After some fun in the Lyngen area we headed East towards Alta for the race. The lonely planet guidebook mentions that Northern Norway, heading East from the Troms area can be "hard going, the individual sights geographically disparate and, once you do reach them, rather subdued in their appeal".
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| the drive out east |
I think that this is a bit harsh as the whole drive and scenery were beautiful with countless steep cut fjords giving way to a slightly more rounded landscape as we approached the area around Alta. Sparse on the cafe front though but we started to see reindeer dozing on the roads the further East we got which was very surreal!
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| part of the start ceremony. Everyone had a name check on the stage! |
On arriving at the busy Scandic hotel in Alta where the event is based it was immediately clear that the event is taken pretty seriously, and I initially felt quite overwhelmed with the amount of lycra willy waving going on! Competitors everywhere, mainly sporting club lycra and doing laps of the carpark.
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| Talking to Tommi on the start line |
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| Whoever she was seemed famous in the area. They made a big deal of her at the start |
Quickly I met some nice folk in the hotel garage as I was assembling my bike including a guy from Hammerfest who seemed amused that I had flat pedals, are you a down hiller he innocently asked? And, have you raced a lot? Of which the answer is no this is my first official race (not counting Enduro fun events).
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| focused |
A guy called Eric I think declared his bike was fine as he was taking it out of the airline flight plastic bags, but he was concerned as to how he would fare on the race as he hadn't cycled for a while... As I got my 'eye in' I started to notice other normal folk also doing the race so felt more settled.
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| after the first loop |
At the race briefing they asked if anyone could only speak English, I was the only one to put my hand up out of the 200 and had to sit at the front with someone translating from Norwegian. She was great, but kept forgetting to translate every now and again!
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| by the Alta river |
After the briefing we went out to a swanky Alta bar for a beer, but only had one half each as the cost was £16 for the two.. gulp! For context a can of beer from a supermarket was £2, which isn't too bad.
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| the plateau |
I had a thorough pre-race buffet breakfast and then went to check the weather and discovered that it was perfect, coolish with a mix of sun and cloud cover, and a breeze to keep the mozzy's off. Speaking to Anders (organiser) the night before I was trying to tease out of him what does constitute mandatory kit as the translation was a little wooly. He explained that the complete water proof clothes (top and bottom) were not just for the potential rain, but most important for the mosquitos. He said that if you get a puncture and spend 20 minutes fixing it you can be severely bitten and need to put everything on!!! Gulp!
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| selfie on the plateau |
Abi did some filming/taking pictures at the start and I got chatting to Tommi from Finland. After a long wait we were off completing an initial 30km loop in the forest which was fun and on great trails before hitting the town for the start line again and feedstation. There is a mandatory 10 minute stop and I grabbed some food and topped up my platypus (2 litres). I also grabbed a chicken wrap not feeling that hungry and stuffed it in the bag (this would prove critical).
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| Jotka - husky lodge |
Hearing Rob's advice in my ears and trying to be sensible anyway I went quite slowly around this first loop not wanting to burn out. Worryingly my knee started aching quite quickly, which also slowed me down, but throughout the whole race it didn't get massively worse, it was just sore throughout.
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| salmon soup time |
Leaving town we then went through further forest and followed the famous Alta river, this time up stream.. I felt great so took a few snaps on my phone, sent a few messages before starting a 30 minute road climb up onto the Finnmark plateau for the next 70km..
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| The finish at 11.35pm |
Quite quickly I was hungry and wolfed the wrap, it tasted like heaven.... I had plenty of energy bars etc, but much later struggled with a lack of savoury snacks struggling to stomach yet another energy bar.
Generally 98% of the race I was riding alone, which I prefer as then I can stick to my own slow pace. Over numerous hours we got higher onto the quite featureless plateau used by the Sami reindeer herders. It was similar to some of the Yorkshire Dales without the limestone, but obviously much bigger.
Quite quickly the day changed for me from fun, taking pictures, send the odd message, this will be fine/easy to 'oh this is now hard and very tiring and I'm going to have to dig deep to get out of this mess!'.
I was following my GPS which had the route on it, but not distance so I was unsure of how far to the next stop at a lodge used for husky racing in the winter. This was a bit of a misjudgement in a way. I ran out of water on this 70km, I think most did, and thought I must nearly be there but saw Eric at some point and he informed me that it was still 10km to a river and water, and a further 20km beyond this to the lodge. By this point he said that he couldn't sit down on his bike (too sore), and planned to finish the race standing - jeepers!
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| mission complete |
I was in a dark place mentally before getting to the lodge as I kept seeing one lone building in the distance and assumed that was it, but then the track would change direction and continue. Finally I pushed over a steep incline and saw buildings down below. Relief was palpable.
After hearty salmon soup and about 4 ham and cheese sandwiches I felt like I might finish the last 50km (which was 53km) after all! But really there was no choice as the lodge wasn't near any roads and it was 50km to Alta anyway! I severely broke the 10 minute minimum mandatory stay at the lodge and was there for ages refuelling. I saw Eric here, he arrived maybe 20 minutes after me and seemed to be suffering and didn't want to chat which was completely reasonable. I left before him.
The last few hours to the lodge were quite rocky and I noticed my rear shock seemed to be leaking oil.... This was a massive worry!
Leaving the husky and reindeer herders lodge it's a 30 min push up a long hill back onto the plateau and I initially felt fairly positive again. But the plateau then went on again for what seemed like forever. Generally you can always see 1 or 2 hills ahead and the track snaking into the distance, but further lumps beyond and this pattern repeats itself infinitum, or seems this way.
I checked the rear shock pressure and it had lost 20 psi since the start.. Mentally this was a worry, weighing up whether the bike (and me) would make it.. I felt I had to limp the bike on..
In the morning when it had been fun I'd started litter picking (mainly discarded gel packets), so now I felt committed to this. But on the 2nd half this became a (mental) burden too. I felt I couldn't stop the practice I had started, as if I did my shock would certainly break (irrational I know).
Also around this point I realised that I needed support from some other riders to keep going, just to be able to see them, keep up with them was somehow affirming that I would make it as I worried I would just stop and give up if no-one was around. I'd catch maybe 2 rider's, then see a gel wrapper, stop to pick it up and lose them again.. so this became quite a psychological strain, one I had started but had to stick with.
Also I couldn't look at the time. I was 100% convinced that it would be over the cut off time, or very close and that if I knew this I wouldn't have the mental strength to get to the finish! The 24hr daylight added to the confusion. Quite a dark time in the race for me.
Then at my lowest point I found a reindeer antler and saw a double rainbow and again although very irrational I took these as good omens and was assured that I would now finish the race! Thank goodness!
Eventually after hours riding on my own the end of the plateau came and I saw a marshal on a ATV.. he said it was all easy from here and only 22km to Alta!
I couldn't believe I'd only done 30km from the lodge, and it seemed hard to imagine another 2 hrs especially since from the lodge I was going slowly on the downhills worrying about my shock blowing out and loosing all air/oil!
But the riding did quickly get easier, with some fast road, and river side tracks. There were still families spectating on intersections even though it was late at night, waving Norwegian flags and chanting what sounded like 'hay yah, hey yah, hey yah'...
On the last easy 10km I put my foot down and over took a few folk. I then wished that I had done this much earlier, but I had no concept really of what was to come and my biggest fear had been of blowing out too early and not finishing. A milage/distance on my GPS would have been very useful I now know.
No concept of time, but knowing I was slow I crossed the finish line and Abi was there (think she'd been there for 4 hrs!) doing her filming and photography job. I felt better than expected at the finish as I could walk and after a coke and fruit I clapped in a couple of slower finishers before washing my trusty bike and putting it in the garage. I finished at 11.35pm, with a time of 13.5 hrs approx (cut off 16 hours)... 134th out of not many more in the end!
I quickly found that I couldn't bend over very well after the race, had an extremely long hot shower and couldn't work out why I couldn't get food at 1am! I was so tired I didn't sleep well, but the next day felt okay after 2 x breakfasts!
The second breakfast was part of the ceremony ... which was very unique.. all 200 riders had to go up on stage at some point to collect their completers jersey during the 3 hour ceremony. It was nice to chat to a few folk before packing up and heading back West for the last few days in Norway... I was pleased that I had managed to finish the race! What next though challenge wise as I think I could go longer!?
