The start for the swim part was early in the morning at 7o´clock. I lost a little bit the abridgement during the mass start of all of the 2400 athletes(At the challenge in Roth you start in small groups with about 250).

This sometimes leads to minor frictions. I felt it a few hundred meter after the start at the first turnaround or rather the first buoy, when the first athlete changed thweir swimming style from freestyle to breaststroke. Now you had to be careful to pass them while you´re doing freestyle...because if you´re getting hit by a feet in your face, on your nose, or in the stomach, you still a little bit of time to recover...
Until the second buoy everything seemed to clamed down. You couldn´t see the turnaround, because of the lower moring sun ahead;as well you couldn´t find the debouchure of the channel, because of the spectators standing so close to you, you could see the white in their eyes. This beats the shit out of you, so you can swim a little bit more faster. (1h 11min)

The change for the bike was no problem at all, the stand still stand low on the ceiling, but it´s suppose to become a hot day, my back is still burned, as it last a few weeks until it will recover again. You had to ride two rounds with together about 1800m of altitude. I didn´t feel the short stiffy uphill parts. (5h 26min)

The following marathon is not to be sneezed, you run km for km out of the town of Klagenfurt, make a turnaround run back and than again double it...Well, between km 25-30 I lost the vision of my goal…but than I captured myself again.
I ran the last Km without any problems. (4:22h)
With an overall time of 11h 8min, I ran very satiesfied over the finish line.

Jens Wolter