Challenging triathlon

"It was a privilege to be part of the race and to finish an event of this magnitude. I completed in 11 hours and 54 minutes. I drew a huge amount of inspiration from my team members, Victor and Nicola. With Victor having completed a full Ironman distance race previously he gave me lots of training tips,” said Bruno.

EXILERATED: Victor Temlett, Nicola Biani and Bruno Barradas, all completed the Challenge Roth in Germany in July.

FOUR Southerners recently took part in Challenge Roth, a triathlon race organised in and around Roth, Germany, which is held annually.

Bruno Barradas (44), Victor Temlett (43), Nicola Biani (24) and Mark Wolff (44) took part in the triathlon on July 17, which included a swim of 3.8km, cycling 180km and a 42km run.

Coached by Mark Wolff, (founder director of 32GI and also one of the sponsors of the race), the other three athletes said it was indeed a challenging triathlon but one which they enjoyed taking part in. “It was a privilege to be part of the race and to finish an event of this magnitude. I completed in 11 hours and 54 minutes. I drew a huge amount of inspiration from my team members, Victor and Nicola. With Victor having completed a full Ironman distance race previously he gave me lots of training tips,” said Bruno.

Nicola said, “This was my sixth Ironman I’ve competed in, finishing five. One of the highlights of the race for me was the breathtaking scenery. I achieved my personal best time of 12 hours 31 minutes, and I’m thrilled to have done this.”

“For me competing in this triathlon with the best from around the world was a great inspiration for me. It’s the number one triathlon in the world and I finished in 10 hours and 51 minutes,” added Victor.

Mark achieved a time of 9:51 for the event.

The four began training for this race two years ago, and six months before the race decided to up their training even more. “It did tend to take up most of our spare time and we trained for up to 22 hours a week before the event.”

Weekly training included running and cycling three times a week and swimming four times a week, as well as daily workouts at Glenvista Virgin Active Gym from 05:00. A high protein diet helped them achieve their target weights and got them in great shape before Challenge Roth.

“We arrived in Germany on July 14, acclimatised and practised on the Friday and Saturday before the race. We all felt excited but also apprehensive about how well we would do,” they said. Two hundred and eighty thousand spectators cheered on all the entrants along the route, “this was fantastic and definitely kept us going.”

When the event was over and they’d rested, Bruno, Victor and Nicola visited Budapest, Austria, Vienna and Slovakia. “Fabulous countries, but Budapest was our favourite,” they agreed.

Their next race promises to be a half Ironman in the Midlands in November and next year they will potentially be taking part in Challenge Venice. “Oh yes, we’re sure we can do it. It will just mean a lot more training,” they laughed.