We had made it to the last day! Even though day number five had been less exhausting than others, the week started taking its toll. This is Markus and me looking super fresh during breakfast:
Markus would go on to do all of the sixth day alone, just like the day before. I was scheduled to do inline skating, swimming and road biking.
Inline skating: 42 km, 50 m elevation
The day's stage started in Lyss, quite a bit away from Bern. We had to take a train to get to the inline start. While in that train, we checked the overall standings to see if much could change during the day. Our neighbours were "Team Mizuno" five minutes ahead of us on 32nd place and "Die Nimmersattä" ("The Insatiables") less than one minute behind us on 34th place. 31st was more than 15 minutes ahead, and 35th more than 30 behind.
Curiously enough, a guy sitting next to us outed himself as 50% of the "Nimmersattä" team, so the enemy had a face now. Sadly, I didn't see much of that face for the rest of the day.
The course was marathon distance, winding its way to Neuchâtel where I would have the unbeatable pleasure of changing from inline skating into my wetsuit.
A few minutes before the start, I was frantically looking for a bathroom to avoid being uncomfortable for all of the skating, but there was none to be found, so I ended up asking a nearby factory (or whatever that was) if I could use their bathroom.
I could, and minutes later, we were off! I missed any of the faster groups to draft off, and it felt like everybody around me was going slow, so for a while I was passing a lot of people and skating on my own. Eventually, a little group followed me and we started taking turns. All the while, the scenery was very nice:
Our group stuck together for more than half of the distance. Here we are crossing a bridge with a not-so-nice grate:
After a while, my lack of training for this discipline caught up with me in the shape of not being able to hold a nice tuck and some pretty annoying lower back pain. I got dropped from the group and caught up again a few times, but eventually I had to let them go.
Little groups started passing me and I tried to hang on, but not with much success. It wasn't until a really, really big group passed me (think several dozen in one chaotic line) that I could latch on. Once in the big group, all I had to do was try and not have an accident – the skating took care of itself with no wind from the front and people pushing from the back when too much speed was lost.
The average level of technical skills in the group was not great, but it was the best I could get, so I had nothing to complain about.
About five kilometres from the finish, a special treat was waiting for us: a two kilometre running interlude! Everybody had to bring along shoes for the occasion. First we had to take off the inline skates:
And then carry them along for the running bit:
And afterwards put them on again. I actually didn't mind as everything was hurting from skating. After the running break, the large group was split up and everybody just finished on their own.
After about 110 minutes, I arrived at the transition zone in Neuchâtel and was led to our supporters. Despite many helpful hands, putting on the wetsuit was a struggle and the whole transition took almost fourteen minutes (including the rather long jog to the waterfront). Next time I'll bring the talcum powder!
I didn't know it then, but at this stage I'd already lost eight minutes on the "Nimmersattä" team, so they'd passed us – but other teams were slower, so we were still in 33rd.
The swim was one big counterclockwise loop:
The water temperature was pleasant and I felt good, and in a (for me) respectable time, I was back on shore.
Factoring in my slow transition, though, my time was slow enough to let yet another team get in front of us, so we were now sitting in 34th.
I handed over to Andrea for the week's monster mountain bike stage.
Mountain bike: 65 km, 1200 m elevation
We had done the course as part of one of our training weekends, and despite the undeniable beauty of the landscape (the course went past the Creux du Van), I didn't protest when Andrea wanted to do that leg.
I remember some of the climbs being steep enough to make me think that I should maybe better walk, but long enough to make me think that walking maybe isn't smart either.
But as I said, somebody else suffered!
After a short train ride, I arrived in Chamblon to wait for my road bike finale.
Road bike: 70 km, 900 m elevation
The athletes were quite far apart from each other at this stage of the day, so when I got to start my leg, I was more or less alone. The course would start flat for about ten kilometres, then climb for about twenty kilometres and then descend for the rest until Lausanne.
Here I am leaving the transition zone:
I started with the mindset that it'd be a solo effort. I apparently also thought that it would be a sprint, because I went out way too hard. One guy was drafting off me, but once my body realised that there was no way it could go this hard for much longer, he passed me and told me to hang on.
I gladly accepted, and we stayed together for most of the climb. Shortly after the climb started, we happened upon a distressed team rider with her bike turned over, trying to fix something. We both had a look and decided that we couldn't really help as the rear shifting cable didn't have enough tension to shift any gears. I left her my multitool and best wishes, then we continued.
I lost my companion after a while (or he lost me), but eventually I reached the top of the climb. Newly motivated, I passed two team riders early on during the descent, and stayed together until the end of the leg, taking turns at the front and motivating each other.
Without them, it would have been much harder and less fun, so I was really glad they were around. It was also after the mediocre skating, the slow transition and the typical (less than impressive) swim, by far my best deed of the day. We were now in 34th overall, and (spoiler alert) would stay there until the end.
Run: 16 km, 50 m elevation
I handed off to Andrea, and she started her loop through Lausanne, along the lake, past the transition zone and toward the finish.
I was allowed to accompany her on my bike from the transition zone on, so after a while I went to the lake and waited.
While waiting, the girl with the problematic bike happened to be nearby. She recognised me, handed me back the tool and told me that she'd been able to finish the bike leg. I was happy my tool had been put to good use, and also that I had it back.
The last few kilometres were harder for Andrea than for me as she had to run, but I had the wrong cleats for the bike I used and couldn't clip in, so that was also a challenge. Not a big one, to be clear.
Minutes later, after more than 58 hours of running, swimming, skating and cycling, we did it! We finished the six days Gigathlon of 2013.
The fries afterwards tasted awesome, and I felt like just staying there forever and see all the happy finishers stumble around.
Of course we didn't stay forever, so after a while we gathered our stuff and tried to find the showers. We all had wisely signed up for the extra night on the camping ground as driving home now would neither have been smart nor fun.
As mentioned, we ended up 34th out of 99 teams who finished. Kaspar and Gabriela from TriCo Barrito defended their top ten placement and finished 7th, while TriCo Muntanella was not in the overall rankings due to that pesky broken rib. Markus had done the last two days on his own, and had he been ranked with the two day single men for days five and six, he would have cracked the top five!
I'll write one more post with a bit more statistics and behind the scenes stuff, but other than that, that was it, the highlight of my 2013 and endurance sports "career" until then!
Day six, stats (links to result lists)
Overall time: 58:08:59, 34/99
Day split: 10:45:34, 47/99
Skate 42 km: 1:48:46 (23.2 km/h), 54/106
Swim 3 km: 1:24:08 (2:48 min/100 m), 85/104
MTB 65 km: 4:01:25 (16.2 km/h), 64/104
Road bike 70 km: 2:08:40 (32.6 km/h), 21/106
Run 16 km: 1:22:35 (5:10/km), 36/106
