Roth - Pre Race.

Oki doke,

Well I'm here.  A very long 24hrs of flight time, a few days of the TDF and a long drive half way across Europe and the countdown really begins.  4ish days and Roth will be buzzing with some 4000 athletes and 200, 000 spectators.

I am lucky enough to have been given the opportunity ti stay with a German family for the duration of my time in Roth.  Petra and Heiner are two lovely people who i cant thank enough for opening their home to me for the duration of my stay.  It is really funny to hear their perspective on everything.  I was having a discussion with Petra today and talking about the race in Roth.  There has been a "Full" distance (as in IM distance) triathlon here for years. A WTC Ironman before Challenge took over, and this is part of their life each year.  The town comes together to help put on an event and its just what they do.  The thing that i like is that to them this is normal.  My favourite quote was "I don't know why everyone wants to come to Roth", and when i said that Roth was one of the most famous race, and one of the "to do" races on nearly every triathletes bucket list, she and Heiner were both very surprised.  Just such a great attitude towards it and probably one of the main reasons why the event in Roth is the biggest in the World.

Roth itself is just your stereotypical, small Bavarian German town.   There is the old market place surrounded by the old style buildings and church, the waterways which run through the town and of course the old style signs on every second building selling the local Bavarian beer.  In this case Spalter..... And yes i have tried it, not too bad.  Its no Augustiner (Munich's is finest) but nice, though more importantly another photo to add to the ever growing beer portfolio.

Having left the Cobra with the tri travel crew i headed out yesterday on the bike to see a bit of the course and turn over the legs.   Id love to say they were felling million dollars but not quite yet.  still feeling a bit of the lengthy days in the plane and car but getting there.  Well hopefully.   Roth and the surrounds is really nice, everything is just so green, and although its warm the heat doesn't really hit you like it does at home.  I mean its still hot but it doesn't feel like you've been smacked with a heat stick... lol. Ill endeavour to get some photos up in the coming days (probably after the race).

Having registered today it is all starting to sink in. I took a bit of time to wander around the expo, which is Huuuuuge.  Its the expo of Expos. haha.  I will have to say that there is a lot of stuff over here that I've never even heard of.  half of the bike manufacturers that are here are pretty random. Plus every man and his dog selling some new form of sports nutrition.   

As you can imagine not having been around all this for that long there are plenty of nerves, I just have to have faith and know that in this prep i have completed more large training weeks and more volume than ever in my life.   Maybe its just the whole not having my number one asset, Alicia on the bench providing that grounded perspective and feeding me the thins i need (not literally feeding, although she is pretty good at that too :-P ) this is the longest we've spent apart since we have been together, and i know that not having her here is something i am going to miss.  Just need to have faith in the work I've done and be realistic with everything.  Ive only been doing this triathlon thing properly for 8 months,and there is still a very long way to go before I'm near where i need to be. Only time can really tell.  but all in all I'm heading out there to enjoy it and take everything in.  I'm just lucky to have been given this opportunity.  Racing Roth was definitely on my list of races to do at some stage in my life, but if you had told me 6 months ago id be here right now, i would have said "you've got rocks in your head".  But hey, here we are.

Alright, I did promise some people i would post up the information on how to watch the race on the net.  Apparently if you go to  http://www.challenge-roth.com/cockpit/index-en.html you can find everything you need. Its kind of like the homepage for the tracking and the Live Feed. 

My number is - 149 and i leave in the first wave at 06:30 (German) 14:30 (Aussie).  While the Cobra is number - 2140 and he is off at 07:25 (German) 15:25 (Aussie).

Ill get some photos up a little later (once i take a few more), hopefully before the race with the surrounds and the race enclosure. I still cant get over how big this race is going to be.  Even the massusse was raving about how big an event this race is.  I cant wait to find out. 

Until then, Cheers

Dan.