Bulletin of the  SKS-Marathon in Grafschaft at the 18.08.12

Talking plain: It was hot, it was exhausting, it was fucking awesome. And it was bright, as you can see in Schmallenberg-Grafschaft… But, one after another! I didn´t have a clue,it I can do it or if my exercise would be enough to ride the marathon of Grafschaft over 47km and 1195m of altitude. The last marathon I rode, was over a year ago, normally you start than on  some smaller events, to get to know again. Previously I rode two 24h races, to regain some experiences again, but a marathon is still something else, because it´s much longer and got more altitude. I made myself some own rules, no overview over the actual race time, don´t even think about cheeking, no average pulse, no overall altitude. Only the actual height and pulse and the way back behind me In spite of that, no fear at the downhill sections and no stopps anymore at the food´n beverage supply. I trusted my RaceKing 2.2 on the gravelled course, with some meadow and forest paths. It was the best choice I made, it kept o n rolling and rolling… Well, than I made my way to the starting boxes, Damn it, who packed myself into the first one??? I don´t like it very much, because you can be tempted to ride/ start faster than you wanted or you are able to. I entered the box as the last one and kept on telling me, follow your schedule, that means control of your pulse on the opening gap, which had already more than 120m of altitude just to lead than on the course. But it´s not worth to start in the first group, you also had jams and to push your bike at the first ascent, because some…well, it´s not worth to mention it. As you can see on the elevation profile, the course got only three ascents and in between some trails and some long downhill parts. These ascents are really bad, especially the 2nd one. One advantage was, if you ride constantly it´s easy to ride, but the handicap is, that it´s longer. At the downhill parts I choose the middle of the way, if possible, the guys behind m didn´t like it, but I came safely down the hills. When I passed point 35km, I thought, well, it´s not that bad today, I ate and drin enough, and my bottles will suffice until the end of the race, but when I reached point 42, my calf itched a little bit, but I thought, no way, I don´t need anymore gel. When you ever saw myself during a race, yoe know, that I talk with my bike and my body parts almost the whole time. I slowed down a bit, and it was gone. The rest of the course was just a matter of form, and the adrenalin went away when I closed to the finished. Even if it´s don´t look like that on the picture, it was hot that day. Thank you Andreas Heuchel for the picture… Without any idea, what time is it, I rode onto the home straight. You have to know, that the guys from grafschaft likes to have the finish on a peak. I thought about a time of 3h or maybe 2:50h, but when I heard my name, Team Pirate and my time of 2:44h, I was really excited and almost fell of my bike. Finally it was enough for the 7th place overall and 3rd place in the age-groups of Sen 1+2, which were consolidated. I was really satisfied and I think that I´ll be here in the Grafschaft again in 2013  Wencke Kaup

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