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In 27 months to Eisenmann von Roth

2022-07-07T15:06:30.867Z


In 27 months to Eisenmann von Roth Created: 07/07/2022, 16:55 By: Stefan Reich Crossing the finish line accompanied by his daughter (6): Marcus Schweiger arrived after 11:27 hours to applause from the spectators. © private Marcus Schweiger from Hanfeld started endurance sports in the first corona lockdown. Actually just out of boredom. But he stuck with it and even founded a triathlon club wit


In 27 months to Eisenmann von Roth

Created: 07/07/2022, 16:55

By: Stefan Reich

Crossing the finish line accompanied by his daughter (6): Marcus Schweiger arrived after 11:27 hours to applause from the spectators.

© private

Marcus Schweiger from Hanfeld started endurance sports in the first corona lockdown.

Actually just out of boredom.

But he stuck with it and even founded a triathlon club with friends and relatives.

The sporting result is more than impressive.

Hanfeld/Roth – Arrive.

Just arrive.

That was the goal that Marcus Schweiger had set himself for last Sunday.

For the first time, the 43-year-old from Hanfeld had attempted a long-distance triathlon.

And that at the Challenge Roth.

The race in Franconia, together with the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, is probably the most well-known event in the triathlon world.

After the full Ironman distance – 3.8 kilometers of swimming, 180 kilometers on the bike and a marathon run of 42.2 kilometers – Marcus Schweiger crossed the finish line in Roth, holding his six-year-old daughter by the hand, who supported him in the last meters accompanied.

Many participants were there long before him, but many others, including seasoned professionals, didn't even make it that far on this hot day.

Schweiger crossed the finish line with a smile.

And that despite the fact that he only started seriously with endurance sports around two and a half years ago.

"To be honest, when Corona really got going in April 2020 and you couldn't do anything for two weeks, I was a little bored," he says in an interview with Starnberger Merkur.

"And I also wanted to lose a few kilos." Like so many people at the time, he wanted to do something for himself.

In 2018, the long-time amateur soccer player had an operation on the Achilles tendon.

"For a long time it was not possible to walk more than three kilometers without pain," he recalls.

Now he approached the subject of triathlon with his brother-in-law Markus Fischer, who had not been a proven endurance athlete until then.

And half things are obviously not her thing.

Not only did they start swimming, cycling and running more and more intensively.

They also founded their own association.

The "BavaTria Hanfeld eV" now has 20 members.

Fischer, who competed in the Tegernsee Triathlon at the weekend, is the first chairman and Schweiger his deputy.

"It was actually a crazy idea," says Schweiger.

The founding of the association also had a few practical advantages.

As a club member, it is easier to deal with the registration formalities for triathlon races.

This includes insurance issues.

The search for sponsors – definitely an issue in this not-so-cheap sport – is a little easier.

"And we might want to get a few young people excited about the sport with the club."

The founding members of "BavaTria Hanfeld" (from left): Markus Fischer, Martina Schweiger, Martin Böhnke, Marcus Schweiger, Jörg Mack and Martina Kammerlander-Fischer.

© private

The hope that the club might get training time in an indoor swimming pool in winter has not yet been fulfilled.

"As long as we continue to swim all year round in a wetsuit in the lake," says Schweiger.

If you want to become an iron man, you have to endure something.

The first race in which Schweiger started was the Wörthsee Triathlon, a comparatively short race.

Two middle-distance triathlons followed last year, which are about half as long as an Ironman.

Schweiger completed a third middle-distance race six and a half weeks ago in St. Pölten.

Then came Roth and the anxious question: Isn't that a size too big?

At 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, Schweiger entered the Main-Danube Canal with 200 other swimmers in his starting group.

"The spectators are already there on the bank and on the bridge and cheer you on.

It's just crazy.” The enthusiasm of the audience in and around Roth is legendary.

“When cycling, it can be a bit lonely on some sections.

Then you have to go through it alone.

But when you climb the Solarer Berg for the first time after almost 70 kilometers, the atmosphere is like that of a mountain stage in the Tour de France.”

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Driven by this euphoria, Schweiger got off his bike in the transition zone. "I was still doing really well," he says.

"But they say that a long-distance triathlon really starts with running." Then you feel your legs, your head starts to work, again especially when the course leads away from the towns and through the rather lonely landscape.

“The fact that my family was at the track and I was able to exchange a few words with them three or four times, that helped me a lot,” says Schweiger.

In general, such a project is inconceivable without the support of the family.

The last ten kilometers were towards Roth.

More and more spectators - in total there are usually more than 100,000 at the Challenge Roth - lined the roadside.

Once again, the course led the runners out into the terrain before they went to the stadium to the finish line.

“Then they all call your name, which is on the starting number.

That works.” After eleven hours and 27 minutes, it was done.

"Then everything falls apart," says Schweiger.

“But after that, the next plans were quickly made.

Apparently the fever got the better of me.” Roth was probably not the last long-distance triathlon for Hanfelder.

But the next race will be comparatively easy.

On July 31, Schweiger and some "Bava Tria" athletes want to start at the Wörthsee Triathlon.

"That will be our first club championship at the same time."

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-07-07

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