Raphaela at a 2h CC-marathon in  Wetter

After a having a break for more than 8weeks, I wanted to start at the 23.06.2012 at the Ruhrbike Festival in Wetter/Ruhr a NRW marathon trophy race. This time was a 2h cross country race at the Hartkortberg on the schedule. Slowly I get to know, these hour races, I thought, but it wasa mistake, the course was very technical and ambitious, but you know, women grow up with their works and so, the slogan was: never give up. The first speciality on the race day was, that next to the races of the Nutrixxion Marathon Trophy were two other races of the Holzland Wischmann Trophy and the SKS Fun Cup of the Rhineland, took part. Because of the large amount of different races and cups, lots of the people were confused, like myself as well, I lost lots of time because of that during the race, because even the track attendants wasn´t really sure about what race and what course. But only 2h before the race I had another problem, my brake broke down, but I was being helped by the help of Andreas, Wencke, Sabine and Daniel When we visited the course in the days before with Frank from the Nutrixxion MTB), wasn´t really successful, I think I´m something like epileptic??? And because of this, I was a little bit scared before the race, but at least I wanted to hold my promise, that I would start and that I would finish, no matter what…and  so, I went on… Together with Tanja and Guido I visited again the course before the race, for a better get to know and for warming up and we were a little bit late. The third or fourth Pirate of us was Wencke, a lcal, she was a track attandent and our very own supply stand. Thank you Wencke… We needed quite a long time for visiting the course and so we were also almost late for the start  and so we had to start from behind, but at least Guido was able to gain a place further in front. But us girls hadn´t any pretensions, and so our start place was okay for us. But I think for the next race, we should have some more pretensions… Directly at 12:30o´clock was the start, and the whole bunch of 150 biker made up their way for hunting hours. Our slogan was, keep away from the start fight, have fun and finish healthy and of course to enjoy it. Sadly I lost contact to Tanje after 800m in the turmoil and because I didn´t want to risk to much in the beginning. I tried to find my bike feelling and went on, all alone, but I thought that I would make it, stay calm, it works as well when I ride a marathon. The course was muddy and sometimes even really dry sand, you ha dopen meadow passages and forest paths and high ways, saying welcome to all the roots, rocks and stinging nettles and singöe trails. It was a really ambitious course and of coursw some steep ascents up to 28%. One round was 9,2km long with each 300m of altitude. The air was humid, and it was difficult to breath because of this humid weather, sweat went out of every hole of my body and skin, my pulse did his best work and keep on hammering right under my skullcap. At this point I thought, should I better listened to the words, Frank told me before the race??? The only words or questions I could remember of, was: WTF, am I doing all this fu..ing shit… So, I tried to attract my mind with something else and than in the 3rd round I got this “ FLOW” feeling and than I thought : CC can make fun, but it’s a kind of SM. Wencke called from the side:  keep on going, they don´t wait for you…Push yourself to the limits. The spare brake worked as well and at least we got weather in WETTER. I did a good job, with all this suffering, aches and pains. Awesome. Finally it was over, without a crash or having kissed the ground, 3rounds 27,7km and 900m of altitude thru this humid weather. I need some improvement for my technical riding but at least I took the 4th place in my age-group. And I paid my dues. Anyway, I won, I won lot´s of experience, self-assurance and ambition and there is still some place  left for getting better. I gave the hill of the race a new name. First it was called HArtkortberg, now ist new name is: Hardcoreberg, it´s one of the hardest races I ever participates and even in the premier league, hobby class ist he course famous infamous. I was really happy about the meeting with Tanja and Guido and about the fact that Wencke was a track attendant. So, we had 4 Pirates at the Hardcore mountain, with good results of both of them,see it at their bulletin. Hope to see you soon on the next Pirate-action. Ela

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