Life of an Age-Grouper

1. This past season was little different than previous seasons for you being that you jumped up to Ironman racing. Why the jump? "Two years ago I had done a half ironman called, Toughman. There was a number I had set in my head and if I was able to break 5 hours and 15 minutes I would “reward” myself with the punishment of doing an Ironman. I was actually able to beat that time by 3 seconds. So last year I decided to pretty much do nothing but Sprints and Olympics to almost take the year not off but, focus on shorter more intense stuff rather than dealing with endurance racing. This year I just bit the big one and decided to tackle the ironman and it has been an amazing adventure and Im really glad that I did it. " 2. There are plenty of legendary ironman distance races in the United States so why is it that you chose Challenge Roth in Germany to be your first? "There were a few different reasons. I wanted to do something special for my first one....

Since I haven't been able to train for awhile I decided to start interviewing my fellow triathletes again. The first round of interviews received positive feedback so here is round two! Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce to you, Rodger Rau 1 . Rodger I met you a few years back at a Ride N Shine workout and then on a cold winters ride along the North Shore. It was at this time I found out your very first triathlon was Timberman 70.3. Can you tell me how you became involved with triathlon and why you chose the 70.3 distance as your first triathlon? "It was August 2009 and I just finished a training run for an upcoming 10k race called ‘The Great Cow Harbor 10k” in downtown Northport NY. After beating myself up for 6.2 miles of hills, my wife Michelle, myself, and a few of her aunts friends decided to get some dinner. We all sit around a small table and began talking war stories of past races. I mention to the group that someone actually bet me I could not break 3 hours fo...