Always look on the bright side: Bergen Fjellmaraton 2016

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going...

Bergen mountain half marathon.... when I participated in this race in 2014, I finished in 2 hours and 53 minutes, and I wrote that it was one of the best race experiences I'd ever had. Well, let me put it this way: the 2014 version of this race is still one of my best race experiences.... This year things turned out a little different.

This 21 km long evening race has a total elevation gain of 1080 meters; it is a spectacular course, starting from a spot very close to the center of town and ending in a spot even closer. But as soon as you start, and up until a kilometer before finish, you are in the wilderness and forget the city completely. The terrain is tough; there are no gravel roads or wide paths, except a few hundred meters at start and a couple of kilometers before finish. There are lot of stony parts, and you have to watch where you place your foot.

Frank, I and a few other friends had signed up for the early start at 18:30 this year. The regular start is at 20:00, but it is a lot of fun to reach the finish before the winners and cheer them on, so we like the early start. This year it turned out a bit unfortunate. On Thursday, the day of the race, the weather was really hot with no wind. When we were about to start, it was about 26 degrees. The first kilometer is the same as for the Ulriken race (short version), so I had that part freshly in mind. I kept an easy pace and my heart rate under control, and had a good feeling. The part from there until 2.5 km was really tough; this is where we gain about 400 meters of elevation. The sun was right on us with no wind, I was sweating a lot, and I had to work a lot with my brain to keep my spirit high. Many people around me stopped completely to get a break and recover a bit, especially the ones who had started out a bit too hard.

When I reached the 3 km point, the course flattened a bit, and I took my first energy gel and some drink. Very quickly afterwards I started feeling much better. I picked up pace, I felt that I regained control, and running felt fast and easy. To my surprise, I reached and passed many people who had passed me quite a while ago, and that gave a boost of energy and confidence. Until half way, everything went quite perfectly. I caught up and kept company with a couple of friends, and much sooner than I was expecting, we reached the single drink station at the Viking hut at 10.5 km. I stopped a little longer than my friends. Drank like a liter of water, and refilled my bottles.

Then with renewed energy I set out to catch my friends again. However, almost immediately I started to feel signs of cramps in my lower legs. We were going downhill, and I had to watch how I stretched my foot downward to keep the cramps away. When we reached the bottom of that hill, running flat for a while felt OK but I had to be careful. Then, on the even surface of the swings up to Rundemanen I did not feel the cramps at all. I managed to walk very fast, and I could see my friends just a little bit ahead of me, as I was steadily closing the gap between us. At this point, I thought the cramps were gone, and I had high hopes of being able to run fast on the downhills ahead and finishing around 2:50. Once I threw myself at the path that goes down from the top of Rundemanen, the cramps started coming back. This part is very uneven with small ups and downs, and going fast here became really painful. At some point, when the cramps started to creep all the way to my inner thighs, I wondered whether I should simply break the race. I did not want to get injured, and having never experienced such cramps before, I wondered whether they could be something else.

Things got a bit better when the surface got more even again as we reached the lower parts of Rundemanen and then Fløyen. However, the stride had to be short, the cadence low, and the movements very even, if I were to continue. My heart rate was low, I had a lot of power and energy, but moving the legs faster immediately ignited the cramps again. There and then I realized that I had no chance of beating my time of 2:53 with this pace. Still I tried to run as fast as the cramps allowed, but it was too slow, and when there were about 5 km to finish, I also lost the hope of sub 3:00. At that point I decided to stop pushing. I simply jogged the rest at easy pace and enjoyed the beautiful views. As a nice side effect, the 5-9 last km were like a post-race recovery run, and I was not at all exhausted when I reached finish. And after finish I had no cramps at all! Usually this is exactly when I start experiencing cramps.

My time ended up being 3:11. Wow! OK, I knew I was going slow, but still I was a bit shocked. 18 minutes worse than last time!? Almost a minute slower per km... Or considering where the cramps started, about 2 min slower per km for the last 9 km.... Well, well. I was surprised how it did not at all make me feel sad. It was, in a sense, not my fault. My form is good, I did everything right with respect to speed for the first half, but was completely taken aback by the cramps. Why did they come? Many people, who are not used to cramps, experienced them during this race, so perhaps it was due to the heat and dehydration? Did I drink too much at the drink station and change the liquid/salt balance too quickly? Or perhaps it was because my legs are not used to terrain for the last few months? Or a combination of all? In any case, I was just so happy to finish, so happy that my real injury did not at all bother me during the race, and so happy that one more of the hopes that I set at the beginning of the year came true.

Looking on the bright side, I learned a lot from this race and can benefit from it. I now know what cramps during a race are; they don't need to stop you, but slow you down. This was my first run that lasted for more than 3 hours, so it is perfect marathon training for Amsterdam. Since I went so slow at the end, I am not tired, and I won't need that long a rest before I can train again. Wanting to stop so many times, and still continuing despite the pain, was very good mental exercise. And for the first time ever after a race, I was not at all interested in checking the results! :-) As soon as we got home, the race was over in my head, and I very quickly moved on to thinking about completely different things.

To my consolation, even Frank went a bit slower this year than last, although he was still faster than most, and several friends who are fast marathon runners could not beat my time 2:53 from last time.

What does not kill you makes you stronger...