Wow, what a fast race. Quelle Challenge Roth certainly is a Blitzkrieg course. Rounding the finishing stadium and seeing the clock ticking over at 8hr36 was quite something, especially on a day that I seriously doubted my chances of even starting the race.

Fate or whatever you call it, had dealt me a bit of a bitch cruel blow during the final week before the race. I had picked up a cold which had gone to the chest and I was coughing up some nasty looking green stuff! But after coming all this way from Australia and training so hard for months, I was not going to bail that easy. I would just start, keep an eye on my heart-rate and see how I felt.

So when race day dawned and I went through my usual pre-race routine, it was with a lot less enthusiam as I really thought my day would probably end prematurely. On the positive side though, the weather was looking a lot better than last year's race and it looked set for a dry, warm day. Perfect race conditions!

Wading on the start line next to the multiple world Ironman champions Thomas Hellriegel and Normann Stadler I couldn't help feel a little overwhelmed. Roth really is an amazing race which draws a top quality field and a huge amount of spectators (estimated at 150,000 on the day).

I had a good enough start and could see both Hellriegel and Stadler next to me through the opening couple of hundred metres but I was stuggling to breath and I soon found myself dropping off the pace. About halfway round the swim I latched on to some good feet (turned out to be those of Belinda Granger's) that seemed to be going at a good steady pace. I just settled into a good rhythm and ensured I stayed on the feet till the exit.

My transitions in the past ironman distance events have been rather on the slow side but this time I blizzed through and in under 2mins, I was on the road.

At first I felt pretty crap to be honest. My legs were burning, I was coughing a bit and I was finding it difficult to breath. I switched on my heart-rate monitor and that seemed to be ok, so I just backed off a bit and tried to settle into a good steady pace. Around 30km the big Ain-Alar Juhanson (fastest bike time at Hawaii last year) came by and I was feeling better so I decided to use him as a carrot and pace setter.

My race strategy had changed. I was going to push a bigger gear as my thinking was that this would place less stress on my already strained cardio system and keep my heart-rate a little lower. I would just have to see how the legs felt in the marathon, if I got that far.

A little way up the road we forced our way through the media vehicles that were following the top female contenders, Chrissie Wellington and Rebekah Keat and as we continued on, I was managing to hold Juhanson's pace quite well. Once we hit the steeper climbs though, the breathing did become rather difficult as my chest seemed to constrict and the coughing began. I had to back off a bit but I managed to catch back up on the pursuing downhills. Eventually though at around 60km his pace was too high for me and I had to let him go.

At this point there were a couple of guys with me including top-placer Petr Vabrousek. At one stage I noticed his rear wing-nut had opened and duely informed him and he managed to get it shut again using his foot, saving himself a possible disaster.

We hit the second lap and with it, the back-markers from the last individual waves as well as the team competitors. Some of the top teams had pro-cyclists doing the cycle leg so they came storming past us and together with the lapped individuals, the route got rather crowded. It has to be said that the race marshalls did little to stop the blantant drafting that I saw out there which was very unfortunate and the only black mark I have about the otherwise great race.

In times like these you can either let it get to you and start ruining your race or you can choose to just keep focussed on your race. I chose the later and pushed on to my best bike performance ever.

Into T2 and again I had changed my race kit to speed up my transitions considerably and I was onto the run well under 2mins, another PB there.

I hit the run feeling pretty good but I battled at first to get my breathing under control, nevertheless I went through 8km in 32min and I was picking up some places. Then going through the first turn-around point at 12km in a quaint little German village I got this massive stitch. It came on so quick, one minute I was knocking off 4min/kms, the next I was struggling just to keep running. It took me about 2km of slow running and deep breathing to get rid of it and I was quite chuffed that I had managed to keep running during this period and thus limited the damage to my overall time considerably. However, I could now hear the cheers behind me for the leading woman, Chrissie Wellington. I was just hoping she was on some sort of record pace (she certainly was!).

Still, she hadn't caught me yet and I was determined to keep ahead of her for as long as possible.

Feeling better, I pushed on again.

Seeing my wife, Kate, by the side of the road at 19km was great motivation and to get some information about how I was doing, invaluable. Although I had my Garmin Forerunner telling me how I was running, I had no idea about my overall time.

'You are right on schedule, keep it up."

All I needed to know right there in one short sentance. The schedule was to finish around 8hr30. The new Saucony Fastwitch 3 shoes given to my by the specialists at Tortoise and the Hare were so light and comfortable you couldn't help but run fast!

I went through half-marathon in 1h27 but I knew I would struggle to keep that pace up for the second half but even if I took an extra 30mins on the second half, I would still break 9hrs.

Confidence was up.

The second half marathon at Roth includes a 4km gradual climb up to 29km, then you turn and come back which means it is pretty much flat or downhill to the finish. I thought this uphill was a critical part of the race and so pushed hard up it. The problem was the downhill, the pain in the quads was pretty severe and I was now paying for my changed strategy on the bike. I was running at the same pace downhill as I had done going uphill!

Gravity! Oh why has thee foresaken me?

At 35km into the marathon, I was starting to feel pretty well cooked and it was at this point that Wellington passed me and I just did not care. I was concentrating solely on trying to keep on running but at the next aid station, I stopped. I walked the aid station and took the time to take on board some nutrition, in the form of the most delicious watermelon I had ever tasted.

I started thinking in terms of aid station to aid station.

I ran to the next aid station at 38km and again walked through it.

Somebody in the crowd shouted out, 'Come on, just 4km to go'.

He was right, I was almost home. Just dig and finish this off. I also knew that you didn't really feel the last km as the crowd support as you approach the finish carries you home, so I had just 3km to dig through.

I managed to keep on running till the end and after a quick kiss to my wife I crossed the line, however my efforts soon caught up with me.

I was carted off to the medical tent coughing like a veteran smoker. After explaining my cold to the doc, he ran a few tests and wasn't too happy with an ECG report of my heart so I was taken to the local hospital for some more tests. I thought it a bit of an overkill but the doctor really insisted and did seem rather concerned so I thought it best to follow his orders and get it checked out.

Kate caught up with me in hospital and after a couple of hours, two IV drips, a full blood test, an ecography and an ultrasound (German efficiency is no myth!), I was given the all clear and we headed back to the race finish to cheer on the rest of our group.

My brother, Nick smashed his PB by over an hour and a half, posting an amazing 9H35 while best mate and training partner, Gaz set his own PB with an incredible 9hr23. Race results can be found here.

Well done to all the other members of the A2Tri club who completed the event and a big thank you to the friends and family for your great support.

Rest well. More photos here.

Laters,

Simon