Uff! I have done a lot of races in the last years. A lot!! But nothing prepared me for today. Today was definitely the toughest race both mentally and physically that I have ever done in my entire life and I am pretty sure if I would not have been so mentally strong I would not have finished the race!
I also have to admit that I probably underestimated it a little bit. And of course it was no where enough to go on the Mountainbike once before for an hour.
The race starts on a short segment of asphalt followed by the first gravel road for a few km. Then we go up our Time trial road which is asphalt again and it was tailwind up, I felt good and probably went a bit too fast with an average HR of 165!
Shortly after the real stuff begins. For the next 24km it was a trail pretty much up and down the entire time. I was determined to walk as little as possible but on the second hill I had to get off as someone stopped right in front of me to get off so there was no chance. And once you are off is close to impossible to start biking again before you are up. The next hills I was smarter, stayed way to the left and have some distance to the one in front of me and that worked well. Still had to walk twice again on that part.
I always overtook quite some people on the way up and then got overtaken by double as many on the way down as I was going down with like 1mph ;)
Main goal was NOT to fall and I didn't :)
After some endless 24km I finally saw the asphalt road ahead right after the drinking station and I was so full of joy until I realised that we would NOT go on the asphalt but turn right onto the parallel old road which is gravel.....I almost cried when I realised that! That part which was about 5K was definitely the worst!! The road was very very bad and my butt was killing me and I had a hard time sitting. Wrist were complaining too but were not as bad as I expected.
At the end of this road came a very steep hill with loose gravel and I walked that up and on top we got asphalt!! YEAH! what I did not realise is that this was the start of a 2km uphill section (you go from 12m to 132m elevation within 2km) and I just powered up that hill as I was so happy to be on a normal road. Overtook probably around 20 people! BIG mistake this was! Once down again (which was fun!) the headwind hit and I was all alone and no group nearby to draft....that was tough!! And I think at that point I pretty much died and still had 11km to go....
I got quite nauseous and was on the verge of stopping to throw up the last 10km. I started singing to distract my mind of the pain in my sitting parts... Once we reached the city near the Blue Lagoon I was somewhat relieved as I knew it would not be that much longer. But it was no fun to realise that there was one last part of gravel trail left before the last 3km on asphalt into the finish. When I saw the 5km to go sign I was sure I would not make it.....I could not push, if I would have I would have thrown up!
So instead I tried to figure out what I would say on my "Mountainbike for sale" add that I was gonna put up right after the race on the net as I just wanted to get rid of my Mountainbike and never ever do this again!
The 1km to go sign came and once again I thought that there is no way I can do one more km. It seemed forever! Finally saw the finish line and choked up and was close to crying I was so relieved! Got off the bike as they wanted my chip and almost cramped up in both calves while trying to take my shoe off. I also got some cold sweats and with still being nauseous that was NO fun! My whole body was hurting! Got something to eat and 2 painkillers and slowly started to feel better after 15 minutes or so.
All in all this was a REAL challenge! I definitely realised that bike fitness alone is not enough to do well in a Mountainbike race and to survive it without too much agony.
But I also did not have fun. It is just not my thing but I am glad I tried it and I am really proud of myself that I finished especially as I wanted to quit about a million times!
Don't think I will do this ever again but never say never ;)