Forza Norvegia! Lake Garda Mountain Race

My first race outside of Norway!

Team Melkesyre has a tradition to participate in the annual Lake Garda Mountain Race. The 2015 edition took place on Saturday, and I was one of the 17 members of this year's troop. The course of the race stretches between the center of Malcesine and the Cima Pozzette peak of Mount Baldo. I did the short version together with half of my team, which goes to 1700 m along 9.5 km.

The day before the race we took the cable car up to 1700 m, and slowly went through the last part of the long version up to 2100 m. The weather at the top was not so pleasant, and the organizers were discussing whether the long version would have to be canceled.

Fortunately, already Friday evening the weather started looking much better, and Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful clear skies.

I had a hard time getting into race mood this time, and it was difficult to make a race strategy since I did not know the course. My goal was to finish in around two hours. I decided, like at Skåla Opp, to go with the heart rate. Try to keep it just below 160 for the first hour, and then push it up to 165-169 for the rest.

Warming up with team mates and knowing that I would have the company of several of them throughout the course gave both motivation and a nice feeling of comfort. And suddenly the start time was there! Everybody started running and so did I. But it was very steep already from the start, and at the lower station of the cable car I started walking. My heart rate was a bit higher than planned, and I had a continuous debate with myself whether I should slow down more or not. I did not have the feeling of pushing too hard, so I ended up going with the feeling rather than watching the hr closely. For as long as I could I followed the back of my friend Arvid, and he helped me a lot for the first kilometers. Especially since this part involved a lot of bottlenecks and trying to pass people with walking poles.

The first drink station came very quickly and earlier than announced. At this point I had lost Arvid, but I got the company of Øystein instead, and he was great to follow with a huge Norwegian flag on his back. The first four kilometers went pretty well and at the planned speed, but I was surprised and dismayed that it was so steep. I comforted myself that it could not continue this steep for the rest, as more than half of the elevation was already done. At the second drink station I took a gel together with the served drinks and felt a bit better, especially since the first flat stretch came right afterwards. It was nice to be able to run for a while and feel the distance shrink a bit quicker. At this point I also lost Øystein, but I had the company of two Italian ladies for the rest of the race. We kept passing each other all the time, and this gave good motivation and helped keep the focus.

Everything went pretty well until I passed 8 km. At that point, I was still feeling pretty good, and I took my second gel to get a boost for the last 1.5 km. I was a bit worried because there was still quite a bit of the elevation left for the last part, but I tried to comfort myself with "Just a Stoltzekleiven left now; you can do it!". The part from 8.5 km until the end became very tough, though. I felt my speed go down, and I could see that several of my team mates who were behind me from the start started to come closer. Perhaps I had started out too fast after all?

Towards the end I felt completely empty, and everything in my body was screaming for me to stop. When I saw more and more uphills where I was expecting the finish line, I really wanted to give up. What saved me was the voice of my friend Hans Erik right behind me for the last kilometer, motivating all the time and finally telling me to run when he knew that we were close to the downhill that lead to the finish.

I finished in 2:03, and I was really finished at the end.

Recovery came quickly with pasta, sandwiches and cakes that were served at finish, together with wine and coffee, and soon we were all dancing and celebrating the good results. Jeanette: number 1 of all women on the short course! Siren, myself and Bente: number 7, 8 and 9, respectively!

The rest of the day was a long long party, and we all had a great time. I am so happy to have participated in this race, and really grateful to Bjarne and Frode to have started this tradition and for the nice organization. On the other hand, I did not get the immediate feeling of wanting to do it again, like I do at the finish of many races. Most of the course is covered with forests, and one looses one of the greatest advantages of a mountain race; the view.

Coming up next, though, is a race with incredible views: the Limone Vertical K race already Friday evening! In the meanwhile: breathtaking hikes and wonderful time with good friends.

Rimanete sintonizzati!