How it was: La Transjurassienne 2010

After an unsuccessful race last year at La Transjurassienne I was better prepared this year (last year I was 10 minutes late and started just after the 3rd line, thus I had to overpass a lot! of people) .

14th february 2010, the race starts at 8:30. The way from my house to Lamoura, where Transjurassienne begins, is about one-hour drive. Well ... not really, since some roads are closed on this date because of the race. The best way to go from Lausanne is through Gex, Mijoux, Lajoux to Lamoura. Please, do not trust GPS on this day, otherwise you risk to be late for the race. Our plan was to pick up Sean at the top of Lausanne, come back and pick up Eric on the way to Lamoura. Thus I had to start at 5:10 in the morning. I prepared my skis (Kuzmin "-", swix LF7, toko molybdenum powder ) and went to bed quite late (too bad, never can do it right :))

Strange, usually nothing can prevent me from falling asleep when I go to bed, but that day it just refused to happen. I "slept" overall around 6 hours. Alarm waked me up at 4:30. I prepared my cereal with marmalade, filled up my camelback, drank a portion of magnesium, drank some L-Carnitine (it improves the processing of fat by body which makes you faster in long races and is not considered to be a doping AFAIK). I also decided to try out coffee effect for long races (it is generally a bad idea to try new things before an important race but I couldn't test it before), so I drank a big cup of coffee. Then took skis and left the house.

Of course, after all my preparations I was a bit late and left the house at 5:20, but on Sunday morning there is nobody on the road, so I reached Sean's house quite fast. Then we left Lausanne to pick up Eric and all three of us went to the start place. It took us around 1:30 to get to the start from Lausanne and we were there one hour before the race. Just perfect! We parked not far from the starting area, took the skis and went straight to the start.

This year I was given a starting position in elite line thanks to my not-bad cross country ski results this year with bib number 63. I took my place at the elite line and waited. After the shooting the skiers as a big wave rushed into the ski track slowly taking all the space. I was pushing hard and got in front of this wave. I noticed a russian guy going on the right (I remember him from Koenig Luwdig where he won 42 km skating). I followed him and was 6th-8th in the peloton for some time, skiers were going now as a big long queue. We climbed up a hill, then while we were going downhill, I let the other guys overtake me since I was trying to drink from my camelback, so that it doesn't get frozen. Thus, before next uphill I was around 50-60 in the pack, which didn't bother me at all.

Then at some point, the leading group went forward and we lost the contact with them. Can't remember how it happened and why, but do remember that guys were faster then me downhill, sometimes because I was trying to unfreeze my camelback. Well, in any case at some point there were two packs. The leading and the second (I don't know what was happening behind :)). When we got to the flat area, I was the last in the pack, however I felt strong after some time and the speed of the pack didn't satisfy me anymore. I went in front of group and started to accelerate a bit, though it was quite difficult in front because of the wind. We caught a guy who tried to run away from our pack and was way ahead. This way our pack was going for a long time with some people rotating in front. I tried to unfreeze my camelback from time to time, since it got frozen fast.

Around 38 km the toughest part began. The hill was loooong and steeeep. I literally died. People passed me by like I was a child and I couldn't do anything about it. But it had an end!!! Good! Now a long downhill and I am trying to unfreeze my camelback again, no luck. Damn it! After 45km it is flat again, we go in a bit different pack now. I feel again strength, I feel I can run away from the guys, but at the same time I can't. I have small cramps in my triceps and I am afraid of having bigger issues. So I go slowly in the pack and try to make a small massage to my muscles. I also take my second powergel in hope to get some salt and recover the muscles. Well, I think it helped a bit. By the time we got to the last steep uphill I felt a bit better. In this uphill two guys in the pack started to accelerate like crazy. I followed them and we broke the group. We caught some people from the previous pack. Not bad, no we go downhill and on the flat they start to accelerate again, we are getting closer to the group of 5-6 people and now I start to feel hungry. All my 3 powergels are eaten by that time. Camelback is finally frozen. 12 km to the finish. Damn! I realize that I can't keep up with the guys, I just don't have any energy left. At the feeding point I managed to get two —Åoconut cookies. Well, it is too dry, but I finally managed to push them through my throat. It gave me some energy. Feels better a bit. Now it is more or less flat all the time. I almost reached a guy ahead. Boom, I fall down and the guy is again ahead. I reach him again and unexpected thing happens: I have a cramp in my right hip. The guy overtakes me again. I must've been looking very funny with my painful leg: I modified the technique to alleviate cramps pain. I held the right leg very high when returning it back from the kick, so that the muscles are stretched and cramps go away. It worked! I again passed by the guy and ran away from him.

Around four kilometers before the finish line I got close to a woman who was finishing 50 km race. She was able to stay behind me untill the end. I should note that her skis were strikingly good: she strongly pushed my poles while we were gliding down on hills. I was impressed!!! I am still impressed. After we finished we gave each other a firm handshake.

It was the good race. I liked it a lot. I know I could do it better, but I didn't. Well, it is still good, I have something to work on! I should've taken two more gels. I should've taken a better camelback. I should've eaten more magnesium two days before the race, three days before the race... to have a good reserve. I should not probably have put toko molybdenum on my skis (as Valya told me it could make it worse). But the most important thing is that in this kind of races one has to have a support team that would give you gas during the race!

Russian version is here