OOOOH that was fun in the sun! But it depleted every little bit out of reserves in my body. But let’s take it from the start.
Race was held in Norberg, about 80 km or so from Västerås, so finally it meant no long drive back home. It is absolutely il-advised to be driving after these races, unless you get to recuperate, and that is something I am extremely thurrell with. Two hours of rest at least, lots of water and beverage, coffee and walk it of. Now back to the story!
So race-day meant a short drive to Hallsta and there picking up Hasse, who was going to race as well, getting to start 15 minutes or so behind me with the rec. skiers. After the short drive through magnificent winter Västmanland covered in snow, we got to collect our starting info and bibs and get ready for the race. If you have read about my previous races you may notice that I generally don’t get to the race site prior to the start it self. This time we had more than hour and a half. And that was just as well, spent half an hour waiting in line to go to the bathroom.
Race preparations went perfect. Skies were prepped night before (meant little sleep), I’ve been careful with intake of carbs, proteins and fluid. Training went well too so I was well prepared. One thing I did miss was to go to the start early with my skies and place them in an advanced starting position. As I did now, I got to the start 20 minutes before and by then the stating area was full, and that meant I got to start yet again from the back. And that also meant 20-30 minutes of getting past slower skiers and finding my pace. Looking back, I don’t know if that was good or bad, it just took too long. But yeah, going out hard in the beginning of the race could have meant power-outage too early, the race was 60 km so a lot could happen along the way. And a few things did happen, mostly nose-dives.
The start of the races is set up in the middle of the little town of Norberg, which is cool as most of the races start somewhere in the woods outside the towns races are held in. Downside of starting in the middle of a town is that the quality of the snow is quite low. You are basicly skiing on gravel, which my skies got to experience. Following the start we were going to ski two 25 km loops before heading back, for the finish, so 5 km to the loop, 2×25 km and then finaly 5 km back.
The race progressed rather uneventfull for the first 25 km, apart from the occasional stop and svurve due to someone eating the snow infornt or due to the fact that someone slower was in front. If there was something I learned in Norrbärke skimaraton and Bergebo skimaraton is not to be in a to much of a rush, as I am not too good of a skier and that means eating the snow to often when in hurry. So I simply relied on the engine, and that I was strong enough latter on.
It is rather seldom one gets to enjoy the scenery when racing, but this time I thought I would have a look around if there was possibility to do so. And on such a glorious day as race day was, I soaked in the sun as much as I could and the scenery as soon as there was something to see, or something I noticed. Ok, so I basked in the sun, didn’t see too much.
The course, or the loop rather, had one hellish upp-hill climb that just sucked nearly everything out of me, and a few steepers in the woods. Other than that there was also a steep downhill in Klackberg, at the ski stadium. It was extremly difficult for a skier like me, and I was not the worst one out there so I am assuming there were a lot of nose-dives there. I myself had one on the first lap, I landed litteraly on my nose first. Nothing broken though so it was just to get up and get going. Fortunately I knew what was coming second time around so correcting speed prior to the downhill was not a problem.
Keeping regular liquid intake was an absolut must, so I had my watch set on 2o min countdown, and stoping every 20 for intake of liquid. As the organasiers had watering holes, as I call them, set up every 10 km or so and with my avarage of 40 min/10 km ment that I got to replenish every 5 km. After 25 km I had to start taking energy gels too, which were boosting me and keeping me fresh. That and Taichamn, Taichman-mantra I used when I felt everything was falling apart as far as my skiing was concerned.
After the last loop, and last watering hole, I found some extra power in me and starting to sprint toward the finishing line, that I thought was much closer than those 5 km it turned out to be. And those last 5 km drained more out of me than those 55 prior to the sprint. I don’t know what I was thinking of, I was empty already.
Crossing the finishing line after 4 hours and 26 minutes was still good enough for me, huge bonus was the fact that I maintained good speed over the longest stretch I have ever skied, meaning that it looked rather good for the Vasaloppet, and a personal goal to ski below 7 hours 30 min. And yeah, I get to start from the 6th starting grid, so the first upphil at Oxberg should be over and done with rather fast, and then its mostly downhill all the way to Mora.