3 Months ago I decided to turn my back on racing at elite level and take a more laid back approach. With that in mind one might wonder what I was doing on the start line of a World series sky running race which counted as the Dutch National Championships Sky running. I must admit that I was asking myself that same question over the weekend whilst enduring heavy rain, lightning and thunder racing up a mountain and fearing for my life on multiple occasions scrambling over rocks as fast as I could at insane heights above the beautiful blue waters of lake Garda in Italy.
I had plenty of time to give it a lot of thought during the sky race which took me a good 6 hours to complete out of which I spent probably 99% entirely out of my comfort zone pushing myself to limits I had never been before. And it was that exact reason that gave me the satisfaction when I crossed the finish line within the time allocation at the highest level of this to me new sporting discipline. I realised no matter what I do, racing or not racing for a podium, I would never stop reaching for the stars and that I'd rather be a little fish in a big pond than a big fish in a little pond. Someone ones told me, if you want to better yourself you have to surround yourself with the best and you will improve beyond your imagination.
After the MTB World championships I admittedly fell in a bit of a hole, I needed a lot of recovery, sorting out my back but the questions "what next, what now?" kept on popping in my head. The Evergreen Triathlon 2 months after worlds was an amazing experience and I felt my body had something to give for the first time in a long while. Through Jantiene I learned about the Dutch National Sky Running Championships and I immediately thought that it would be the perfect challenge to finish a roller coaster racing season. I was put in contact with Alke Staal who was the organiser of the Dutch team, a lovely guy with a contagious passion for the sport and before I knew it I was all signed up and my flights were booked. Now the only thing I had to do was learn how to run technical terrain down hill fast!!
Fynn enjoying my focus on running!
I met my fellow crazy Dutchie Jantiene at the airport in Verona from which we rented a car to Limone, in the last 3 years I have had to squeeze my bikes in small tiny cheap rental cars all over the world and never once I got offered un upgrade. Of course this time whilst we were travelling only with a pair of running shoes we got offered a nice roomie car which would have fitted a descent number of bikes quite easily!! The irony of it!Both Jantiene and I had only one thing on the agenda when we arrived in Limone which was sleeping!! I had had a hectic month behind me, packing up my life in Kirriemuir, selling my house in New Zealand, buying a house in Edinburgh and starting a new job whilst Jantiene had her own personal reasons to feel exhausted which included the decision to immigrate to France. So sleeping we did, and a lot. Luckily the weather was horrifically wet and windy so we had no feeling of guilt hiding under our blankets in our hotel room. The thought popped in our head that may be the weather would end up to be to extreme and this crazy running holiday would turn into a nice and relaxing sleeping trip. Nothing could have ended up further from the truth!!
A rather stormy Limone
My mind had not been on this race at all and I had forgotten almost everything there was to forget for a trail run race (except my shoes) including race nutrition!! Suddenly we were standing in the dark on the start line ready for our vertical km race which entailed a 6.5km run up a mountain with 1200m of elevation gain. And with all this focus on sleeping we realised as we were about to set off that we had lived on one yoghurt all day. Oh well to late to do anything about it!!
I felt quite happy on the vertical km and after many months running with shooting nerve pain down my legs I felt comfortably pain free. Absolutely saturated and muddy I reached the top in one of the coolest mountain huts I have ever been in. I am not sure if this was because it was filled with cookies, cake and hot tea which was perceived like an oasis for my very hungry body!! 6th female in Dutch Vertical KM Championships made me extremely happy after so many months of struggling with injury and not having been able to really push myself. Jantiene finished not long after me and satisfied we made our way down.
The vertical km took a bit longer than planned as we never gave it any thought that the 6.5km we run up we also had to go down and to save our legs for the sky race the following day we easily jogged back. We arrived back at the hotel at 10pm and there was no food left. All we really wanted to do was sleep (which had become a recurrent theme on this trip) so after a hot shower, a few more yoghurts we turned out the lights.
We seriously paid the price for our own stupidity of not eating the next day during the sky race!!! My garmin told me my recovery was poor in the first 10 minutes of the run, not ideal! This was going to be a long day out I thought to myself. Without carrying any race nutrition I was hallucinating off giant burgers and pizza's between feed stations and turned into some sort of an octopus grabbing as much nutrition I could, filling up my pockets in a minimum amount of time staggering through the areas they offered food. I had done some pretty extreme things in my time but this race was absolutely insane, I felt utterly alive with adrenaline flowing through my veins whilst having to focus every second of this 6 hour long adventure making sure I would not disappear off the steep cliffs. " I was thinking about you a lot during the race" my coach Nico said afterwards "the crazy downhill's and traverse ridges, Nienke is going to really suffer!!" he laughed. It was one unbelievable experience! I run up and down things I never thought I was capable off ignoring the thoughts in my head that a slight mistake would end up in a visit to the hospital.
Jantiene and I crossed paths the whole length of the race with me catching her on the climbs only for her to pass me again on the descents!! with 10km's to go I was sent in the wrong direction by a very friendly smiley Italian which added a very unwelcome climb to an already very hilly race, after which I had to really push to reach the cut of times for this race designed for world class sky runners!! After 27km and close to 2600m of climbing it was one of the most satisfying finishes I had had in a long time. Jantiene who crossed the line just before me welcomed me with a huge smile. "Apparently it does not get much more extreme than this" she laughs, what an introduction to sky running!!
Proud of our well deserved medals!!
Although we had big plans to take the dance floor by storm that night, our legs had very different idea's and there was not much more energy left than for eating pizza and recapping the adventures of the day with great friends.A big thank you to Alke Staal for impeccable organisation of the Dutch Sky Running Championships, and everyone else involved creating another unforgettable weekend!! I am quite looking forward to build on my MTB mojo over winter but who knows, I might be back next year!!
"Dream the impossible dream, fight the unbeatable foe, strive with your last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star"
Enjoying some relaxation at last!
