St Mary Bourne near Andover
I love this race report… you may not have been fast, however, anyone who does a 220k run in the Wadi Rum Desert is a serious athlete.
How long can you go on for? I guess as long as you are still breathing
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I’d be labelling that as my T2 picture 
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My bucket list includes running a race with my grandchild … who has not even been conceived yet 
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Hold the front page
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Kings Worthy/Winchester
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Great fun at the club aquathlon last night, really good low key vibes with a great turn out too. Sun was out, must have been mid 20s which makes a change.
Set off too quick on the run with a 3:36 opening km but hey, I’m never one for pacing, finishing with 19:42.
Swim was a bit of a bun fight as expected and I’m pleased to report I re-overtook all of the guys who had come passed as I faded on the run, actually got a bit carried away and sort of swam over someone at one point.
Anyway, finished the swim in 6:39 for the 432 metres.
Finished in 26:42 for 8th overall
Post race bbq was 
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Nice work at the aquathlon. I only just saw your post asking for any advice. I did it back in 2009 (race report) and it is just a race to the pool and a refreshing dip. Well done.
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Nice, I really enjoyed it, have to say jumping in the pool wasn’t as refreshing as I hoped. I instantly felt like I was overheating in a trisuit, next time I’d go for tri shorts and running in a vest.
Winning time this year was 23:33 (some speed demon running a sub 17 5km!)
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Blimey, there must have been some good athletes if that time gave you 8th place.
Good work though, number 1!
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Well done! Did swimming after the run feel off weird?
Wonder how much chlorine they had to put in the pool the next morning
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Yeah I was happy to get inside the top 10 tbh.
Really weird @Chriswim, suddenly trying to get your arms going after going full gas with your legs is odd. Breathing every stroke until I settled down
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Steelman Half completed on Saturday. My first tri since knee keyhole in Jan with no running for 4 months and corresponding weight gain. Arrived Friday and camped in the field next to transition. There was some sort of rave going on the other side of the lake so not the best nights sleep. Shouldn’t complain that it was a bit too hot in this country, but it was. There was a 15% DNF rate which was probably heat releated. Happy with swim (38:05) but should have started a bit further forwards as a fair bit of biff around the first bouy. Bike is a great course and excellent signage and marshalls. I don’t think I’ve done a race with so many marshalls especially on the run. I probably went a bit harder than I should have on the bike as after an hour felt good and decided to chase 3 hours and just failed (3:05:26) but knew the run would be bad so had a go. Run was as expected and probably worse. Got to the pub waterstation first time (2 laps) and thought I might survive but then the trail section got me and it became a run walk (as was expecting). Longest run this year was 9 miles 2 weeks earlier and could have very easily quit after the first lap but just tired legs so plodded round the second lap. Laughing I said to the marshalls it was really cruel to make us run around the lake the second time when I could see the finish (3:02:35, third slowest run of the day). Met TC whilst racking and had a chat. He said he had only done it once before when they did a double for their 10 year anniversary. He past me on the bike at 40 miles and looked really strong on the run. total time 6:51:32. Knee survived, a bit achy Saturday night but ok Sunday which was the main reason for doing the event so happy overall and will now start getting some run mileage in and lose some weight. Halfway round the run I decided no way was I doing an ironman later this year, as had fancied Cascais, but my mate who I was with fancied that next year so somerthing to build up to and be sensible for a change.
Definitely recommend this race as great course, marshalls and excellent value for money (especially in my case £/hr) and a Saturday race starting at 10am is very civilised, so I’m sure I’ll be back.
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Billy Monger taking on Kona.
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Nice report.
Steelman is such A great race. Cheap, friendly and like you said, well marshalled. That being said, I managed to take a wrong turn on the bike and add an extra 4 miles / 10 mins
I went the wrong way at a T-junction and couldn’t understand how I had managed to get it so wrong. In hindsight, I think it was because the marshals were waving the traffic through towards the left and I was looking at their arms rather than looking at the arrows on the very visible signs. 2 miles down the road I came to another junction with no one there and it dawned on me what must’ve happened. Perhaps inevitably I then buried myself for the rest of the bike leg and quite enjoyed the process of picking people off that I’d already passed half an hour earlier.
I knew that effort was going to come back to bite me and sure enough, by the end The first lap on the run I was really struggling.
Managed to hold onto third overall and haven’t been too plagued with “what ifs?” This was really a training day for Copenhagen in August and from that point of view, I definitely got what I came for.
That part of the run around the campsite and lake is proper horrid!
Been massively busy this year with work and other stuff so haven’t been on here much lately. I’ve enjoyed trying to catch up with all that others are doing even if I haven’t contributed much to the forum.
Cascais is lush by the way, you’ll enjoy that and there’s plenty of time between now and October 25 to get ready.
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He was on Talksport yesterday talking about it.
He mentioned Race Across the World (which I’ve never watched) and how it caused him real trouble with his stumps because his normal routine of taking his prosthetics off at night and letting the air get to them wasn’t possible, resulting in blisters, sores etc. so the heat and humidity at Kona could be a real issue over 16hrs plus.
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[quote=“JD-Scarabtri, post:1020, topic:3790”]
Happy with swim (38:05) but should have started a bit further forwards as a fair bit of biff around the first bouy.
[/quote] 
you needed to be 47 mins m8, no biff at all 
Glad the knee survived m8ie 
Steelman is billed as the cheapest Half IM in Britain, but its still a well fab event. Luvved the bright pink TShirt. 
Recommended. Only +£7 camping right by Transition/Lake, It was surprisingly hot n muggy on the run, even got me. Tho I wa pleased with my application, and went from 187th / 223 at end of the sw1m oops, to 31st by the finish.
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Good luck to him, it’s going to be tough. Like you say, the stump health alone is a problem neverminded the physical challenge.
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The race in Greece is looking painful but I might have to suck it up, the transfer options will mean more travelling and expense going to somewhere else in Europe, I’m not interested in Weymouth. And I’m not sure how easy it is to change the flights, I already had to rebook to go from Manchester.
They’re drip feeding more information, finish line, registration etc are all together in a town which is about 12k from transition. But I can’t see anything about parking yet.
There are going to be shuttle buses from various places but other than the start/finish I’d rather avoid them.
I think I can just about make it work without a lot more pain and expense. I don’t fancy driving in Greece but I’ll stay on the outskirts near the metro.
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A bit late, but as requested in the Roth 2025 thread, here is my Roth 2024 race report.
Firstly, a bit of background. I’m a 57 year old male, this was my full distance and I finished in 14:06. I haven’t got any experience or advice on going fast, but did pick up a few general lessons along the way. i hope this report can bring back some good memories for people who have done Roth in the past and wet the appetite of people who plan to do it in the future. People with far more experience than me say that it is the best race out there, and who am i to disagree? The people of Roth are clearly very proud of their race and do everything they can to make it special for the racers.
I’ve been doing triathlons for nearly 20 years, on and off, but this was the first time that the stars have aligned (family, work, money, time etc) so that I could do a full distance.
The main training lesson that I learned is that it is much harder to make progress when you are over 55. The benefits eventually arrive, but they seem to take longer. I found that I needed to build up more slowly and it took longer to adapt to any step up in volume. Once I started to do the longer runs and rides, when spring/summer eventually arrived, I found that 2 rest days per week worked much better than 1. I was a couple of kg over my target come race day, but much lighter than when I started training.
Another lesson that I learnt is that sooner or later Sod’s law will kick in. The first instance was my arrival at Nuremberg airport, on the Thursday, neither my baggage nor bike box arrived in the baggage hall, as they had missed the connection in Amsterdam. It was clearly an issue that the airport were used to dealing with, as they very efficiently took my details, logged them with the airline and promised that my stuff would be delivered to the hotel the next day. I was sceptical, but the airline sent regular text updates and everything was delivered the next day as promised. Friday and Saturday were spent registering, visiting the expo and taking the bike to the start. The weather was pretty warm, but the temperature cooled down after a big thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon and more rain over night, so it was pretty cool for the start of the race.
I was in the 20th of 21 swim wave, not going off until 08-15. This meant a lot of hanging around at the start, and I had 15 hours and 5 minutes to get to the finish line before the race closed at 23-20. However, I got to see the pro men and women close up and enjoy the general spectacle that is Challenge Roth.
I was happy with my swim time of 1-21. Especially given the start. I had planned to start somewhere at the side nearest to the bank where it might be less crowded. However (more Sods law), the quick release zip on my ancient wetsuit self activated just as I got to the start line. While faffing about trying (and failing) to get the zip back up I somehow drifted right to the middle of the course, right at the front. Then the cannon went off and the next 10-15 minutes or so were pretty chaotic, it felt like swimming in the middle of a rugby scrum and my wetsuit was held on by a bit of velcro at the top of the zip. Eventually I was able to ease myself nearer to the bank and find more space. The one benefit of the chaos at the start that it forced me to swim more quickly that I planned, and I was able to swim with quicker arm speed for the rest of the swim, and probably went more quickly than if I had eased myself into the swim as planned. I’ve read in the swimming threads on here that for all the talk of technique, drills, efficiency, smoothness etc in order to go faster at some point you need to just move your arms more quickly. This was the perfect time to learn that lesson. The other lesson is to buy a new wetsuit! mine is nearly 20 years old and quite stiff. Despite smothering my wrist and ankles in vaseline beforehand it took an age to take mine off in transition and I seemed to be there for ages.
My bike time was 6-55. Again, I was quite happy with this, mainly because for some reason as the bike progressed I had got it in my head that I had started the race at 07-15, and whenever I looked at my watch i thought that I had been going for 1 hour longer than I had; so thought that I had done 7-55 until I got the results after the race. Major numptiness on my part meant that i was unable to turn my power meter on, so was just riding on feel and trying to keep a fairly consistent average speed. The course does have a few climbs, but lots of long sweeping stretches and few tight turns. You can see why the pros go so quickly on it. The first lap was pretty busy, with fast age-groupers going by on their second lap. lots of crowds supporting. Lots of loud speakers playing euro-pop/dance music…apart from the local firemen with their (un-ironic) mullets and German death metal. The second lap was much quieter, with much fewer supporters, but easier to get into a rhythm and go at my own pace. It had been cool and raining at the start of the bike and I felt a bit under-dressed in my try suit. By the end the sun had come out and it was getting quite warm again.
The run (5-33) was definitely a run of two halves. Did the first half in 2-15ish and the second in 3-15 ish. Felt tired at the start but got into a good rhythm and felt fairly strong. However, I noticed my stomach getting increasingly bloated at 21k. At 24 k I allowed myself the first walk and was feeling nauseous. At 27k the wheels came off, I felt sick, dizzy and exhausted. This was on the most boring bit of the course through an industrial estate. Had to have a sit down for a few minutes. Could have quite easily quit and it seemed impossible to finish. The next bit of the race was the slowest but also the part that i am most proud of. Probably 80% of the ironman race reports that i have read mention something similar happening at some point, and I knew that i had to just keep going and that my stomach might settle at some point. I started a slow painful plod, and gradually I was able to walk quite quickly. My legs felt Ok, but whenever I tried to run I felt sick and dizzy again. At these points the crowds get you through, and I found that small interactions with the spectators (smiles, thanks, joining in with their mini-mexican waves etc etc) gave me small endorphin boosts and kept me going. I also discovered that I could tolerate small pieces of watermelon from the aid stations, the juice feels very light and digestible but I think is very high in sugar. Even if it only had a placebo effect it definitely helped. The km slowly went by. Just after 35 km you reach the end of the only major climb and the far end of the final loop at Buchenback. There was a big Hoka stage with DJ’s etc there. One of the announcers took me by the hand and said “I will count down from 5 and then you will start running”. It was almost like hypnosis! It worked, I was running again and did not dare stop while I was still in his sight. This plus the watermelon meant that i was able to run (slowly!) on and off until the finish. It was getting late and very few people about for the last few km, but the stadium was packed for the finishing party. Quite a surreal experience running to the line, with an amazing atmosphere cheering crowds, big screen etc etc.
A huge feeling of pride, relief and exhaustion at the end. Phoned home and found out that my family had been tracking me all day, and had seen me cross the line on the live stream. This brought a tear to my eye, a perfect end to the race.
Spent the next day in Nuremberg, the weather was hot again, and I enjoyed a few beers and some sightseeing.
The final piece of Sods law, my flight home on the Tuesday was cancelled due to thunderstorms. However, I got an extra day of RnR in Nuremberg.
I felt a bit tired for a couple of days, but no soreness or stiffness. I am guessing that I was in reasonable shape and also that walking a big chunk of the marathon had some recovery benefits.
My final bit of advice for anyone doing it next year is that, if you have any inkling that you want to do it again the following year, it is well worth queuing up and securing your place on the Monday morning. The Roth refund policy is pretty good if you change your mind later. If not, and you take your luck with the general entry and miss out (like I did!) you might feel very disappointed!
Thanks for reading my report!
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