After last year's pentathlon I was more than nervous to go back to do this race.
I think it's important to state that for a start I only started skiing and skating a couple of years ago and quite frankly I am not a massive fan of training in big big cold like we had for the last two years.
James had bought for me some heated soles so that made training outside more bareable.
However for the race I didn't take it because they didn't expect temperature too cold and also because it's pretty long to put on and off and with transition every 30 to 45 min I shouldn't spend too much time with that.
That was my first mistake. I decided to go with my MTB shoes and only a goretex liner inside. I tested it quickly and it seemed fine. After 37min of racing on the bike i was pretty satisfied with my bike leg but disappointed i didn't take my clyclocross and went for the MTB. The previous year there was a part of the course that was in snow hence i decided to go with the stability but this year it was all clear :( !!! Anyway by the end of the bike I realised my toes were frozen.
In TA I struggle to put my shoes on and after a couple of steps I realise that something is wrong....so wrong!
I couldn't run properly my toes were too painful. I stopped 3-4 times during my first lap and tried to take off my shoes twice to warm my toes up. I can't describe this pain but it's not the kind i can take for long.
The medics came to see me a few times asking if I wanted to quit but I didn't want to.
The run was supposed to be my strength for this rae and i was wasting time...so much time. I was upset but continued on and eventually during the second lap my toes were warm, painful, but warm.
The medics ran to me in TA and patched my feet if toe warmers before I put on my ski boots and off i went. I knew the ski would be long for me (not a good skier) but what i wasn't expecting was to be stiff and sore from an alpine touring i did 2 days prior the race :/
I skied slowly but surely and went on the skate, my second weakness. I am pretty happy to say I shaved off 9 min from my time from last year on skates from 37 to 28min for 7.4km. Ok the first girl did it in 18min but hey i wasn't born with skates on my feet :)
By the time i got on snowshoes a lot of people had finished. I was cramping and dehydrated even if i spent my day drinking hot gatorade from the aid station and I must say it made me a little sick. I went through the 3 laps of snowshoe running and was happy to cross the finish line in 3h10.
I am not sure I will do it again however it is super well organised and it's a great event. I want to thanks a lot the volunteers and medics who supported me during the entire race :)
Nathalie
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