Nordic 24 race report

Well perhaps that should be the Nordic 10 and a bit...

Throughout the weekend I chose not to dwell on the fact that at some point this was supposed to be the high point of my year in terms of fitness and all things bike related. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting fitter again and losing a bit of weight and am extremely happy to be able to think of myself as a cyclist again.

Anyway, to the race. I left home at a reasonable 8:30 on Saturday and by 10:00 was more or less set up at the race site in Holte, the sun was shining and I was changed, had made camp in the sports hall, signed in and sitting around drinking coffee. Dad texted me that he was trying to get out to the start, but after some serious interruptions to the trains between Copenhagen and the race he had to turn around and head back into town for some important shopping duties. The race started with the usual Le Mans start that involves running about 400m before fishing your bike out of a hedge and hitting the trail. The first lap was pretty chaotic as ever, but as the course was 17km long things pretty quickly spread out and I managed to get into a pretty good groove. After each of the first 3 laps (each of them took me about an hour) I stopped for a new bottle and a quick cookie and got straight back out. I was happy that I was drinking fairly well and not suffering as I had in the 12 hour race in May.

After 4 laps I stopped for a longer rest and something to eat, during this pause there was a heavy shower and I decided to take a fair weather approach and wait for it to stop before starting again. The shower was short and I soon went out for another lap. The dust of the first laps was now gone and some areas were already looking a bit soggy, but it was OK and I was enjoying the ride. At the end of that lap I had another break and there was another heavy shower whilst I ate some food and had a lie down. The next lap was starting to get muddy in places, but the writing was on the wall for the rest of the race. By the time I had finished this 6th lap I was filthy and pretty tired so I decided to have a shower and a rest whilst it was raining again. I was considering going home, but couldn't quite bring myself to stop simply because I thought it was going to get worse. I had some more to eat and a fairly good rest before putting on some warmer clothes and setting out for a last lap before it got dark, I set out at 9 and it took me about 15 minutes longer than the previous laps because there were lengthy sections that were no longer readable and it was pretty dark in amongst the trees. 80% of the course was still fun and the atmosphere in the forest was great with steam coming off the lake and the distant noise of the live band playing in the start/finish area. By the end of the lap I was knackered and covered head to toe in mud so I hit the shower again and contemplated going to sleep. The trail was so slippery that I would have not enjoyed riding with light and I am sure I would have fallen repeatedly. I was also suffering terrible chain suck which made me get off the bike on most of the hills.

Here you can see my headless body finishing a lap.

This was a defining point in my 24 hour racing career, so remembering the words of Lance Armstrong " pain is temporary but quiting is forever!" I started getting ready to go home. I had the option of sleeping on the floor of a sports hall for a few hours and then riding in thick mud whilst feeling very tired and tender in the nether regions or I could go home to bed and have a reasonable sleep and enjoy the coming week. In the end my bed won and I was safely snuggled up in it by 1 o'clock.

I have learned a lot from this race, firstly that I am more of a fair weather rider than I liked to imagine, secondly that when it is easy to give up, then I can do it and don't feel bad about it. I also think it would make quite a big difference to have some supporters there to offer both moral and practical support.

Mostly I have learned that I am able to push myself to complete stupid events like ironman, the Marmotte and the Tour of Flanders where you simply keep going until you get to the end. However, when the finish keeps coming towards you even if you are sitting eating biscuits, then I am much more inclined to sit and eat than to push myself really really hard. I tried hard and I am still tired and aching 2 days later, but could I have done more? Definitely.