Race report: Copenhagen 6h-race

Thueholmsøen

The one positive part conserning Yesterdays race was the possibility to learn from it. And there shure is something to learn from it. Being the first race I'd DNF it's paramount by being just that. To me having to stop before I'd finished the race was a very tough decision, but made easier because it was a very rational one.

Albertslund it's a dosy suburb to Copenhagen. Travelling by train it's a 20 minutes journey from the central station. I'd planned on travelling back and forth the same day and that worked allright as the race started at 10 a.m.
The race takes place around a very idyllic lake-Thueholmsøen. The lap is 2.221 metres and the elevation turned out to be just over 7 metres a lap. The surface is asphalt pavement. Weather was excellent. Light winds, partly clouded and around 10 degrees celsius.
Number of participants was around 130-mostly locals, some of them scheduled for marathon.
Facilities were a bit scarsed and the timing-system didn't function at the start-leaving the arranger to do manual counting of laps, but overall it seemed to be a job well done by the arranger Albertslund Løb og Triathlon(ALOT).
I arrived the spot well in time before the start and was able to make necessary preparations. My plan when it comes to nutrition was to make use of gels from WINFORCE. Water would be supplied from bottles in my own drinking-belt. The race started a few minutes past 10 a.m. I felt fresh right from the beginning. My strategy to execute 25 minutes of running and 5 minutes of walking worked out fine for me. My planned pace while running was 5 min/km and between 9-10 while walking. In the walking breaks I would attend my nutrition needs. That also worked out allright. I placed my gels at a table by the start and just picked up a gel on each turning point.
In principal it worked good, but I felt a growing nausea after having 3 gels and stopped using them Apparently gels arent the right choise for me. I'll stick to other means of nutrition-for instance energy drink.
After 5 laps of running I felt a growing pain in my knees-especially my right knee-and stopped by the storage tent and put on some support on my knee. The pain was more evenly distributed after that but didn't disappear. Anyway, I kept running and hoped for the best. Three laps later the pain was anything ells than evenly distributed-it was growing to be intense, again in my right knee, but also in the left. For two more rounds I tried to walk a bit during the lap, but that didn't made any difference. I felt a growing disbelief and worry. Was there any chanse that this was going to stop me from finishing the race? I made another and final approach, walk extended part of the lap and tried to run on several occasions, but the pain was just getting more intense. Clearly this wasn't going to work out at all for me. During all those last, three laps I was more and more emotionally shaken. I realised more and more that I was called upon to made a very though decision conserning finishing the race or not. To finish a race is paramount to me, but on some rare occasions it's rational to back off-the occasions when DNF stands for "did nothing fatal" To me Yesterdays race was such an occasion. At first being emotional disturbed I managed to think and act rational and made a very hard, but-I'm, conviced-right decision. It was obvious to me that finishing the race would leave me with knees even more injured and a bad result. The outcome simply wasn't worth it. If I'd been just exhausted I'd never given up-never! This time it was different. In fact I still felt pretty fresh after 31,4 km of running and 3h 14 on the road.
Important to me know is to think carefullly through what the right measures for me are short- and long term when it comes to further athletic activity.

Technicals:

Distance covered: 31,094

Placement: DNF after 14 laps due to knee-injury

Split times(average pace):
1. First 5 loop's: 
-Split time                                : 59m 5s
-Distance covered                    : 11,105 km
-Average pace, total                 : 5:19 min/km
-Average pace, in last 5 loops   : 5:19 min/km
-Average loop time, total          : 11m 49s
-Average loop time, split          :  11m 49s     

2. Next 5 loop's:
-Total time                                : 2h 4m 35s
-Split time                                 : 1h 5m 30s
-Distance covered, total            : 22,21 km
-Distance covered, split             : 11,105 km
-Average pace, total                  : 5:36 min/km
-Average pace, in last 5 loops   : 5:52 min/km
-Average loop time, total          : 12m 27s
-Average loop time, split          :  13m 06s  

3. Last 4 loop's:
-Total time                                : 3h 14m 27s
-Split time                                 : 1h 9m 46s
-Distance covered, total            : 31,094 km
-Distance covered, split             : 8,88 km
-Average pace, total                  : 6:15 min/km
-Average pace, in last 4 loops   : 7:51 min/km
-Average loop time, total          : 13m 53s
-Average loop time, split          :  17m 26s

Verticals: 100, 7,1 metres a lap

Calories: 2.104

Shoes: Saucony Kinvara