2010 was meant to be the year that saw me crack the nine hour barrier, so to give myself the best chance of doing it I signed up for the Challenge Roth.

Roth allows 100 of the fastest athletes the opportunity to start just behind the pros in a separate wave, which allows for clear water and an open road to the best times. The problem is that 2010 training did not go according to plan and between travel, work, injury, blah, blah, blah, my condition while good was untested for long distance.

My race started out great, with a solid start and some fast feet to follow.

The course is set up with 2 turns and 4 distance marks (1500, 3000, 3400, and finish). At the 1500m I took a peak at my watch to see 20:41.Perfect!At the 3000 I looked and say 41:something. Fantastic!

Shortly after that I felt ill. I have no idea what happened because I have never experience this before. In order to cope I was forced to slow considerably until my stomach settled. Around 3400m I recovered, but my swim time was damaged and I exited the water in 58 minutes, which is about 3 minutes off my expected time.

Through transition everything went well and I was off onto the bike. Genius Cronometro TT with super deep Grammo Viper 88 front wheel

Without becoming vulgar, let’s just say that I was very upset.

I now needed to find a penalty tent in which to serve my 8 minute mystery penalty. If a penalty is not served a DQ is issued and I didn’t come half way across the globe to DQ. I spend the next hour looking for a penalty tent. This was an hour of sub-standard speed. I served my time and moved on..pissed.

Onto the run and I was way behind schedule, but thought I could still pull together a good run. I was running 4:30 minute kilometers which would have resulted in a very good marathon. I thought even if I fell apart I would still run sub-3:30 which would be a good day. The problem is that my unstable training put me in the position where the heart and fitness were there, but the legs were unaccustomed to the incredible pounding a marathon puts on them. At 28km I became unraveled.

My legs were screaming in pain and it was everything I could do to just move forward.

By 39km instead of feeling the draw of the finish line I was in my own personal Hell and didn’t think I could continue. But, the spectators of Roth give you their energy and will you to move on.

I made it to the line in just over 10 hours.

I was just glad to get there.

Even more glad when the finish line catchers dropped me off at the beer tent. It was non-alcoholic, but it was a delicious break from the sports drinks I was rotting my teeth with all day.

Even though the race didn’t give me the time I was looking for, I know that is was just a coincidental sequence of events in training that were out of my control that put me in this position.

The next time I race IM (Arizona 2011) I am going to crush it on my New 2011 Grammo and run like I know I can.

Sub-9 is in me and I’m going to get it out.

Thanks for all the support.

Jerome