The Blue Lagoon Challenge

A little over a year ago I started biking to work. Over the first few months I started reading about the mountain biking communities here in Iceland and found out about a yearly bike race called the Blue Lagoon Challenge. Although at the time I found the distances offered for the challenge to be a little too long I played with the idea of participating in 2007. The photo above (clickable for a larger version) should be hint enough but if you haven't figured it out already I'll say it; I participated this year.
The distance covered is approximately 60 kilometers and the clock is running for 4 hours and 45 minutes. I had no real idea of what would be a reasonable goal to set for finishing so I really only set out with one thing in mind. To finish the whole distance within the 4:45. I was a little stressed the night before and had a hard time falling asleep. Woke up an hour later than I had intended to so preparations called for quick moves. Eat, pump the tires, final checkup of the bike and filling of water bottles. I rode down to registration where close to 150 cyclists had gathered. The spirits were high, weather perfect and stomach upside down.

My pulse was already thumping when the race started but it was only a taste of things to come. The group quickly stretched out and I was quite content with being one of the backtrackers (the second photo is just after the start, clickable for a larger version). I had to make a stop after only 4 kilometers as my seat wasn't properly fastened and was lowering to an uncomfortable height. No biggie. For the first third of the distance most of the riding is on pavement so you manage to set into a good pace. There is a slight climb the whole part which you don't feel too much since it is laid over close to 20 kilometers. I felt pretty confident when this part was over.
The second third is entirely on a fairly rough gravel road and I realized I couldn't set the pace as easily there. During the first uphill I went way to aggressively and found myself very much out of breath. I had to take it a little slower following that averaging about 15 kilometers per hour. Shortly after I had another little set back when my three easiest gears wouldn't work. I got a little worried as it seemed to be progressing and I foresaw biking for the rest of the distance with only half the gears available. Fortunately that did not happen. I had to walk up a couple of hills which I think was a good thing anyway. Gave the muscles a little time to recover.
The last third of the race was partly on pavement and partly on gravel. The gravel was not as rough as before so I managed a good pace for most of it. There was a long long long uphill on the pavement which nearly saw the last of me but I persisted (with some walking) and finally made it to the top of the 150 meter hill. The effort was rewarded with a steep downhill where I hit a maximum speed of 58 km/h. Lovely.
When I only had about 4 kilometers left I could feel the body slowly realizing it. There was little energy left and only my mind was keeping me on. After 3 hours and 30 minutes of biking I finally crossed the finishing line in place 105 of 116 participants. My odometer showed 62 kilometers total biked at an average speed of 17.2 km/h. Not too shabby. A dip in the Blue Lagoon followed to soothe those sore muscles.
I am quite proud to have managed this after 18 months of training. On top of it all my bike was not up to its best, I had no suspension (like most of the others), my back was aching and I'd only just recovered from the pain in my calves. I'll definitely take part next year. I should be able to better my time then as I know have a little more experience of the route and will avoid assembling the bike a day before. Maybe some break in period is better.

Labels: english, exercise

as written by Tobbi G. at 4:26 AM GMT