The VIPA/profichip SPEED7 Racing Team participated again with seven teams in this year`s Triathlon in Roth. The teams completed three disciplines: swimming (3.8 km), cycling (180 km) and running (marathon 42.195 km).

The challenge started with the swimmers
7:30 in morning the swimmers and cyclists met at the house of our colleague Fritz Dotzer who lives right next to the swimming and racing track. At that time Daniel Westphal, an individual competitor had already been in the water for 30 minutes and had even finished half of the swimming distance. Finally at 8:50 am they went into the cool water in good spirit and 5 minutes later the start signal for the 3.8 km distance was given. Our external guest swimmer, Marcus Schattner, finished the distance in 51 minutes and returned to his team cyclist to send him on the 180 km journey to the team runner. The other swimmers weren’t long in arriving. Already after 4 minutes with a total time of 55 minutes an external female swimmer sent relay cyclist Petra Linkenbach on her way, followed by Tobias Müller (0:59 min), Philip Kenneweg (1:02 h), András Kerese (1:05 h), Christian Röhr (1:07 h) and Sabine Mitzenheim (1:19 h). Now, the active part of the challenge was at an end for the swimmers except for András Kerese. He had to take part in the 42.195 km long marathon distance due to a lack of athletes. But first they returned to Fritz who warmly welcomed the swimmers with a white sausage breakfast as every year. Here a big thank you to you and your wife, dear Fritz, and sorry for suddenly leaving you with all the dishes!

Cyclists took over after the swimmers
Well-fed and fortified they returned to the cycling track to vociferously support their team colleagues. Especially in the second round, on the Solarer Mountain in Hilpoltstein, the strain was visible in one or the other participant. Finally all cyclists finished in very good times. As already in the previous year our external permanent guest Thomas Schwandt was the fastest cyclist with a total time of 5:14 hours. He handed over to the fastest relay runner Bernhard Mültner who completed the marathon in 3:13 hours. But the rest of the runners didn’t have to wait very long for their cyclists until they were allowed to start. Jürgen Glaser (5:22 h), Ullrich Goller (5:24 h), Wolfgang Seel (5:49 h), Stefan Thurn (5:55 h), Bruno Schnekenburger (5:57 h) and Petra Linkenbach (6:07 h) followed.

Triathlon - the final stretch: once again the runners gave all
Of course the runners were pleased with the support they got from their team colleagues despite the fact that one or two were missed because they were so fast. Finally all athletes arrived in the stadium exhausted but healthy. The relay colleagues were already waiting there to enjoy a great finishing run together in front of hundreds of spectators – here at the latest they forgot about their pain. Daniel Westphal has the answer to the question how it feels to be an individual competitor: he had already finished the total distance of 226km in 10:31 hours. Of course the very good results of the marathon runners should not be kept back: Bernhard Mültner (3:13 h), Joachim Alt (3:20 h), Manfred Sägert (3:32 h), András Kerese (3:32 h), Mike Hartman (3:57 h), Bernd Schubart (4:23 h) und Michel Voit (4:49 h).

After the successful finish of all our relays they met at the stadium for a cozy get-together and took the opportunity to get to know the colleagues from other locations better.

Thanks to all the athletes and congratulations on your great performance.

Your SPEED7 Racing Team.