Posted: May 26, 2005

Triathlon: American triathlete produces film about Quelle Challenge Roth

American triathlete Greg Tanner, like so many triathletes, is one busy guy. In addition to juggling a thriving computer business with Ironman training, he and his wife, Christine des Enfants, run The Triathlon Experience, a triathlon travel company.

But that's not enough for Tanner. To share his passion for his favorite race, the Quelle Challenge Roth, he's making a movie about his training and about his race in the German town in July.

The 36-year-old, who lives in Denver, Colo., has been doing triathlons since 1998-partly at the behest of his then-girlfriend, Christine. "She threw a challenge at me. She implied that the guys she had dated before never followed through on anything they said-so, lo and behold, I did an Ironman."

That was only 14 months after he completed his first triathlon. They were married in Switzerland in 1999 after Tanner finished the Ironman there. It wasn't long before Christine's involvement in triathlons grew, too, and in 2004 she finished her first iron-distance race in Roth.

It's the balancing act that keeps Tanner so keen on the lifestyle and on long-course racing, especially at Roth, which he calls "my world championship."

"I like the challenge of constant self-improvement-not just in athletics but in your life," Tanner said. "You're trying to always balance things. Triathlon keeps you focused on balancing things because it does take up so much of your time."

"It forces you to keep the things that are important in front of you all the time," he said. "And the things that aren't important to you, you definitely filter out quickly."

The Triathlon Experience was born in 2002, with a trip to Moab. The couple then decided to offer their services to athletes interested in traveling to European races, with a focus on races that are not Kona qualifiers but that are classics in their own right.

"I think there are a lot of the other races that people don't know about," Tanner said, and the first race they contacted was the Quelle Challenge Roth, shortly after it broke away from the World Triathlon Corporation in 2001.

"I had been there and seen it with my own eyes," Tanner said. "I knew the way the race was run. The majority of the people there are not there to get slots. It's their world championships. I knew Roth would be fine."

The race has indeed been fine since its break with the WTC, growing into the world's largest iron-distance race with more than 2,200 individual competitors and 450 relay teams set to start the race on July 3.

Tanner has finished the race in Roth twice--in 2001 and in 2003--and last year was a proud spectator for Des Enfants. He said his experiences on both sides of the event only deepened its special place in his heart.

"Race day is what captured me," Tanner said. "All the spectators, the music, and all the stuff that's going on. It's a whole day of that. It's just amazing how many people were out there. It's a great time for the spectators and the community."

Not long ago, one of Tanner's colleagues, Jamie Waite, suggested they should produce a film about Roth and Tanner's preparations for the race. "'Should' is actually an action word for me," Tanner said. "My friends know it."

So soon they were off and running with Waite behind the camera. The project is funded by SVC Sports, a private venture company with which Tanner is involved. SVC plans to sell it to television and provide it to the organizers of Roth to continue their efforts to promote the race.

Tanner, who has raced in Roth two times and watched Des Enfants on her journey last year, also has finishes at Ironman Switzerland, Ironman Austria and the 5430 long course in Colorado to his name-seven iron-distance races in total at six different venues.

So now, as he readies for his third race at Roth, Tanner has let Waite follow him around on his training and along the way hopes to open up a door into the life of "ordinary" athletes who race extraordinary distances.

"I want people to see what normal people go through when they're training for this distance and show why I would put so much effort into this race, Roth in particular," Tanner said. "It is my world championships. We're going to try to portray that.

"Some people think that you have to go to the world championships, or nationals, but that's probably not true for 80 to 90 percent of the population. They're not doing it for any sort of medal or recognition but who knows, maybe three years ago they couldn't run 5k. I want to show the mortal side."