English translations
Carbs ->> 105g/hr to 0g/hr 🤦♂️
Race number 1: Weissee Gletscherwelt Trail 37km, 1650m climb. 2100m descent.
A very different post than what I was expecting, but as always, happy to share the good and bad.
Felt surprisingly good on race morning considering that only 24 hrs prior I’d arrived at 7am after a 38hr journey and 6hr sleep. I remember thinking that I’ve definitely felt worse at race starts (apart from the issue of having 2 toilets for 600 people! 😂). Let’s go!
The first 6k is a constant climb of 600m, a gondola overhead, with pristine reflective mountain lakes and great views of snow covered peaks all around. I was a couple of minutes behind the leader at the top. But feeling great. My game plan for this race was to do what I can in the first 19k which is 80% uphill (with some climbs gaining >250m per km). Then really attack the last 18k of fast downhill till the end. Fast sustained descents are definitely one of my strengths. It reminds me of a similar profile to the Routeburn In NZ. Whoever stays strongest and can fly downhill gets the goods.
In those first 19k we had:
a super technical steep descent jumping between slabs of limestone where one wrong move means you’d be breaking something.
Passing over some glacial-melt fast flowing rivers on very dodgy wooden beams.
Climbing up a gorge to summit between two alpine peaks (the highest point in Austria) with stunning views.
Descending over several snow fields. One of these I stood on and felt my leg fall through into a crevasse. I guess someone had to do it and I was one of the first to pass so it ended up being me. 😂
Running down one the most spectacular ridgelines I have ever experienced. Narrow winding but runnable, the mountains stretching out in front, glaciers and massive drop-offs on either side.
Passing more gorgeous alpine lakes before crossing over two huge hydroelectric dams dropping off into the valley.
It was at this point I was sitting in 5th place, ready to go all-in on my 17k descent to the end. I knew the first 3 weren’t too far ahead. I’d fuelled well and had taken in about 105g of carb per hr so far. It was hot now at about 27degrees so was dipping my cap in every stream I passed. The aid station sat at the end of the damns, which I’d planned to grab THE GELS described in the race guide to get me to the end strong. Only problem, no gels, or sugar of any form!! 😭. I could fuel on a cereal bar or slices of watermelon or orange. That was the options. Shit! I’m always super diligent in my race planning and read all the info at least twice, loaded the gpx to follow on my watch, and checklist everything I need. The English translation of the race guide as well as the map provided, clearly stated ‘Hammer’ gels available at this aid station (there were two other aids during the event just providing fluids). I’d even looked on Hammer nutrition website to check out the nutrition info to make sure I was happy with them. I do normally carry extra fuel during races, but this was one of the few where I made the critical decision to save the weight on the huge climbs and make use of their advertised available gels. 🤦♂️
So, went from taking in 105g of carb each hr, to virtually zero! I did eat a cereal bar and a slice of watermelon. The technical descent and run to the finish should have probably taken 1.5 hrs, but I hit the wall with 8k to go, which was then mostly flat along river paths to the end in Kaprun. I have not been in that position of becoming totally deplete of fuel during a run or cycle for many years. For anyone that has experienced the dreaded bonk, It is the worst. Running at half the pace and it feeling equally as hard. I got to the stage of having to walk several times in the last 5k, lost several positions and just fought to finish, at least half an hour slower than I was capable of. I did consider dropping out. I have never DNFd before. It probably was the sensible option to do. - There are definite downsides to suffering through a finish on fumes like this, including:
I have to race again next week, and this puts me in a much bigger hole than I would have been if racing fuelled. I would have been using up my own fat and protein stores and every drop of my glycogen. Muscle damage and recovery are going to be terrible.
For me, running half a hour slower than I’m capable of means dropping UTMB and ITRA scores. I don’t normally care about such things but it can mean I lose out on being in Elite starter pens at OCC, race entries, or other perks from a higher score.
Feeling absolutely awful and lifeless for the last 45 mins of a race whilst people you flew by earlier pass you back.
So not DNF-ing and struggling my way through was probably the wrong decision. But hey, I got it done. I have said before I am pretty good at suffering. Squeezed every drop out of myself to stay coherent (no glucose to my brain), not collapse, and cross that finish line. Ended up in 6th. I’ve only felt worse once during a running event which was at the Great Wall of China marathon where I had gastroenteritis and appendicitis(which I also ended up finishing in 6th weirdly after spending most of the race in 1st/2nd).
Chat with Race director at the end, he checked it all out and said “Yep, it’s a mistake, sorry. We will fix it for next year”. - The German version of the guide had the correct info apparently. So that’s great for everyone else 😅
If you asked me in the lead-up what I thought would derail this race, I would have picked the jet lag, getting ill from someone on the plane, going from 7degrees in Wellington to 30 degrees here. I would never have picked running with zero fuel for 2 hrs !
But Hey, I got to run in an amazing place on a stunning day. I learnt the lesson to trust no one (or even official written race-guides), and always carry extra fuel.
Let’s see how the recovery goes….
