a point just outside the town where they could cheer Suzy on with 3k’s to go and still make it into the stadium to cheer us both across the line. Abi kept me informed and told me Suzy was on her way so I made my way to the athlete repatriation area where relay teams could run/walk down to the finish line together. Something which Ironman won’t let you do 🙁
I saw Suzy come round the corner some 100 metres away, had a complete meltdown and cried, wiped my eyes before she could see me and we both walked into he finish stadium. We are welcomed by Felix – the race director and we got a hug off him, (Suzy got a kiss too!) and we enjoyed every metre of that finish area with Abi, Ben, Jenny & Graham cheering us on in the last 20 metres. We were given our medals by professional Sam Laidlow which was pretty cool and we were ushered through to the athletes finish zone where plentiful supply of food and drink, finishers t-shirts, “Roth” Erdinger glasses and plenty of fun & laughter between athletes telling their tales of the race. Once done we walked out to be greeted by our supporters and thanked them for an epic days’ of supporting. Sometimes you forget how big a day it is for supporting crew – they’re up about the same time you are and are literally waiting around for you to finish your race – quite knackering I think. They looked very tired and after a few special moments after our race they headed back to Nurnberg to their hotels for good nights’ sleep.
We stayed a little longer, where we got into the finishers stadium as spectators and watched the laser show and the spectacle that is Challenge Roth.
We then headed back to the hotel to have another Erdinger at the hotel and then collapse in the room for a well-earned sleep.
The next day, we headed into Nurnberg City Centre, via underground train – as luck would have it the station was pretty much under the hotel. Once in Nurnberg we walked (hobbled) around, taking in the local food & drink, walking up to the “Berg” and seeing the city from the heights of the castle and buying a few gifts for friends & family before heading home the next day – this time a 8hr journey, exactly what the SatNav said it was going to be! Overnight ferry from the Hook Of Holland to Harwich and a short journey back home in the morning and we were home by 9am.
Roth completed!
In fairness Suzy did say this was the last ever “Team Esser” relay outing. Considering her preparation for this event was just four 30min runs in the two weeks leading up to the race because of the injury after Nottingham Half a few weeks earlier – I am amazed how mentally strong she was in completing this marathon. I’m pretty sure, with the same preparation, I would’ve given up after 10k, if that! The heat didn’t help and considering she had to get me to the T1 area early, help me in & out of the canal, and then drive to the T2 area to then wait until mid-afternoon for me to come in off the bike and then to run a marathon in 35 degree heat is unbeleivable. I did say to her afterwards “I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to repay this one”. She just smiled – as she always does!
