Race Review: Challenge Kraichgau (Germany)

Keith Hodgson is the first Baydog to compete in a Challenge series race. He travelled to Germany to compete in his first half iron distance race. The following is his race review.

This is a middle distance triathlon (70.3 or half ironman for us in Canada). This is my third year of doing triathlons and my first attempt at doing the middle distance race. My good friend from Germany, and former neighbor was the one that got me into triathlons. We arrived at the race site on the Thursday before the event. The late May weather had been chilly and wet. The race organizers were concerned about the water temperature and made this event a mandatory wetsuit race. Earlier in the week the weather finally turned in our favour and the sun decided to show itself. The water temperature went up steadily during the week. On Thursday the water temperature was 16 degrees Celsius. The swim is in a small manmade lake formed during the building of the autobahn’s in the area. There was a scheduled 6 pm swim with a mockup of the swim course. There was about 250 of us that all swam together and this simulated what it would be like on race day. This helped to calm our nerves and build our confidence. On Friday we drove part of the bike course to see the types and amount of hills to expect on race day. The area is known as “The Land of a Thousand Hills” and certainly lived up to that claim. Saturday was bike drop off day and race prep. We were camping at the race site and everyone went to bed early that night. Surprisingly I was able to get a good sleep until about four in the morning when the nerves kicked in. My friend had a restless sleep since this was his first middle distance race as well.

Then the rain came. It poured all night long and into the early hours of the morning. The race organizers delayed the 9 am swim start by one hour until the thunder and lightning left the area. This actually helped calm everyone down and made for a good race day. The rain stopped and we got the word that the race would start shortly. With this being a small lake and there being 2300 competitors they started the swim in five waves separated by ten minutes each. Mine was the first wave and I was slotted in with the pro’s. BANG goes the start canon and we’re off racing. After a few minutes the swimmers settle out and we all get into a good stroke rhythm. The pro’s are long gone and it’s just the rest of us left. They put random age and gender in each wave, so you never knew who was in your age group. Around the 1700 meter mark my right calf muscle seized up and I had to get assistance from the lifeguards to pull on my foot to get the muscle freed up and complete the swim. They had plenty of great volunteers that helped everyone change into their bike gear. Language was never a problem since most people spoke or understood enough English. Oh and they call wetsuits ‘NEO’. Like made from neoprene. They also don’t do body markings either since you carry your bib number with you on the bike and run. And it has your name and emergency contact information on it.

When getting to the bike transition area everyone’s helmet was full of water. It was a wise move to keep the bike shoes in the transition bag and wear gloves for the bike ride. The bike course was slightly wet for the first few kilometer’s than dry to damp after that. This helped keep the speeds down and everyone safe. About twenty kilometer in was the first big hill. Going up wasn’t too bad and helped warm up the legs and body. (Prior to leaving Canada for the journey to Germany for the race I researched the bike course and determined it would be a good idea to change the bike cassette to make it easier for hill climbing). After that was a long downhill that you could cruise down and recover leg strength. From then on for the next fifty kilometers was hill after hill. Some steep hills took us through these small Germany villages where all the towns folk came out to cheer us crazy triathletes on. This was pretty amazing until you realized how long and steep the hill was and you didn’t want to look like a wimp and slow down. So you kept your tongue in your mouth until you passed everyone. The bike course was all on closed roads and took us through some amazing areas. On the way back was this last long hill climb into a small town. By then my legs were getting real tired and it was a struggle to get to the top of that last hill. Stephanie Vuilleumier gave me some good advice and said to wear a watch with a timer that beeps every twenty minutes and reminds you to eat while on the bike.  My nutrition and hydration plan went well and I calculated I’d need three hundred calories per hour to keep my energy level up. The T2 transition area was in a different town than T1 so you had to make sure you gave the volunteers your run bag the night before the race.

By the time you got to T2 the sun was shining and warming up the run course. In T2 you handed your bike to a volunteer and went over and picked up your run bag. There were plenty of volunteers helping you get into your run gear. The run course was three seven kilometer loops through this small city. The streets were lined with cheering people and several aid stations. You had to pass the start/finish area twice before your final run up the finish line shoot. When you get off a fast moving bike and try to run your mind thinks you should keep going fast. That lasted for a few kilometers then reality kicked in and I discovered how tired I was from the long hilly bike ride. From then on my run included lots of walk breaks. The run course was a bit confusing since you had to do two turn around loops through parts of the town that looked the same. So basically you just followed the people in front of you. Since I was getting so tired I tried to take in some extra nutrition at the aid stations. My stomach was just getting full of food and water and not processing anything. So I just toughed it out until the end. Chris “Macca” MacCormack the pro athlete says to ‘embrace the suck” and yes it does happen later in the race. The finish line shoot came up quicker than I expected so I didn’t have a chance to get excited that I was at the end of the race. They had plenty of great food and liquids after the race.

The race was well organized and they had plenty of volunteers to guide you through the course and keep you safe. Lots of aid stations throughout the course. There was a triathlon expo with lots of vendors and great deals. The best part was buying a tech shirt that had every athletes name on it from the race. Very cool idea!! Another neat part is lining up at the start with all the pro’s. Very decent people and easy to approach. While waiting for the rain to stop I met last year’s female winner and talked with her for thirty minutes about racing. If only my wetsuit had a camera. I’d do this race again and recommend you think about trying it as well.

With me being in Germany for three weeks and the race only part of my vacation, the most difficult part of the trip was dragging the bike box all over the place. The box does have wheels but it’s still big and heavy. There were lots of strange looks from people at the train stations while I carted the bike box from place to place. Europe has a great train/bus system that makes it easy to go from town to town or even around town. Luckily I had my friend over here that helped get me around the country.

Keith Hodgson