2 days for the race... I am lying in my bed... help, is that my throat that is hurting? And why can’t I breathe through my nose??

Overwhelmed by doubts... I pack all my stuff, get in the car and drive off to the beautiful Harz-region. This will be the only possibility of 2011 and 2012 to race with Inga. It must go right! I buy some nose spray and pills against colds and fevers. We will have to see.

The race will be starting at 22:00 on Friday evening, we are supposed to finish on Sunday, before 14:00. Disciplines are running, biking, swim-run, bike-run and BHiking (?). In total it will be around 275 kilometers.

The start was well organized. Many people came to see us, speeches were made, music was played. Our adrenaline level was slowly rising… and then, go!

The prologue consists of running, swimming, running, biking and running… As always, it is difficult to control ourselves and to keep the heartbeat at an acceptable level. The biking and running sections are in the dark woods, far away we see lightning and hope it will not come our way. Actually, this is the only part, in which we will be around other teams. The rest of the race is mostly done in solitude.

The next stage is biking. Inga is mastering the map without major problems. Then we come to the special task. Winfried and colleagues: well done! We had to go in some sort of rollercoaster/rodelbahn, which was quite funny in the middle of the night!

Then my brains had to be activated, as the next stage is running. During running, I normally do the navigation. For this part we had to use an old map… it was not dated, but it could be made around the 1700s?

Biking again in Section 4. This section has a strange name: “Walking the line”. What is that supposed to mean? We are doing biking here, not walking? The second Checkpoint of this section, Checkpoint 14, should be at an electricity pylon. Description: “CP at 8th (electricity) pylon in N direction”. From this point, we could see some pylons in North direction… so let’s bike the electricity line and go! What the f*ck?? The 7th pylon is at our side of the valley, the 8th on the other side ;-) Thanks organization!

Section 5 is a combination of swimming and running. Our wetsuits have been transported including our flippers. This is a welcome change… getting the sweat of our body and the sleep out of our eyes. We are having a good spirit and are laughing with tears in our eyes, brilliant! The map is not very accurate but does not lead to any problems.

And then Section 6. “BHiking”, what is that supposed to mean? Firstly, biking for about 8 kilometers. Then, the pedals are fixed with tie-wraps and we are Hiking with the Bike for another 8 kilometers. This is in a steep gorge, which is really awesome. As expected, the next transition area is above the gorge, and we have to push/carry our bikes up there. But we still feel strong and awake and not to sick… but the body is slowly getting tired ;-)

Section 7. Orientiering… This stage lasts for 28 kilometer. At first, I have difficulties understanding the map. But after 1 CP, the map and I found a way of communication to each other, and all CP’s (except the last one) are found without great difficulties. At this point, we are 24 hours in the race, and the body starts to hurt. My knees do not want me to run, Inga’s Archilles tendon does not want her to walk but to run. Great couple! As we underestimated the distance, we were running short of water AND of batteries. Our headlights are giving less and less light, and we definitely do not want to run out of light here! These woods are so dark and we have only encountered 1 team in the last 4 hours… we could easily get lost here! To save batteries, we run the last part practically in dark… But: we have made it!!

At the end of this section, I am so sleepy… I hear funny noises, cannot stand straight anymore. We have to sleep. Inga gives me an hour to sleep and within seconds I doze away, wrapped in my emergency blanket.

Next section: mountainbiking… In this part, we are not alone anymore, but are racing simultaneously with Team GC. J That was funny and motivating for a while. Until my nose was not responding to the nose spray anymore and my body said: I am sick! We decided to finish this section and then go back to the campsite, thereby skipping the last two sections…

What happened then? Our pace went down, our motivation went down, smiling went down… At one point of time, Inga and I did not understand each other anymore… We were screaming to each other, both were fed up with one another. We have been racing for years together, this was something new :-(

At this point, we did not bother about the race any more, just about who we are and how we relate to each other. And then something changed. Words were spoken, that had not been spoken before. Doors were opened, which were closed before. Our relation has become deeper, more complete.

But… the race was not finished yet!! We had only three hours left, to complete the course. We definitely want to arrive at the last transition area before going back to the campsite. This would make a great difference in the ranking. But where are we?? Lost??

After losing ourselves, finding ourselves, losing the route, finding the track, we gave it all we had, came to the Transition Area, left again and finished two minutes before the deadline…

Inga, when are we racing again??