general-test done at lake of Roth triathlon-festival

Surprisingly the weather was like told by the weather forecast. I mean, in the mass-media they always make prediciton for the purpose of propaganda during the week. That the weather will be nice at the week-end - in order to keep up people´s motivation by looking forward to a summer week-end being summer for sure! True?

For this week-end seriously spoken moderators agreed on miserable conditions for a triathlon-festival like at lake of Roth, called "little Roth". As it was sure that there will be bad weather. From the Atlantic Ocean a little "breeze" was announced, so not only locals questioned if start is possible or not. At least kids and juveniles had been lucky to perform sprint-distance on a sunny and warm Saturday. But for the adults on Sunday, well, the weather changed from colourful to grey, cold temperatures, rain, partly heavy rain and wind close to storm sometimes. A nice thing to swim when stormy? A good idea to mount aerodynamic materials to be blown off from wet asphalt downhill with a speed of 70km/h? Is it reasonable to wear the typical race-suit only? Thus the main aim was clear in the eyes of almost everyone. To focus on a safe race. Esp. the bike course contains some diffculties, not only fast downhill passages but tricky curves too, which make the rather hilly, unrythmical course even slower. Only crackpots dare to race fast through curves when wet. However, before start spectators witnessed what triathlon is good for: a lot of fun. Athletes made jokes, laughed out loud and took the conditions with humor, e.g. many got into their neo-suits to be protected from rain and wind long before start-signal.

The triangular swim-course wasn´t too difficult to swim, but some out of the 1500 starters got panic although of wave-start, which means start in groups of 150 athletes. Unfortunatelly some did quit the race impossible to calm down. It´s really not so easy to keep calm after having swallowed some water making the body cough in the middle of the rocking pack with a puls at it´s upper limits. 
Clocking 1:32 min sec/100m I was rather fast, managed the 1500m sub23 min. First transit - from frogman to biker - was also fast, so I had been on my bike very early. Bike-ride was cool, powerful and fun as well. The course was not boring at all and the body was heated up from inside. Plenty of wind, rain and cold temperatures did not affect me at all. Focus was on pace and on the road. Having experienced pain, speed and strategy in Weiden and being more fit now there was space for nice dog-fights. Downhill I had the courage and concentration for aeroposition. Not having given my maximum I arrived in transition-zone again, was relaxed and easy, and managed to get into my socks and shoes quickly. Then, the first of the ten kilometers I ran too fast and in 3:40 min sec, pushed by the cheering crowd. Then I took out speed a little to be at K5 slightly belwo 40 min, when I found my rhythm but was instructed by my coach the same time to slow down in order to save power for big day. With a smile I crossed the finish-line.

most of the athletes had been proud of competition, although of the bad weather condition

All is done so far, I am in good shape and  ready for being really fast at Challenge Roth. Over that triathlon like in "little Roth" is great fun - beside health this is the important! To citate Thomas Hellriegel, triathlon military-master and Hawaii-Champion: "It´s a privilege to practise triathlon."