I tried to fight a nasty knee injury during the whole august by running almost nothing, walking (a lot), a great deal of massage and stretching (I usually never do this)... I bought a new mountainbike to be able to train a little bit "softer" as well!Well.... I suppose that I did it all... everything to be ready for this race: Hyssnaloppet 2015
The race is a 38k trail race with approx. 1100 hm. Not the toughest on the planet, but needs a firm respectful approach / nothing to joke with! :)
I did a test the week before running a 22k trail. No problem at all. No pain, nothing. I did ran at a really slow pace in order to monitor everything and to be able to react if something bad should happen..... nothing! So I figured.... we run the Hyssnaloppet! Yeah! :)
And ok.... I was there with three Lonesome runners: Anna, Lina and Jenny. I could write a novel about those three. Great ladies! Thanx for being there! :)
I had my SJ1000 camera with me. I knew already from the very beginning that I wanted to finish this race, see the trail and enjoy the whole thing no matter what!
And the whole thing started well...
The pace was OK. Between 5:30 and 6 the first 2k. After that we arrived to the woods! What a great trail! Pure magic! It was raining... A LOT! But nothing changed the fact that I was in heaven! :)
Everything was as planned... I was focused on filming, on maintaining me slow enough in order to run without problems etc.... Jenny took off right at start... after a few km together she just vanished (good luck my friend!) :)
Anna, Lina and me ran at the same pace..... nice and easy. The first 20k as we were told on the start line were tough. Well.... it was. Muddy and really sticky sometimes... but it's a part of the game right!? You hate that or you love it.... nothing in between I guess! :) As I hoped, the first 25k went nicely! No issues ..... untill..... Well.... I am a crazy dude sometimes! A great trail segment, sligtly downhill, really magic, green, soft, humid.... my Inov8 shoes just took off!... I was flying! I manage to "loose" Anna and Lina and some others.... Shit! Stop dude" - I told myself!............ TOO LATE! The damage was already done! At the 27th km the bravade resulted in the need to power walk and not being able to run anymore....I intended to have fun anyway. Lina and Anna approched and I managed to keep their pace approx 3-4km simply applying a few mountain running power walking tecniques. That was "good enough" for me. A 8min/k pace Is something I can live with in the woods! "Great" - I figured..... WRONG! After the tecnical part came the gravel road..... this lovely type of unpaved road surfaced with grave that usually some runners love just to run a little bit faster, others to stretch a little bit and relax, free the mind and just run without being concentrated on the trail etc.... Me, I was in PAIN! A lot of nasty pain! After a stop I begun thinking about my first DNF! Is it possible? NO! I kept fighting.... No way I could DNF here.... After 2 km (the 32nd) I stopped, stretched..... tried to walk.... nothing.... I stopped again. The pain was just too much. I've never felt claustrophobic or had a panic attack.... but there... in the middle of nowhere, nobody around, the rain was just pouring down all over me..... and pain.
I remembered a guy on Youtube that raced almost 50k with a bandage on the knee and hiking that way without bending the knee. "Wow.... I have to try that!" I figured - And it went well... I had no bandage, but the fact that I was just avoiding to bend the knee allowed me to go forward with a 12-13min/k pace. At a certain point my knee allowed me to bend it a little bit more and to power walk again..... Aroud the 35th km I tried to jogg a little bit but I abandoned that idea after 2 steps.... NO WAY!
I than decided to finished this race that was not an easy one for me. I had to fight the beast inside me and the one biting my knee.... That was not an easy task! I managed somehow to cross the finish line! My moving time was 5:15:36 and my finish line time: 5:45:24. That translates into 30 minutes of pure fighting! Not bad at all! Eeheeehehe.... I have to thank Anna, Lina and Jenny for their great support, all the fantastic volunteers, the race directors and organizers and of course Malin the Goddess of Massage! :)
----
