A sea of pink.

Held around DATEV Challenge Roth – the mecca of triathlon – Challenge Women ranks among the biggest women's runs anywhere. For the agency Fiedler Concepts we captured this running highlight: thousands of women in pink, sweltering summer heat and an atmosphere words can hardly do justice – only pictures can.

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The job of this film

Challenge Women is the big women's run held around DATEV Challenge Roth – the legendary long-distance triathlon in Franconia that the scene reverently calls the “mecca of triathlon.” Around the big race weekend, thousands of women run their laps here – together, exuberant, in a sea of pink.

Our brief: capture the energy and emotion of this day in a highlight film – for the organizer, the agency and the sponsors. Not a dry results clip, but a film that makes you feel why so many women come back every year. So we ran right in the middle of it – camera in hand, lap after lap with the runners.

The shoot came about – as with Garmin and the Bregenz Triathlon – through Monika Fiedler-Proksch and her Munich agency Fiedler Concepts. As the founder of sportingWOMEN she has been bringing women into sport for years; Challenge Women is one of her passion projects. All the better that we got to be part of it.

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12 stills, 4 moving moments

A look inside the film – real stills from race day in Roth, with short moving clips in between.

Start area in pink – flags, tents and Challenge Women runners

Warming up on the meadow – stretching on mats in the morning sun

Before the start – runners in pink, spirits high

Dense field of runners in the start area – a sea of pink

Start/finish arch with pink balloons and spectators in the sun

Runners winding through meadows and fields like a pink ribbon

Forest section – runners with race numbers between the trees

Course through the town – spectators lining the route

Runner in pink – full focus in the summer heat

Aid station along the course – water against the heat

Beaming finishers with their prizes after crossing the line

DATEV Challenge Roth – “we are triathlon!”, the film's endcard

You can't get more pink – or more heat

Two things stayed with us from this shoot: you probably can't get more pink onto a running course – and, honestly, not more heat either. Following the field with a camera in midsummer temperatures, being in the right spots while staying on the move yourself, is hard work – but exactly the kind we love.

A run like this happens only once and can't be repeated. Miss the starting gun, the cheers at the finish or that one moment at the aid station, and it's gone for good. That's why we plan every position in advance and shoot with a small, well-rehearsed team that knows days like this inside out. And when you're kept well fed all day – thanks, Moni! – a shoot day like this is simply a joy.

Event films for runs & sports events that carry the emotion

Fun run, corporate run, charity run, triathlon, sports festival: an event lives on its atmosphere – and that atmosphere is what sells next year's edition. We capture it: the energy at the start, the faces on the course, the cheers at the finish. With a small, mobile team, weatherproof planning and, on request, a finished highlight film shortly after the finish line. If your event happens only once a year, the film has to land. We're based in Austria's Salzkammergut and shoot across Austria, Germany and beyond.

Event & live production →Industry: Sports & Outdoor →Bregenz Triathlon 2018 →

The job at a glance

Client: Challenge Women – via our partner agency Fiedler Concepts (Monika Fiedler-Proksch / sportingWOMEN)
Event: Challenge Women – the big women's run held around DATEV Challenge Roth, Roth near Nuremberg (Middle Franconia) – the “mecca of triathlon”
Year: 2017 – filmed again for Fiedler Concepts in 2019, and in 2020 as the “Challenge Women Virtual Run”
Brief: Capture the energy and emotion of one of the biggest women's runs in a highlight event film
Scope: Concept, directing, camera & edit – highlight film for the organizer, agency & sponsors
Location: Roth in Middle Franconia – start/finish area and the course through fields, forest and town
Conditions: Midsummer, sweltering heat – “you can't get more pink or more heat”
Team: B&T Film: Florian Maderebner (concept, director, camera & edit), David Vorkauf (camera)

Partners & context: DATEV Challenge Roth ↗Fiedler Concepts ↗sportingWOMEN ↗

Who was on set

Crew

Florian Maderebner – Concept, Director, Camera & Edit
David Vorkauf – Camera

On camera

The runners of Challenge Women – women from all over Germany and beyond

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