Quelle Challenge Roth Travel and Schwimmen
My first (1st) Iron distance race.
First and most important, it’s good to have friends. Thanks to everyone who helped out on this endeavor. Tanner and Christine for running the Triathlon Experience handling all the logistics for what could have been a huge farce. Charley for telling girls ! was doing an ironman even when ! hadn’t even left town yet. Dr. Brett for the use of his bike box. He swore to me that it would protect my girl even if tsa jumped up and down on it. His misguided trust in federal employees is quaint. Shelby Katz for suggesting that ! might not be totally sane. As you know, mental illness is a leading cause of IronMan success. Jeff Carroll for starting several hours after me. Diamond Denny for being such a pain in the ass that ! couldn’t permit him to push harder than me. And for the Grand Slam Slugger. Dr. John for fixing my knee and Achilles tendon and generally just straightening things out. SUPER DANKE’
Travel
The plan: leave home @ 7:30a to Stapleton park n ride. 22 minutes on Sky Ride to DIA. 2 hours to get to the gate and have a snack. No problem.
How it really went: Left home @ 7:30a to Stapleton park n ride. On Sky Ride. 5 minutes to get onto I-70 down the on-ramp. 2 crashes up ahead. Bus diverted through neighborhoods. ! had looked up which side ! needed to de-bus online. US Airways was on the far side. Straight up to the counter. They pointed out that it was “operated by United” on the other side. Walk over get in a long line of teenagers wearing matching t-shirts. Then ! realized that was the “group” line. ! wanted to be in the “big baggage” line. Sidestep. That line only moved when someone figured out they only had little baggage and left. Tim from Boulder Tri Club was up ahead w/ his box. He recognized the Triathlon Experience sticker on my box and came over to chat. His flight had been cancelled so he had several hours until the next one. Still an hour to go. He waited after he checked his stuff. The checker decided ! was in a hurry and sent me on my way. Next up the tsa line. ! headed straight to where it usually backs up to. It was still going. It seemed to be getting longer faster than ! was approaching the end until it was almost to the baggage claim section. Time for some stress. The line actually moved pretty fast. No bonus searches for either of us. Train ride to B then walk the entire length of the concourse to my gate. There it is. 5 minutes to spare. The gate guy ignored me. Then told me they had been paging me @ the gate for 15 minutes. ! could see the plane sitting there. They had closed the doors and were unconcerned about my predicament. Of every flight ! was scheduled to be on including the adjustments that was the only one that went on time. Tim accompanied me to customer service to stand in that line. He held my spot while ! went to the phone to talk to “Bill” in India. He couldn’t find me anywhere. Finally to the front of the line. They told me to sprint to the far end of concourse C and try to get on that flight to Charlotte. They got me on and assured me ! would make my connection. ! was skeptical since my layover was only an hour and this flight was taking off more than an hour later. Tim was on his own.
Charlotte to Frankfurt was to launch @ 4:30. ! touched down in Charlotte @ 4:30. the Frankfort flight left 16 minutes late while we still taxiing in. ! didn’t even have gate info. That was the last flight to Germany. Two tomorrow. 4:30 from Charlotte landing 7a and 4:05 from Philly landing 6a. Both over booked. The Philly flight was better odds so ! was on the next plane to Philly. Had to find a shuttle to a hotel an food. Ever had a meal in a hotel restaurant that serves Chinese and American food in an area with nothing around. ! didn’t think ! could get through all the fried rice even after many hours w/out feeding and lots of soy sauce.
Next am after watching Fox News Channel for awhile and punishing the continental breakfast it was off to the airport. 3 hours early to maximize my odds of getting on the plane. They had a seat for me. Now ! just had to get through security and wait. Many hours later we put skid marks on the runway in Frankfurt. Down the stairs to the bus and into the terminal. Luggage was already on the carousel. The crowds thinned and before long ! was left alone. After some research we found out my bags were on the Charlotte flight that had just landed.
The Frankfurt flughof (airport) is a 2 ½ hour train ride from Nurnberg where Christine or Tanner would pick me up. The Bahnhof (train station) was as far away in the airport as they could get it and required several trips up and down escalators. The baggage carts seem to have been designed to handle escalators. ! got to the sunny spot and asked the info guy where the train was. “Down 2 escalators. You have 2 minutes” There was a gal on the escalator who wanted the same train. We were half down the 2nd one and could see the train leave. That’s when ! realized there were elevators and ! had no ticket. Back upstairs to find a ticket machine. The same girl was on the phone crying.
Ticket in hand, ! descended back into the depths. Here it comes. Onboard and off we go. Slowly through town to the main Frankfurt station. It seemed to sit still for a long time there. The porter came around. His best English sentence was “get off”. It seems ! was on the wrong train and this was the end of the line. After much pointing and waving ! was headed to the right platform. ! couldn’t really be sure though since everyone over there speaks mostly German. The engineer made announcements in German then English, but ! could barely understand either until he finished with Good Bye.
Arrival in Nurnburg came 20 minutes earlier than ! expected. After de-training (basically what ! had been doing for the last 2 months) ! made my way to the prescribed meeting place. McDonald’s. Tanner or Christine would find me there and all would be well with the world. They charge extra for catsup and mayo to dunk your fries in. The water is all carbonated. Tanner had been wandering the halls looking for me. 20 minutes on the Autobahn and we were closing in on Hilpoltstein.
Pre Race
Tanner was preparing to pick up AJ and drive the bike course. ! tossed my stuff in the room and loaded up. By this time ! was approaching 20 hours without sleep. Some of the climbs looked a lot steeper than ! had expected, but still short. Much like 17th between Broadway and Sherman. The little villages had twists and turns going through them that were a little tight for the car. ! was worried about them once the road was clogged with everyone who got out of the water before me. Halfway around Tanner announced Greding. We rounded the curve and ! woke up. Screaming, sweating, trembling. It wasn’t Olde Stage Rd, but it would be the second time around. It was steeper and longer than the other climbs and then there was a less steep part on top of it. Tanner said there would be headwinds once we got over the top. A few more miles mostly flat then into the trees. The steep descent. The tight corners. The hay bales. By now ! was nearly holding my eyelids open with my fingers. ! needed a nap before the barbeque.
Massage, Bier, food and most everyone from the TTE group was there. Tim made it. Susan and Darin still didn’t have their bikes and Susan didn’t have any clothes except what she was wearing. The Second Mayor of Hilpoltstein was there and gave us all pins. ! gave her a hug. She told all her friends !’m sure. Christine was in the paper that day. ! had missed the breakfast with the pros that morning. See Matt’s photos. ! had suspected we would be traveling to a race venue to meet them with hundreds of others. They came to our hotel. In the biergarten. We were getting real VIP treatment.
Breakfast was quite impressive. Sliced ham, turkey and roast beef. Several types of cheese. Rolls and Danish from the bakery just down the street. Soft boiled eggs, cereals, yogurt. Fresh OJ and lots of coffee. On the second day we discovered the egg opening machine. A metal cup with a rod extending from it was placed over the point of the egg. The metal ball is dropped from the top of that rod striking the cup which distributed the force to the lip. A perfect break. Just peel and eat. Those were heady times following that discovery. Screw the iPhone. No one went hungry.
Two more times we made trips around the bike course. The handling of a 9 passenger van is vastly inferior to a 9 kg race bike. AJ listened intently as ! described the best way to handle the corners and other technical sections. My advice probably helped him shave 5 minutes off his race time.
Check in and the expo came with rain. Lots of rain. We had our numbers and T bags as well as some idea of what to do with it all. Back in the biergarten bikes were coming out of the shed for some final tuning and tightening. Things were looking good. No one was nervous yet.
The night of the big pasta feed coincided with some lunatics running from Hilpoltstein to Roth. About 20 miles ! hear. One of the girls suggested the fried potatoes we had would make a great hand up so out to the street we went. Greasy potato wedges were grabbed by passing runners. Mark was too amused by the whole event to continue on without pain killers. He had very recently broken a few ribs and a scapula in a bike crash. He wouldn’t be racing. We returned to dinner.
Friday morning the canal was open for swim practice. It was rumored to be 73*. Since ! race in Colorado ! had no idea what that would be like. ! was going to practice without the wetsuit. Orca had some loaners there so ! tried one on. We approached the water tenuously expecting the Aurora Res. chill. One toe in and it was amazingly comfortable. Deeper in and it was still really pleasant. ! peed and things really warmed up. Time to move. Matt, Katrin and ! swam far enough up the course to see the far bridge turn-around then came back. Susan swam 2 or 3 laps around the course and was changed into dry clothes by the time we came ashore.
Saturday afternoon was bike check day. They gave us giant plastic covers to keep the rain off. T2 bags got dropped then also. Time to plot out the swim exit and route to the T1 tent. Then how to get to the bike and then onto the street. It rained on the walk home. It was to be an early evening though there wouldn’t be much sleep. Tension was building. Other than Tanner this would be the first iron distance race for the entire RMTC contingent. If Tanner was nervous the rest of us could justify the butterflies. Could Melissa justify her fairy outfit? That was the big question. Race day weather was forecast to be warm (mid 70s) and sunny. A little rain during the swim and then a little more to cool things off for the start of the run. In other words the Coloradoans were packing snorkels for the bike ride. It had been cloudy, cool and rainy every day we had been there. The locals would carry odd webbed fabric contraptions over their heads on a stick.
Schwimmen
Race day dawned quite a while after we were up and feeding. Constanza had breakfast ready for us @ 4:30am. Most of us started walking over to get body marked by 5:30. Place the T1 bag in the designated spot. Drop the dry clothes bag @ the truck. Wetsuit application was a good warm up. The pros and the girls had started already. ! had 1:05 to stand by. The pros were out of the water. Susan was out 15th overall. ! vaguely recalled what color swim cap ! had put on and found a mob of matching caps outside the holding pen. ! was beginning sensory deprivation. Earplugs in, goggles fogging up and wrapped in rubber. Matt was the only one ! knew in my wave. No way ! would have recognized him if ! had looked for him. They let us into the water. 50 feet to the start line. 2 minutes to go. ! planned on starting behind the front row. That’s where ! set up. Then ! peed and decided it was time to move. There ! was right up front. Had this doubt ! was feeling come up when ! was deciding to sign up ! could have saved 1000s of dollars and hours of training time. As usual my timing was way off. ! was preparing to attempt the longest swim of my life and the longest run of my life. Sticking a 180k bike ride in between wasn’t sounding like such a good idea. Why am ! here? 10 seconds. The cannon sounds and we’re off.
Thrashing wasn’t as bad as ! had anticipated. The fast guys were going ahead. The slow guys were eaten by sharks. ! was out there with feet to draft and ! felt ok at a comfortable pace. The course was one out and back. Under the next highway bridge, turn around and return. Just past the highway bridge near the start and turn around for the final 100 meters to exit. ! was approximately half way out when ! saw ! was well behind a group that ! could draft. ! sprinted up to them and settled in. That was the only time ! altered my pace. Then there were the buoys. ! did a Charley roll around them and my calf seized up. A bit of stretching and ! was off. It would either work it’s way out or be a real problem. ! had a long swim to let it settle down. By then every stroke increased my record swim distance. ! still felt good. Perhaps ! wouldn’t drown. ! made it out of the water in 1:18:21. Nearly 12 minutes faster than ! had expected and 5 faster than Susan had told me to expect.
Don’t go away. There’s a lot more. ! just have to drink bier and make it all up.
First and most important, it’s good to have friends. Thanks to everyone who helped out on this endeavor. Tanner and Christine for running the Triathlon Experience handling all the logistics for what could have been a huge farce. Charley for telling girls ! was doing an ironman even when ! hadn’t even left town yet. Dr. Brett for the use of his bike box. He swore to me that it would protect my girl even if tsa jumped up and down on it. His misguided trust in federal employees is quaint. Shelby Katz for suggesting that ! might not be totally sane. As you know, mental illness is a leading cause of IronMan success. Jeff Carroll for starting several hours after me. Diamond Denny for being such a pain in the ass that ! couldn’t permit him to push harder than me. And for the Grand Slam Slugger. Dr. John for fixing my knee and Achilles tendon and generally just straightening things out. SUPER DANKE’
Travel
The plan: leave home @ 7:30a to Stapleton park n ride. 22 minutes on Sky Ride to DIA. 2 hours to get to the gate and have a snack. No problem.
How it really went: Left home @ 7:30a to Stapleton park n ride. On Sky Ride. 5 minutes to get onto I-70 down the on-ramp. 2 crashes up ahead. Bus diverted through neighborhoods. ! had looked up which side ! needed to de-bus online. US Airways was on the far side. Straight up to the counter. They pointed out that it was “operated by United” on the other side. Walk over get in a long line of teenagers wearing matching t-shirts. Then ! realized that was the “group” line. ! wanted to be in the “big baggage” line. Sidestep. That line only moved when someone figured out they only had little baggage and left. Tim from Boulder Tri Club was up ahead w/ his box. He recognized the Triathlon Experience sticker on my box and came over to chat. His flight had been cancelled so he had several hours until the next one. Still an hour to go. He waited after he checked his stuff. The checker decided ! was in a hurry and sent me on my way. Next up the tsa line. ! headed straight to where it usually backs up to. It was still going. It seemed to be getting longer faster than ! was approaching the end until it was almost to the baggage claim section. Time for some stress. The line actually moved pretty fast. No bonus searches for either of us. Train ride to B then walk the entire length of the concourse to my gate. There it is. 5 minutes to spare. The gate guy ignored me. Then told me they had been paging me @ the gate for 15 minutes. ! could see the plane sitting there. They had closed the doors and were unconcerned about my predicament. Of every flight ! was scheduled to be on including the adjustments that was the only one that went on time. Tim accompanied me to customer service to stand in that line. He held my spot while ! went to the phone to talk to “Bill” in India. He couldn’t find me anywhere. Finally to the front of the line. They told me to sprint to the far end of concourse C and try to get on that flight to Charlotte. They got me on and assured me ! would make my connection. ! was skeptical since my layover was only an hour and this flight was taking off more than an hour later. Tim was on his own.
Charlotte to Frankfurt was to launch @ 4:30. ! touched down in Charlotte @ 4:30. the Frankfort flight left 16 minutes late while we still taxiing in. ! didn’t even have gate info. That was the last flight to Germany. Two tomorrow. 4:30 from Charlotte landing 7a and 4:05 from Philly landing 6a. Both over booked. The Philly flight was better odds so ! was on the next plane to Philly. Had to find a shuttle to a hotel an food. Ever had a meal in a hotel restaurant that serves Chinese and American food in an area with nothing around. ! didn’t think ! could get through all the fried rice even after many hours w/out feeding and lots of soy sauce.
Next am after watching Fox News Channel for awhile and punishing the continental breakfast it was off to the airport. 3 hours early to maximize my odds of getting on the plane. They had a seat for me. Now ! just had to get through security and wait. Many hours later we put skid marks on the runway in Frankfurt. Down the stairs to the bus and into the terminal. Luggage was already on the carousel. The crowds thinned and before long ! was left alone. After some research we found out my bags were on the Charlotte flight that had just landed.
The Frankfurt flughof (airport) is a 2 ½ hour train ride from Nurnberg where Christine or Tanner would pick me up. The Bahnhof (train station) was as far away in the airport as they could get it and required several trips up and down escalators. The baggage carts seem to have been designed to handle escalators. ! got to the sunny spot and asked the info guy where the train was. “Down 2 escalators. You have 2 minutes” There was a gal on the escalator who wanted the same train. We were half down the 2nd one and could see the train leave. That’s when ! realized there were elevators and ! had no ticket. Back upstairs to find a ticket machine. The same girl was on the phone crying.
Ticket in hand, ! descended back into the depths. Here it comes. Onboard and off we go. Slowly through town to the main Frankfurt station. It seemed to sit still for a long time there. The porter came around. His best English sentence was “get off”. It seems ! was on the wrong train and this was the end of the line. After much pointing and waving ! was headed to the right platform. ! couldn’t really be sure though since everyone over there speaks mostly German. The engineer made announcements in German then English, but ! could barely understand either until he finished with Good Bye.
Arrival in Nurnburg came 20 minutes earlier than ! expected. After de-training (basically what ! had been doing for the last 2 months) ! made my way to the prescribed meeting place. McDonald’s. Tanner or Christine would find me there and all would be well with the world. They charge extra for catsup and mayo to dunk your fries in. The water is all carbonated. Tanner had been wandering the halls looking for me. 20 minutes on the Autobahn and we were closing in on Hilpoltstein.
Pre Race
Tanner was preparing to pick up AJ and drive the bike course. ! tossed my stuff in the room and loaded up. By this time ! was approaching 20 hours without sleep. Some of the climbs looked a lot steeper than ! had expected, but still short. Much like 17th between Broadway and Sherman. The little villages had twists and turns going through them that were a little tight for the car. ! was worried about them once the road was clogged with everyone who got out of the water before me. Halfway around Tanner announced Greding. We rounded the curve and ! woke up. Screaming, sweating, trembling. It wasn’t Olde Stage Rd, but it would be the second time around. It was steeper and longer than the other climbs and then there was a less steep part on top of it. Tanner said there would be headwinds once we got over the top. A few more miles mostly flat then into the trees. The steep descent. The tight corners. The hay bales. By now ! was nearly holding my eyelids open with my fingers. ! needed a nap before the barbeque.
Massage, Bier, food and most everyone from the TTE group was there. Tim made it. Susan and Darin still didn’t have their bikes and Susan didn’t have any clothes except what she was wearing. The Second Mayor of Hilpoltstein was there and gave us all pins. ! gave her a hug. She told all her friends !’m sure. Christine was in the paper that day. ! had missed the breakfast with the pros that morning. See Matt’s photos. ! had suspected we would be traveling to a race venue to meet them with hundreds of others. They came to our hotel. In the biergarten. We were getting real VIP treatment.
Breakfast was quite impressive. Sliced ham, turkey and roast beef. Several types of cheese. Rolls and Danish from the bakery just down the street. Soft boiled eggs, cereals, yogurt. Fresh OJ and lots of coffee. On the second day we discovered the egg opening machine. A metal cup with a rod extending from it was placed over the point of the egg. The metal ball is dropped from the top of that rod striking the cup which distributed the force to the lip. A perfect break. Just peel and eat. Those were heady times following that discovery. Screw the iPhone. No one went hungry.
Two more times we made trips around the bike course. The handling of a 9 passenger van is vastly inferior to a 9 kg race bike. AJ listened intently as ! described the best way to handle the corners and other technical sections. My advice probably helped him shave 5 minutes off his race time.
Check in and the expo came with rain. Lots of rain. We had our numbers and T bags as well as some idea of what to do with it all. Back in the biergarten bikes were coming out of the shed for some final tuning and tightening. Things were looking good. No one was nervous yet.
The night of the big pasta feed coincided with some lunatics running from Hilpoltstein to Roth. About 20 miles ! hear. One of the girls suggested the fried potatoes we had would make a great hand up so out to the street we went. Greasy potato wedges were grabbed by passing runners. Mark was too amused by the whole event to continue on without pain killers. He had very recently broken a few ribs and a scapula in a bike crash. He wouldn’t be racing. We returned to dinner.
Friday morning the canal was open for swim practice. It was rumored to be 73*. Since ! race in Colorado ! had no idea what that would be like. ! was going to practice without the wetsuit. Orca had some loaners there so ! tried one on. We approached the water tenuously expecting the Aurora Res. chill. One toe in and it was amazingly comfortable. Deeper in and it was still really pleasant. ! peed and things really warmed up. Time to move. Matt, Katrin and ! swam far enough up the course to see the far bridge turn-around then came back. Susan swam 2 or 3 laps around the course and was changed into dry clothes by the time we came ashore.
Saturday afternoon was bike check day. They gave us giant plastic covers to keep the rain off. T2 bags got dropped then also. Time to plot out the swim exit and route to the T1 tent. Then how to get to the bike and then onto the street. It rained on the walk home. It was to be an early evening though there wouldn’t be much sleep. Tension was building. Other than Tanner this would be the first iron distance race for the entire RMTC contingent. If Tanner was nervous the rest of us could justify the butterflies. Could Melissa justify her fairy outfit? That was the big question. Race day weather was forecast to be warm (mid 70s) and sunny. A little rain during the swim and then a little more to cool things off for the start of the run. In other words the Coloradoans were packing snorkels for the bike ride. It had been cloudy, cool and rainy every day we had been there. The locals would carry odd webbed fabric contraptions over their heads on a stick.
Schwimmen
Race day dawned quite a while after we were up and feeding. Constanza had breakfast ready for us @ 4:30am. Most of us started walking over to get body marked by 5:30. Place the T1 bag in the designated spot. Drop the dry clothes bag @ the truck. Wetsuit application was a good warm up. The pros and the girls had started already. ! had 1:05 to stand by. The pros were out of the water. Susan was out 15th overall. ! vaguely recalled what color swim cap ! had put on and found a mob of matching caps outside the holding pen. ! was beginning sensory deprivation. Earplugs in, goggles fogging up and wrapped in rubber. Matt was the only one ! knew in my wave. No way ! would have recognized him if ! had looked for him. They let us into the water. 50 feet to the start line. 2 minutes to go. ! planned on starting behind the front row. That’s where ! set up. Then ! peed and decided it was time to move. There ! was right up front. Had this doubt ! was feeling come up when ! was deciding to sign up ! could have saved 1000s of dollars and hours of training time. As usual my timing was way off. ! was preparing to attempt the longest swim of my life and the longest run of my life. Sticking a 180k bike ride in between wasn’t sounding like such a good idea. Why am ! here? 10 seconds. The cannon sounds and we’re off.
Thrashing wasn’t as bad as ! had anticipated. The fast guys were going ahead. The slow guys were eaten by sharks. ! was out there with feet to draft and ! felt ok at a comfortable pace. The course was one out and back. Under the next highway bridge, turn around and return. Just past the highway bridge near the start and turn around for the final 100 meters to exit. ! was approximately half way out when ! saw ! was well behind a group that ! could draft. ! sprinted up to them and settled in. That was the only time ! altered my pace. Then there were the buoys. ! did a Charley roll around them and my calf seized up. A bit of stretching and ! was off. It would either work it’s way out or be a real problem. ! had a long swim to let it settle down. By then every stroke increased my record swim distance. ! still felt good. Perhaps ! wouldn’t drown. ! made it out of the water in 1:18:21. Nearly 12 minutes faster than ! had expected and 5 faster than Susan had told me to expect.
Don’t go away. There’s a lot more. ! just have to drink bier and make it all up.
posted by Doug!! @ 5:35 PM
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