Challenge Roth – chasing sub 10 with Team Parcours member Zach Josie
As endurance athletes, most of us set goals. It keeps us motivated, accountable, driven, and for some, the reason we get up and train every day.
For Parcours athlete Zach Josie, that goal was Challenge Roth and going sub 10hours. What makes this goal particularly special though, is that Zach has Ellis Ven Creveld, and incredibly rare form of dwarfism. Only a few hundred people in the World have it. Zach is 5ft, which is ‘tall’ for someone with dwarfism. He has the torso of a pretty average male, but his limbs are really short compared to that.
When competing in triathlon, he has to manage all sorts of complications – finding wetsuits that fit his body shape; how to rack his bike, and more. We caught up with Zach after Challenge Roth, to find out a little more about him, and what drives him, why sub10, if he made it… and some of the clever and unique equipment he uses.
The Early Years
Zach grew up in a sporty family, one of four boys, sport was always important. He has an older brother, who is 6ft 2”, and then his two younger brothers who also have Ellis Van Creveld. It’s even rarer for this form of Dwarfism to affect three members of the same family. His older brother played basketball and Zach was always encouraged. At a younger age, he was the same size as many of his peers, but in Grade 7, returning to school, Zach hadn’t grown, yet all his peers had. That made it difficult to be competitive and compete. At college, in his first couple of years, like many students, he became a little unhealthy. However, he was roommate with his brother, and his brother would run all the time – so Zach just asked “what’s a good area to run?” Then as part of his course, he signed up for a spin class and really enjoyed it. He met some people that did triathlon, and just became curious about it, and as a result ended up signing up.
Triathlon Life
It wasn’t all smooth sailing at the start. Zach competed in Spudman a local Olympic distance in Idaho, and after putting the training in and really committing to it, he had his worst result. He was just married (to his childhood sweetheart, Ashlee) and he remembers telling his wife, how frustrated he was, and that he felt like he’d wasted all his time training and didn’t want to do it anymore. But by the time they got home, Ashlee had persuaded him to take swimming lessons and sign up for 70.3 St. George.
“I think she knew that it was healthy for me, and in a confidence boosting way too”
The transition to the full distance came when having signed up for 70.3 St. George, it was announced in 2019 it would be a full distance, and then covid hit. So through covid, that just became the transition. But it was during this time that Zach realised his bike didn’t fit him properly. He was just riding the smallest frame that his bike shop had and making this work. Whilst for a normally proportioned 5ft person, this may work, with Zach’s long torso in comparison to his short limbs, it just wasn’t comfortable for the long rides. The next project began to search out the right bike. After lots of time spent trying to contact companies, he came across Ku-Cycles who offered semi-custom frames built to your measurements. The company didn’t have any business in the USA, but they seemed interested in helping Zach.
During this time as well, St. George announced it was now going to be the World Championships. Zach was already signed up, so his entry crossed over into the World Championships, which he states “was quite daunting”, but that’s how the long distance love affair began.
His first two full distance, like for most of us were full of learning. The first, he had issues with his bike shoes, not realizing his feet are super wide but also really small, so the bike shoes compressed his feet too much and he ended up having to stop at every aid station to take his shoes off and soak his feet in ice. Then the next full, he didn’t have his nutrition dialled in (a pretty common mistake here).
So, when the opportunity to enter Challenge Roth popped up on his Instagram feed, he jumped at the chance.
Sub 10
His big goal in 2020 had been to go sub 5 in a 70.3, so when Roth came around, Zach thought he needed a specific focus, and to keep him dialled in, so whilst he appreciates it’s not quite as simple as doubling the 70.3, that’s how Sub 10 came about. It was going to be a huge task, his current PR 13hour36minutes. But he knew he had the potential capability on the bike and the run, but the big question mark was the swim…
Challenge Roth 2025
Zach arrived early in German, the week before the race, giving his body time to adjust from the travel and time zones. He felt sluggish the first few days, but got a boost when he arrived at the expo on the Thursday before the race.
“It was incredible like nothing I’ve seen before”
Challenge Roth were also really open and supportive of Zach’s condition. He had communication with Roth in the months leading up to the race, where Roth were keen to understand some of the problems he’d faced at races in the past.
One of Zach’s biggest issues is racking his bike. The seat is pretty flush to the frame so there isn’t any room to hang the bike by the saddle on the rack. It normally involves Zach having to strap his bike to the rack. Which in turn, takes valuable time in T1 to remove the straps before he can ride. Instead of the racks in T1 for Zach, Roth used wooden crates (actually this used to be how bikes were racked in transition for years prior to the recent change to racks). This meant Zach didn’t have to tie his bike onto a rack, and resulted in a saving of 3-5minutes in T1 in the race.
Deboer also made Zach a custom wetsuit, taking his measurements and producing a suit to fit his body. Unfortunately, the race was then a non-wetsuit swim, but still an impressive gesture by Deboer to help.
The general kindness and helpfulness of the Challenge Roth team, just meant that leading into the race, was much more relaxing. Zach knew everything was taken care off and the Challenge Roth team were going over and above to help and make him feel welcome and accommodated.
Race Day
A non wetsuit swim was definitely intimidating for Zach, and he struggled with some panic early in the swim. Something that was completely new to him. Once he caught his breath again, he was able to carry on. But his swim was 20minutes slower than planned, which then put pressure on the rest of the day to hit his targets for sub 10. The bike was going well until 160km when he had some mechanical issues with his chain and derailleur. He spent precious minutes trying to fix this, and on getting back onto his bike, popped something in his knee. This was just more of an added annoyance at this point. However, he still PR’d the bike by about 25minutes! He knew though, that with the swim and the bike, sub10 was probably out of the question, but also knew he could still salvage the race and get a PR. The run was smooth until around 18km when his knee started to cause pain. Whilst this slowed his pace and meant he had to walk at times, he still kept going and still PR’d the run too by an hour!
“I think on a normal course, I would have not been as motivated, but Roth there are people everywhere you turn. People cheering for you and it’s so motivating that it was easy to pump myself up again to start running”
Of Solar Berg and the race in general Zach says
“I’ve never experienced anything like it. Usually cause I race in the USA a lot, you get a lot of people yelling at you but not in a nice way. It’s incredible (in Roth) how inviting everyone was. The community seems to love the race”
The finish stadium is a magical place too.
“I could hear the crowd before you even get there, before you are even at the expo. It was crazy. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I couldn’t hear anything, it was so loud it was awesome.”
Sub 10
Whilst Zach didn’t achieve the sub 10 goal, he still took 1hour and 44minutes of his PR, and went 11hours 52minutes. And whilst everyone keeps pumping him up about how crazy it is to take that much time of your PR – he can’t get the sub 10 out of his head.
So, the goal is still sub 10, but it just becomes a longer project, whilst he figures out the areas he knows and believe he can take time from.
Would he go back to Roth…. “oh definitely. And my wife and my parents. We’d all go back”
Zach x Parcours
As seen, the equipment Zach needs for a triathlon is pretty unique or just very customised. It’s not as easy as buying off the shelf as many of us do.
Wheels are another area for Zach to think about. Many of the small bikes come with 650 wheels, but Zach wanted 700s. Yet at the same time, he also really struggles in the wind, so needed something that’s sturdy and can handle well, and that could take a wider tire. It was through the Test Lab, that when Zach’s frame was being built, he asked them for saddle recommendations. The conversation continued and the Test Lab grew interested in what Zach was trying to achieve. The Test Lab at the time worked with Grace Thek (Australian Pro Triathlete, 2nd Challenge Roth on long distance debut in 2025). They would recommend equipment that worked for Grace, as grave is a smaller athlete too. So, when the wheels came up, they recommended Parcours. (Grace at the time was a Parcours athlete too.) Zach was able to work directly with Parcours to ask questions for the right wheels, for the bike and racing. He’d always been hesitant about riding a disc, but Dov and the team at Parcours, help assure him that he’d be fine with a disc, as in the wind it’s the front wheel you need to manage. (See article on disc wheel)
Zach is an incredible athlete and human with goals to show what’s possible and to try. Whilst he didn’t achieve sub10 this year in Roth, it’s the motivation and focus now to keep going. When we think a full distance is a tall order for any athlete, Zach has to overcome so many more nuances, that challenge him on the day.
We hope this article, not only tells Zach’s story, but also enlightens others, and hopefully event organisers to how they can be flexible to the individuals needs and how to work with an athlete, like Zach, to give him the best race experience he can have.
Sub 10… the story continues… watch this space.
