For those of you who don't feel like reading this whole Raumerrittet inlägg, today was not a good day. Not exactly kjempebra. So now that I have spoiled the ending, I can start at the beginning. My sleep was pretty bad and breakfast was not all that great plus I had one of those nervous stomachs. I said yesterday that this race is the real thing plus I was trying a new energy strategy so I had no clue what was going to happen. Here is the stigningsprofil again so you can follow along.

The start was okay and the road part was nice so I used the på rulle strategy again but the pace was a lot slower than last weekend...worrying, in other words. The traktor trail was full of mud but you could still ride so it was okay. But the dårlig grus up to Gruvebakken was hell. Dårlig grus means rocks the size of my head scattered all over the trail so this went slow and with a lot of walking. And then the sti up to the first matstasjon was mud...pure mud that you sink about 20cm into when you walk in it. There were lots of others around so this was very stressy and I was getting frustrated. So by the time it was a stop for food, I had gone 20km and 1:20 had already passed. So at that point I knew 4 hours was not going to happen.

I took off into the climb up to Gruvelia which went pretty well for a climb of 250m. At this point I felt okay and I was catching up to people in the hills but they were taking off when it was a short downhill. And then I came up to a left turn which I tried to slow down for and did but I started sliding so for some reason I unclipped my left shoe. Duh...left corner = force to the right so I fell and scraped my knee. On flat or going up, I could catch up to people so this part felt pretty good and my pace was better (over 20km/h). Then it was dårlig grus straight up and a drop of 150m on another traktor trail. This I was very annoyed with because it was downhill and people were passing me all the time but it was full of crazy rocks and very dangerous. There was a reason that the teknisk zone was at the bottom of this. It was nasty.

What was next? Another 120m climb up to the next matstasjon. Aj. At Råsjøen I prepared another energy drink and had a gel and a banana and took it easy. At this point my goal was just to finish. I did not really remember the profile but I new there was another climb up to the highest point of the day...another 100m climb. This is around 50km and my stomach was feeling kind of strange but I didn't have my energy collapse this time. What I did have though was a general trötthet in my legs and this 100m climb was not helping that. This part passed some lakes and the view from the mountain was nice. But I was not sure when the downhill was coming.

Then the downhill came and it was like a tractor had rolled over because there were deep ruts every 20cm which is a horrible vibration experience. So even there I had to slow down. I was following a girl who was also sane enough to take it easy but everyone else was flying by. She hit a sand part and slid and I hit the same bit and had a scary slide which was when I found out a girl was following me. Luckily I didn't fall...or, well, maybe she was nice and then it could have been fun. ;) At the bottom was another Matstasjon and that is when I saw the Men's Elite start to pass. In positive news, Magnus Darvell finished 3rd and Mattias Nilsson took 4th.

At this point I thought the worst was over so I didn't have another liquid but made sure I had enough energy drink so I would not have to stop at the last one 10km before the finish. So then it was out onto a road to pass places like Nedre Haug and other villages in the valley. But this road was pure hell. Up and down the whole freakin way. When there was 10km left it switched over to grus again and went directly up 100m which I was not thrilled about at all. Then it went up and down several more times before finally back to the road and 5km left.

I felt bad but I pushed on. Every little uphill was killing me but it was getting easier now. I saw Exporama and knew that there was a last hill which was loose sandy gravel but still I rode up while others walked. They had this strange path where you had to go around the start area, halfway up the start hill and then on a downhill before crossing the finish line. I was right behind someone and was eager to pass but it wasn't possible on the downhill since there was no room. So with about 20m to go I started my spurt and won by a wheel length. Maybe won is the wrong word but it was really the only thing that went well today.

So here are the telling numbers.
Time: 4:28:50
Distance: 84 km
Höjdmeter: At least 1200m
Energy: 3686 kcal
Hr ave: 163
Hr peak: 187

Yes, this was the toughest MTB marathon I have ever done. Why did they think I was going to finish in under 4 hours??? Farrisrunden next weekend should be better.