<:: Welcome to Slowtwitch.com ::>

Virtually every nook and cranny of the city has a film or literary reference as well as a rich history of its own, so almost every famed landmark is accompanied by ghosts and a patina of the characters who have made history in its presence.

And so even its most famed attractions somehow escape the deathly grip of cliché. When you come into contact with the elegant lines of its buildings and monuments, given an aura by the way that light hits it, each of these magic places has an authentic presence that cannot be duplicated even by the masters of imitation in America’s other Capital of Dreams - Las Vegas.

Quelle Challenge Roth is a lot of things, but it starts with a small town in Bavaria, population about 20,000 located 15 miles south of Nuremberg. Roth's history begins in 1060 with a mention in a document written by bishop Gundekar II regarding the consecration of a church. Roth had a market place in the 12th century, in the mid 14th century it became a city and by the 16th century it had a castle - Ratibor - and a Gothic church that stands today. By 1988, Detlef Kuhnel brought Roth an Ironman, which was taken over by the late Herbert Walchshofer and run today by his son Felix and the Challenge organization as the biggest and most prestigious independent Iron-distance event in the world.

In the past 21 years, this first European Ironman became the stage for some of the most dramatic encounters in the sport of triathlon. It's where Thea Sybesma in 1992 became the first woman to crack the 9-hour barrier, and Paula Newby-Fraser set a women's record of 8:50:53 in 1994 that stood for 14 years. It's where German star Lothar Leder in 1996 became the first man to crack the Ironman 8-hour barrier. It's also the race where in 1997, an epic duel was waged and Belgian star Luc Van Lierde passed Germany'/s Jurgen Zack with 2 kilometers to go in the process of setting a still-standing Iron-distance record of 7:50:27. Zack could console his disappointment with the fact that his second place finish remains the second-fastest men's Iron-distance time ever. To wrap up that incredible year, Lothar Leder took third and Thomas Hellriegel fourth and also broke 8 hours. In 2003, Lothar Leder beat Chris McCormack by three seconds after an Iron-distance race long war that had the crowd at the finish going mad. In 2008, the women took their turn in a mass assault on the old barrier, with four breaking the 9-hour mark and the Netherland's Yvonne Van Vlerken broke Newby-Fraser's old mark and setting a new women's world best of 8:45:48.

And just this year defending two time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington took a quantum leap for women when she smashed the old mark like Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier with an incredible 8:31:59 finish. The race now serves 4,200-plus triathletes from 51 countries and is embraced by Roth and the surrounding towns so that there is more than one volunteer for every racer.

While it has the numbers and the history, anyone who goes to Roth sees this race is about passion. Standing along with 10,000 other screaming fans on the hill called Solarerberg, cheering each rider as they power up the incline, is race director Felix Walchshofer. All along the route , in 20 or so villages, are fans with brauts and bier, holding their children all cheering these amazing endurance athletes.

All photos © Timothy Carlson.

But through history, Munich has been the focal point of ancient royal rivalries and many dark and tragic events. From the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and throughout his evil reign from 1933 through 1945, Munich was one of Adolph Hitler's strongholds of support.

After Germany's surrender to the allies, the German people struggled hard to rebuild as a peace-loving, tolerant, progressive people of democratic principles. The 1972 Olympics was to be their coming out party. Sadly, their very impulse to eliminate any signs of their militaristic past and stage a Woodstock-style athletic love-fest left the Olympic security open to terrorism.

Today, Munich remains a magnet for everyone who loves art, culture, history and beauty and a friendly welcoming people, cherishing each new day in the sun.

A modest trading center in 1050, Nuremberg became a free town in the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Nuremberg became a center for artists, craftsmen and intellectuals and was a thriving center of commerce.

In the 20th century, Nuremberg became a key city of Hitler's rise to power and was the site of the infamous 1933 Nazi rallies.

Today, it's a peaceful tourist Mecca filled with elegant churches, fine art and vibrant markets, galleries and a thriving concert scene.

Photo gallery by Timothy Carlson

In 2000, Steve Larsen was devastated to miss the US men’s Olympic mountain biking team. The two-time NORBA national champion (including the Olympic year 2000 – showing that Larsen was arguably the top US mountain biker) and former Motorola road cycling teammate of Lance Armstrong teammate was a fierce, proud competitor and the ultimate professional, so he did not take the verdict lightly. But with Larsen’s talent and drive, the old phrase “When one door closes, another opens” isn’t just an empty bromide. In 2001, he took up triathlon with a ferocity that no other pure biker has ever done and changed the paradigms of the sport.

He opened 2001 by smashing the Wildflower bike course record of Jurgen Zack with a 2:14:06 mark that lasted until 2008 when Chris Lieto shaded it by a mere six seconds. Even more impressive, Larsen took fourth overall, not far behind record setting performances by Chris McCormack and Craig Walton. Next, Larsen blasted to an overall win over a tough field that included Chris Legh, Cam Widoff and Mike Pigg with a course record 3:55:57 at the Half Vineman. Of course he scored a course record 2:07:31 bike, but what was scary given his ever so brief run training was his hang tough 1:14:42 split for the half marathon. Next, in order to qualify for Kona, he smashed the bike course record of Thomas Hellriegel with a 4:33:23 at the tough, hilly Ironman lake Placid – outpacing Ryan Bolton by 25 minutes -- and closed his 8:33:11 race with a 2:56:53 marathon that marked him as a threat for the podium at Ironman Hawaii.

Before the race, with talk of sensational Ironman Hawaii rookie Steve Larsen capable of riding 4:15, German star Normann Stadler stated at the pre-race press conference: “IF he gets by us….” Fellow German überbiker Jürgen Zäck scoffed at predictions that Larsen could overcome a 10 minute deficit after the swim by the turnaround at Hawi. “There is a lot of talking in the media, but it’s wishful thinking,” said Zäck. “They want an American to be the dominator on the bike and get a 10 minute lead. It’s not gonna happen.”

Cut to the day of truth. “I had a very bad moment,” said Stadler. “I thought I had no legs. I was riding at 35 kilometers per hour into those winds and he passed me like a rocket.” Did anyone put up a fight? “No,’ said Larsen.

Consoling Larsen after his decline to 9th on the run, six-time champion Mark Allen said “You finished on a day when there were dead bodies left and right – the most top names that have dropped out here -- ever.” The hall of shame included Peter Reid, Luc Van Lierde, Spencer Smith, Zäck, Tony DeBoom and more. Chris McCormack, on a scouting mission for 2002, said: “Steve Larsen had a lot to do with it – the pressure he applied to everyone’s pre-race game plan.”

Larsen wanted to shake up the old paradigm that strong runners sat in on the bike and waited. Mission accomplished. By Mile 95, he slashed past the final tri-veteran. Tellingly, the gap was five minutes just 17 miles later at T2. His 4:33:32 bike split on the worst day of winds in Kona history was 11:47 faster than next-best Stadler. Larsen started out at 6:30-per-mile for the first six miles, putting a minute on Stadler and Reid, but dropping three minutes to DeBoom. Larsen finally faded in the heat with unforeseen nutrition problems. . “I’ve never had trouble with heat before this,” said Larsen as he took a post-race dip off Kailua pier. “But my stomach shut down on Palani Road. After that, I was proud just to finish.” Larsen surrendered to DeBoom at Mile 11, then closed with a 3:19:09. “I think I affected the outcome of the race and I’m proud I laid it all down on the bike,” said Larsen. “Those guys that passed me on the run earned it.”

Introduction: Evolutionary scientists estimate that the first fish developed about 500 million years ago, that reptiles that crawled on land evolved about 200 million years later. From them the first primates appeared about 40 million years ago, followed by monkeys and apes 15 million years later, then came homo sapiens (that’s us) 165,000 years ago. Sometimes I think it would take me 500 million years of de-evolution to reacquire the original fish-like affinity enjoyed by athletes like Michael Phelps, Wendy Ingraham and Craig Walton. Or maybe it was hard work. I know I fall eons behind triathletes I poke fun of for having “manatee slow” swims. But always there is someone slower. John Huckaby once suffered tremendous foot blisters when he walked the entire Ironman Hawaii swim when a storm forced John and Judy Collins to hold it in the shallow protected waters of Ala Moana Harbor. Recently, some pro swam the 2.4 miles of the Quelle Challenge Roth in 44 minutes, wearing a modern wetsuit design whose original principles were conceived by Slowtwitch’s own Dan Empfield. Swimmers come in all shapes, sizes and speeds. Smooth, tall Gary Hall Jr. could touch the wall in a 50 meter swim in just under 22 seconds, while mustachioed barrel-chested Matthew Webb made the first crossing of the 21-mile English Channel (using the breaststroke all the way) in 1875, taking 21 hours and 45 minutes for the task. In 2007, Petar Stoychev made the crossing in 6 hour 57 minutes. The romantic poet Lord Byron swam the Hellespont, while macho author Jack London made a suicide attempt at age 16 by swimming so far out to sea in San Francisco Bay he could not come back – but the will to live was too strong and he swam back. Lynn Cox became famous at age 14 as the youngest to set an English Channel record. Thirty years later, she achieved more notoriety as a swimmer-adventurer, becoming the first to swim across the Straits of Magellan in South America, go around the Cape of Good Hope and swim the Bering Strait. Wearing only a swimsuit, Cox also swam over a mile in 0ºC Antarctic waters in 2002. By contrast, U.S. triathlete Jennifer Gutierrez’s ability to adapt to 93-degree Fahrenheit waters in Lake Minneola in Clermont Florida played a key role in her 1998 U.S. elite triathlon championship.

Swimming is ultimately a humbling, quixotic enterprise, as the elusive arcane movements needed to master hydrodynamics in the pool only reward the best practitioners with a sustained speed of about 3 to 4 miles per hour. Dolphins, who can barrel along at nearly 30 knots and who can leap 15 feet in the air, simply laugh at and tolerate humans. Five-time World Champion Greg Welch, who seems to have inherited a dolphin sense of fun and humor, remains humble about his human swim skills. On his first try at the pool at age 19, Welchy barely made it to one 25 meter length gasping for breath before he touched the wall. Still, despite gripes from super swimmers that triathlon’s swim legs are so short because they are designed to prevent the feeblest of swimmers from leaving the sport -- or dying -- the first leg remains crucially important for Olympic style racing. For the rest of us, it’s a non impact sport that balances out the hard muscles of running and biking with smooth, long, aesthetically pleasing muscles that make the triathletes’ body one of today’s ideals of healthy beauty.

When the starting gun or horn goes off, a switch goes off in the brain. Magically, all the nervous anticipation, dread, fear and excitement is channeled into learned motion and muscle memory. For a sport that holds deep allure for individualists, the entry portal is participation in a massive runaway herd where everyone risks getting bumped, jostled, whacked in the head with elbows or legs, run over, pushed under water and just plain discombobulated in a watery riot. Somehow, sheer instinct that might have been inherited from genetic ancestors like the migrating geese, dolphins or lemmings takes over. Emerging from that pack unscathed and finding a clear path offers a huge dose of excitement and post-swim satisfaction. It’s what philosopher William James called “The moral equivalent of war.”

Then, when the initial sprint to get clear is over and the swimmers settle into the steady rhythms of open water swimming, the hundreds of hours of drills and workouts take over. The better trained swimmers look smooth and sinuous and powerful. The worst of us look like eggbeaters thrashing the water into reckless, useless spray. While most swims are short and the differences between a great and mediocre swim can be overcome, the gulf between the good and bad swim is significant. After all, a triathlon is an energy equation, and an awkward stroke is the natatorial equivalent of a gas guzzling SUV.

All images are © Herbert Krabel / slowtwitch.com

Somehow, this historic town of 25,000 and all its castles and churches bestows its rich sense of history and reverence to this sporting event that is embraced by a loyal set of fans who can’t think of a better way to spend the second Sunday in July.

All pics © Timothy Carlson