South Coast Ultra

From when I heard South Coast Ultra was happening this year at Møns Klint, I was determined to do the 30km race, and I was so looking forward to it😁 I loved racing there last year, so had no doubt in my mind I wanted to do it again.

The race
The last two weeks leading up to the race, my body has just felt off, and during this race both body and mind was off. I'm in the front for the first 2km when a girl catches up to me, we run side by side for about 1km and then she slowly pulls off, and I never see her again until I crossed the finishline. I wanted to chase her, but I had no power in my steps and I didn't feel like I could increase my pace, there just wasn't a different gear I could change to.

After 10km I was really struggling and didn't feel well, I started debating if I should just stop, a million thoughts went through my head "how would I get back to the start area?", "how would I tell my parents I stopped? I don't have a phone" (they were there cheering). I spend about 10km discussing this with myself. Then I got to the 21km mark and I knew I was headed out on the last 10km, I stopped thinking about this and instead just focused and running. It went a little better, though I never found my flow, I kept feeling nausiated and struggling to go.

Rolling rocks
If there is something I normally love, it's running on rolling rocks. However, when I got to the beach the first part was sand (I DO NOT love running in sand), it was tricky and heavy, when I finally got to the rolling rocks my feet hurt, I felt like I couldn't run more than a couple of steps at the time. At this point it was damage control, I kept thinking the third women would sprint pass me every second, I was so surprised every time I looked back, that I didn't see anyone.

I got to the 497 stairs leading up from the beach to the finishline. I started walking up, one step at the time, holding on to the handrail, as I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up or pass out. If I passed out it would result in me falling down the steps, so I held on to the handrail. At this point I was unsure, if I had missed part of the route and gotten of course, I started worrying that maybe this wasn't the right staircase, I quickly decided "to hell with this, if I don't reach the finishline at the end of these stairs, then I am out!". I finally gotten to the last step and started running towards the finish line. My calves cramped and I felt like I was running on my tiptoes, I have a video of it, and it's not a pretty sight 😂 I somehow managed to cross the finishline as the 2nd woman, I went straight to the first bench I saw and sat down! Now I could finally rest!

So what did I learn?
I learned that something needs to happen with my training. I haven't raced many races this year due to injuries, and that is definitely something I can feel as soon as it gets tough, I die. I have one pace, and that is slow, even my bike has more gears than me, and it only has 3! I think this is one of my only races where I never felt strong, not even at one point, and I can learn a lot from that. Now it's time to look a head and find some new goals to chase and train for them😊