Challenge Roth. Simply the best race in the World.

2013 Challenge Roth 9:48

Roth: The most Amazing Iron Distance Race in the World! Simple as That!
Kona might be the race that started all (in this distance) but I can easily say that there´s no place that  turns into a Triathlon town like Roth. I live in Kona and I´ve been there for then last 4 years plus the 2005 race, so I know what I´m saying... At least from my perspective, the way that each surrounding town takes part in the race is amazing, everyone in Roth loves the race, everyone ¨wants¨ to be a volunteer, I met a guy that works for DATEV (Main Sponsor of Challenge Roth) and he couldn´t be a volunteer this year. The feeling during the whole week is incredible, they all just like you to be there...and Race day?!?! Oh my god! It´s even more incredible, each town you go through in bike and on the run is like going into a different page of a fairytale (plus the incredible cheering) In each town they have a different announcer that knows your name, and the people on the side is trying hard to see your name and country to say something clever and help you, some are just standing there, some with their chairs, and others in places with tables and restaurant service. Then you have some special parts like the town of Eckersmuhlen that you pass 3 times, and each time you pass, the town seems to have consumed more liters of beer! Or the long hill of Greding, or the steep one called Solarberg.....

at the bottom of Solarberg

This last one is the cherry on the top of the Ice cream! That view when you turn and see a super steep hill completely full of people ¨Tour de France¨ style you definitely get goosebumps! I certainly did! I knew beforehand that you just have to pedal through and trust that the people were going to move in the last millisecond, even knowing that, it takes a lot of faith in people that you don´t know... It is very hard to describe and not sound exaggerated, but this is something that I know it will be up there in the memory playlist of the highlights of my life, is something that you have to be there to understand.

My race started a little weird, the whole week was little too exhausting, and more than a few days I couldn´t get enough sleep & the rest I needed. After the gun went it didn´t took me long to knew that it was not my day, I struggled the whole swim and never found rhythm, I came out of the water in 1:01 6 minutes slower that I expected and it felt a lot harder that I expected too...
On the bike I divided the 180k in 4 segments of 45k each. The first one went quite well, I was feeling relaxed and my watts where there, I knew perfectly the watts I could push, but in the second segment it became a little hard to keep them up, then in the 3rd segment I started to have lower back pain, the wind started to blow harder and the numbers kept dropping.... The last segment was very painful, I had to stretch my back a few times, and I was starting to be afraid, very afraid of what to expect when I started to run, I truly didn´t knew if I was going to be able to run even 1 kilometer....
Got to T2 in 5:05 (I had more expectations from my bike) and I took a little more time in transition than I usually do. I started to run and I was extremely happy to know that I left the lower back pain in transition with my bike, So it was a good start, I knew that what was coming was hard and that the mental game of negative thoughts battling the positive thoughts, so my first card was   ¨You are at least healthy Jano!!! not like in the last race where you were dying and your head was about to explode¨   I also repeated to myself thousands of times   ¨Just don´t screw it up by running too fast & Run by feel¨   ¨Keep a fast turnover¨   this were my weapons during the first half of the Marathon. The run is on the Canal Dirt Path, and it goes first to the left to the town of Schwand and the comes back the same way and now to the right  and to the town of Eckersmuhlen. It was in Schwand where I had my first crisis, it lasted 15-20 minutes and it´s awful, you have to believe that you will get through, and I did....

Half way through the Marathon

Then right after I passed the 21k mark I started to feel this pain in the right thigh, I was afraid that the pain turned into a cramp so I made sure I took a few more extra salt tablets, so I was there, with my pain and in the middle of this mental battle when suddenly this idiot that was coming in the other way decides to cross to my side of the Aid station that we were crossing at the same time, and boom! we collide! Knee to Knee! I screamed at him and kept running thinking, crap! this guy might have destroyed my run, my knee hurts.. bla bla bla.... then I realized that the pain in the thigh was gone...Ha! I think it´s all mental! I made an extra effort to think that way, and it worked... Both pains erased from my brain, I even picked up the pace a little bit.... when I got to the town of Eckersmuhlen I had my second crisis, it took me again a couple of kms to get through, that was km 32.... after that I knew I was heading home and smiled a little, that smile disappeared when I got to Roth and I still had 4k to go, if I didn´t had the support of Paola in those last kms I know it would have been much harder, she was simply everywhere!
The last 2km are like magic, you enter the central Platz of Roth through this finish line style barricade to hold the spectators and there´s again an announcer that calls your name and everyone cheer on you, it´s mind boggling! I couldn´t do the times I had in my mind and that I know that I have in me, but still I shaved 20minutes of my PR and finished in 9:48 in my second Ironman distance event. Don´t get me wrong, I totally respect the distance, but I also have my goals.
Thank you to all of my friends, my wife Paola Obviously... to my sponsors, you all had been incredible!
 Thank you and like I love to say......... Onto the Next one then...... 

Magical Swim Start

There´s nothing compared to the finish line in Roth!

That Beer after doing Roth is ¨Heaven¨

Ironman Berlin 70.3

So here we are! Ironman Berlin 70.3 Done! 
The long awaited second race with the Ichiban Triathlon Team (click and Like it on Facebook)
We all trained hard for this race that´s a sure thing, but it was time to see who worked harder. Unfortunately I was a little under the weather so I knew before the start that it was going to be a tough day, and not starting was just not an option, not only for the Team, but because I got a surprise interview from Herbert Krabel from Slowtwitch ¨On the Road with Jano Soto¨ and after that not starting just didn´t looked good :)
(Click here to read the Interview)

Ichiban Triathlon Team / 2013 Ironman Berlin 70.3

The swim course was in the River Spree with an spectacular view of the Elsenbrucke Bridge and The Molecule man.. the gun went off! The swim went quite normal and I was trying to save some energy cause I knew I was in for a long day, the view of the bridge was plain beautiful and I had the time to think more than once how lucky I was to be doing this thing that I love so much in a place like this, I almost forgot I was racing. I came out of the water in 15th place of my Age Group and went on to the Bike.

Tempelhof Airfield Bike Course

I was feeling surprisingly good! My watts were exactly where I wanted them to be. The bike course leads through the city quarter of Neukölln to Columbiadamm at the former Tempelhof Airport. From there to Mehringdamm where the course turns and goes back to Tempelhof airfield. There are three laps to drive over on the airfield it was back and forth on the 2 super wide landing strips with three turns on each strip. This means there are 24 turns per lap or 72 sharp turnarounds! It sounded crazy and fun. And it was! I got to see all of my Team Mates! That part was pretty cool! What was kinda crazy was the strong wind that was getting stronger and stronger as the time went by, luckily I made friends with the wind in Kona. So at least mentally that part was covered. My 1st lap average speed was 37.44km/hr. In the second I saw my watts drop a little, I tried to get some food in, but there was something that was not right, I remembered I had a cold, and instead of forcing it I decided to go with liquid only. Second lap average 35.90km/hr, and then in the 3rd Lap I started to feel like crap! The pace didn´t dropped to much 35.38km/hr for a Bike Split of 2:25 that placed me in 11th place.

When I got to Transition 2 without even thinking about it I left my Sunglasses with my Helmet, that meant running without them... I never do that, cause Obviously I should wear them during the whole race, I owe that to my Sponsor Rudy Project, but I guess that the reason for that impulsive decision came clear after the first kilometer........ Or in this case came blurry........... I couldn´t see anything on my sides, I had tunnel vision, my head was about to explode, felt like I had a fire inside my brain. I tried to separate the pains and analyze what was really going on with my body, the conclusion was that even with the headache, my legs were OK, but when I pushed the pace and my breathing went deep I couldn´t help the coffin, so I tried to breath more times and don´t go too deep, my speed was not that bad, in the 1st 3kms I averaged 4:19min/km, and those 3 kms were the worst, I was almost sure I was going to faint at some point, but then the headache and the cloudy vision disappeared, my speed also vanished and started to drop, but at least I was able to keep a high cadence and never stop, even if my body wanted to just quit! I ended up running a 1:37 Half Marathon very far from what I had planned but at that point I was just happy to be able to cross the finish line.
Mentally this race was without a doubt the hardest in my life! I think that something very positive came out of this, it feels like I went over a border in my mind, or that I cross over a pain threshold , my 4:39 Total Time gave me the 10th place and 64th Overall.
The Perfect Race is something that is very very rare, some races can come close to it, and when that happens it´s an amazing feeling, but this year..... my races have been far from that. It´s specially tough when the training goes right and you have great expectations for the race, but in race day you just don´t have it.
So let´s go back to the drawing board and start all over again.
The Performance of the Team was Brilliant, Tommy Vonach won his age group with another superhuman performance in 4:18, Jenson Button smashed his PB by shaving 11 minutes and finishing with a speedy 4:19 that gave him a 4th place, Paul Ryman even with a flat tire did a 4:42, Andrew Gardiner broke the 5hr barrier with a 4:59, Dea Bess got a 6th place with her 5:07, James Thurston did an incredible 5:10 in his first half Ironman, Big Guy Fraser Thomson did a respectable 5:22 he keeps shaving kilos and now looks like a killer machine. Unfortunately Tom Dudden one of the fastest on the Team didn´t finished, he was also going through a Man Flu and used his head unlike others (me) and took the option to recover and get ready sooner for the next one.
Crossing the finish line is always very emotional, for various reasons, in this ocassion (after almost ending in the Medical tent) it was the Team Energy & Frienship that almost brought me down to tears. I don´t want to sound to cheesy or corny or whatever, but everyone in Team is very special individual! Specially The Girls! Jessica, Paola and Samantha didn´t race but they played a huge roll in helping us all to go through a tough race. Chris Buncombe was also there on the sidelines cheering on us!
ICHIBAN!!!

Ichiban Triathlon Team / 2013 Ironman Berlin 70.3

Ironman 70.3 Hawaii Race Report. Plus Lavaman and Ironman 70.3 Oceanside :)

I know, I know..... 
I owe you a few Race Reports... So here we go, 3 Race Reports in one Blog Post:

The Excuse:
After the Monster Half Ironman everything went so damn fast that I didn´t really had time to even write a small race report.. The training became serious after seeing how much I needed to work in my run, it was all about training and we also had guests in our home. Anyway.... I trained like a madman and everything went well, no serious injuries luckly, just a little tightness in the legs but nothing my Normatec Boots couldn´t fix.

Lavaman Waikoloa 1st Place (10th Overall) March 24
The first serious race was Lavaman Waikoloa. Considering that most of my training was aimed at Long Distance I think the race went pretty well... Actually I think it went Awesome! I came 10th place Overall with a very strong field, plus ahead of me there were Only Pros! I think only one Age Grouper came ahead of my in 9th. A field this string is usual for this beautiful race.
The race was won by Chris Lieto, Benjamin Williams came in 2nd and Tim Marr took 3rd place. I won my Age Group and obviously I was very happy to crack a Top Ten.

Ironman 70.3 Oceanside 11th Place (124th Overall) March 30
The next day I was already flying to California for Ironman 70.3 Oceanside. This race was a more important for me since I was racing with and against all my Team Mates from ICHIBAN TRIATHLON TEAM (click and ¨Like¨ on Facebook) They all came from all over the world, Japan, USA, UK, Monaco etc... And since we all keep track of each others training is like a very friendly competition in parallel with the Race itself.
I was a little worried about the water temperature because I was using a Sleeveless wetsuit, I´ve never felt good with full sleeves and everyone was saying that it was very very cold, and when you hear this from the Brits that are used to gruelsome weather you can´t help it, you worry about it..
The swim went quite well, a lot of traffic due to all the wave starts but nothing to worry about, no Hypothermia at all, actually I was feeling hot towards the end of the swim. I came out of the water in 27:40 and went on to the Bike leg. I loved this course, it´s hard and true, so not too many drafting cheaters around, I was feeling pretty good and fast, but when the big hill came I realized I forgot to change my rear cassette, I didn´t had the gears I wanted to have so I could keep a high cadence the whole time. I didn´t suffer the hill but I had to grind slowly and I knew this was going to hurt my run... And it did...... I came in 9th position with a 2:34 wich is not bad for Oceanside. I started running 4:20min kilometers (7min miles) and felt quite good, I was hoping to hold that pace for the entire run and maybe even speed it up the last few km´s but after 16kms (10miles) I started to pay forgeting to bring the correct gear for that hill. I couldn´t hold the pace and I had to slow down a little bit.. the last 5k my average came down to 4:49min/km (7:45min/mile) I finished strong with a 1:34 Half Marathon and I cramped inmediatly after crossing the line which left me a good feeling of giving it all and doing my best.
The rest of the Team did incredibly good, we had the chance to show the following:
¨WE ARE NOT HERE JUST FOR THE COOKIES AND COFFEE¨
Ichiban Triathlon Team Results:
Tommy Vonach:   Total Time 4:22:01 Div Rank 4th Overall Rank 56th
Jenson Button:      Total Time 4:29:00 Div Rank 5th Overall Rank 78th
Tom Dudden:       Total Time 4:32:59 Div Rank 7th Overall Rank 90th
Yu Yumoto:          Total Time 4:39:31 Div Rank 18th Overall Rank  117th
Jano Soto:            Total Time 4:41:07 Div Rank 11th Overall Rank  124th
Andrew Gardiner: Total Time 5:12:15 Div Rank 65th Overall Rank 382th
Fraser Thomson:   Total Time 5:36:20 Div Rank 112th Overall Rank 746th

Too much caffeine?

Jessy, Fraser, Paola, Jano

Ichiban Triathlon Team

The 2nd Excuse:
After Oceanside we spent a couple of days in Los Angeles and then we went to Mexico for 8 days, I didn´t trained much so when we came back to Kona I felt I needed to catch up for the what was coming next: The plan was to start preparing Challenge Roth and in the way race Ironman Honu 70.3 and Berlin 70.3. Easier said than done.

Ironman Hawaii 70.3 June 1st Kona Hawaii.  7th place 39th Overall
This is my 5th time doing 70.3 Honu, the way we call it in Kona.
I´m proud to say that I always choose hard races, competitive and hard, but Honu is on its own league, I think I can say this is a damn tough race, maybe one the toughest races in the WTC circuit.
Well.. after saying all this, this year it was by far the toughest conditions in 5 years, and from what I hear it was the worst ever!
The swim start is always super violent, and this time there was no exception, the Pro Wave started at 6:50 and 3 minutes later all Male Division....In total we were 1800+ participans, so lets say 1500 Ultra Competitive guys!
I´ve been swimming a lot and I felt confident to be able to start very fast and then hold a good pace, and I think I would have been able to do this if there was water to swim in.... for the first 400 meters there was no water at all... Only a sea of arms, legs, elbows and backs! TOTAL CHAOS! Awful! just after the first turn buoy it started to get better, but in overall the swim was hard for everyone, the times were slow. I came out of the water in 30:48 but since I passed a few Pro Girls towards the end I knew that it was not a bad time.
I jumped into my Bike and as soon as I started riding on the Queen K I knew the wind was going to be Terrible and Cruel on our way up to Hawi, I also saw I was in a pretty good position! after the first turnaround I saw that after the Pros there were not many Age Groupers. Startting the climb up to Hawi I saw I was Spot On! The Wind was Howling! I passed more guys and in the turnaround in Hawi I was up there in the Mix, Craig Alexander was crushing everyone in the field and maybe 5 minutes ahead of the next one, but after that we were all spread apart by 30 seconds more or less...
The wind was not only stronger than usual, this time it decided to change and give us a demostration of how mean Madame Pele con be, headwind all the way! My 2:33 Bike Split was good enough to get me to the start of the Run in 35th place Overall. I know perfectly this course, and it doesn´t get any easier, I started to run conservative because I knew what I had ahead of me, grass, steam, hills, heat, more heat, and at mile 10 the Horrible Hells Kitchen! a 2 mile stretch of Mini Energy lab out & back to Hell... So I was trying to keep control to be able to unleash it towards the end... I was running 4:20min kms and feeling incredibly good, but this time my mistake was taking it too easy, when I passed the 7 mile marker I saw I was going to easy! WAKE UP JANO!  I screamed to myself! what are you doing? Crap! I won´t be ale to get back those minutes lost. In the intent to save it a think I lost focus for a while. So I got my initial pace back of 4:20´s and I passed Hells Kitchen unscratched! It´s incredible and even funny to see the faces of the guys at that turnaround I think that at that point of the race no one expects to get any harder!
My Run split for the Half Marathon was 1:39, maybe not what I wanted but considering the conditions of the whole race I was happy with my race... 7th place in my Age Group and Better than this was being 39th Overall with 20 Pros starting the race!
50 hrs later I was on a plane to Europe, next is Ironman Berlin 70.3 June 16, another race with my mates from Ichiban Triathlon Team.
Stay connected on Twitter for race Updates and Stuff @janosoto1 (Twitter handle) 

 

Signing up with Rudy Project

I'm so happy to announce that I signed up a Sponsorship deal with Rudy Project! Plus as a member of Ichiban Triathlon Team I can't be happier, I'm excited for this 2013 that promises to be a tough one but also a very interesting year, I'm still finishing up the details of my Racing Season, but I can tell you that the 1st two races are already in the corner, Lavaman & Oceanside 70.3, there's going to be a few interesting new 70.3's the Always Tough Honu 70.3 plus a solid 3 Months of European Racing! Including Berlin 70.3 and what might be the Best Ironman Distance Triathlon in the World.... Challenge ROTH! For all this there are no better company Logos that I would like to Represent:
Rudy Project ----- Kiwami ----- Zone Diet ----- Normatec ----- Hawk Racing & Polar (click to Link)
Is not only the super cool stuff, it's more the passion that you can feel from the company towards the sport and his athletes!Here's a little History of this Italian Brand:

In 1985 Rudy Barbazza created Rudy Project with the firm conviction to improve the performance of athletes all over the world. A love of progress, a passion for style and a keen eye for quality all contributed to give life to his Vision: the world’s most technologically advanced sports eyewear. Rudy Project works in cooperation with athletes from all fields, listening to what they want and need. Rudy Project never stops researching to find the latest and best materials available to realize cutting-edge products. Technically Cool: the two words that can best sum up this Vision; the two words that best express the DNA of each and every design carrying the brand Rudy Project. 

You can start shopping here RUDY PROYECT

The Catalog is Huge!  :)

Mini Monster Half Ironman

Sporting my New & Awesome Rudy Proyect Sunglasses & Helmet
(More info about my signing with this great Company to come Soon)

I won't lie.... I was nervous the days before this race, if you read my latest blog post, I had some rough patches in 2012, it ended up turning into 5 Months of dealing with injuries and stuff, I can't believe that 5 months went by without Racing! And that's why I was nervous... Coming back from injury and time off you loose a lot of confidence.
So I started the race with this in my mind:
 "It's your 1st race, you do your best and then you will know where you are, and you this will give you the Focus to Get Back onto it"
The Swim was Ok, I managed to came out of the water in the lead pack with a Fast Girl, a Canadian Guy named Randall Walker and also with Thomas J. Vonach.
NOTE: I said lead pack but we were not the first guys out of the water, Lance A. was doing a relay, and he was only swimming, so he did the swim as a possessed man or fish, he put Bree Wee (his Biker) 4 minutes ahead of us.......
With a terrible transition I lost my slim swim lead of a few seconds to the Walker and to Thomas. I knew that my bike wasn't that bad, so I thought of making the best out of it, without worrying to much about the Run, that by all means was the leg that suffered the most after 5 months of intermittent and erratic training...

X-Terra Speedsuit
helping me to get out of the water in the lead pack

Already on the Queen K, I passed the Canadian Walker, then a few minutes after I passed Thomas... Umhh passing Thomas before 10k on the Bike? Maybe that wasn't a very good idea and more like a suicidal mission..... But I know Tommy and I knew that he was going to fight this one to the end, like he always does :) So after a couple of changes in the lead I let him go, and tried to keep him in sight for as long as possible, the wind started to pick up and gain strength, with each mile it was stronger, and when we passed Scenic Point it was just Horrible! Perfect! I knew this would smoke the huge group of Canada that was on our heels, and it did... When we got to Mauna Lani and turnaround I could see the faces of "What the Hell is this!" We flew back to town, I was always between 1 & 2 Minutes behind Thomas, and we were both gaining in Bree Wee who was the Overall Leader, He passed her right before T2 after a 2:21 Bike Split, and I passed her Runner after a 2:22 Bike Split, right after T2 and at the beginning of the Run.

As soon as I started running I knew I was going to have a long long day... My legs were done! That kind of pain was not a strange to me, because that's how you feel your legs in the last couple of miles of  the 13miles of the Run, But when you feel like that in the first hundred yards, you know you are in for a Smashfest of Pain...
It was blazing Hot! So it was not fun, I had to fight with my head every single stride, that part that telling me "Ok that swim was Ok, that Bike was Awesome and your Run Sucks, just DNF and tomorrow you start training with that in mind"

Already known as the Kiwami Guy :)

I've been racing since 1995 and I've done more that 100 Triathlons, and I've only DNF Once in Abu Dhabi when I burn my feet so bad that my skin peeled off so it was impossible to run. So DNF was not an option.
I was in 2nd and I wanted to keep that way, so I tried not to think about the other Canadian, Christopher Caswell who was closing in, and closing in fast!
After 13k I had to walk for a couple of minutes, then in the last turnaround I had to do it again, I knew I was doomed to loose my 2nd and I did, Caswell passsed a few kms from the Finish line.
 I was a bittersweet feeling that then became more sweet than bitter. I am BACK!
IT'S TIME TO FOCUS! TIME TO TRAIN AND TIME TO RACE!