Dalsland Kanot Marathon +

The last two weeks I spend holydays in Sweden. I had no Internet and TV so I nearly totally missed the Olympic Games and that was quite okay. I will watch the most important decisions when I arrive at home. But that one of my idols won the 1000m race was even in the Swedish bush impossible to overhear. I’m really happy for the Norwegian living legend Eirik Veraas Larsen. I look up so much to his tactical knowledge and am happy for him, but also for me it’s good to see that it is still possible to win races with a defensive tactic!

But back to Sweden, here I started my training more seriously again. After Portugal I felt too tired and was not able or just didnt’ want to find time to train. The endless forests, uncountable lakes and untouched nature in Sweden showed me how nice our sport is. I was doing a lot of 20 to 26km sessions. Once I paddled the course of the Dalsland Maraton in two stages on two following days. So that means a 34 and 21km session. I never did more than one training a day so I had enough time to relax and do some hitchhiking. I started to feel really good again in training. The reason for my long training sessions was simple the Dalsland Kanotmaraton+ 2012. The biggest Canoe/Kayak event in Scandinavia. A 55km race on three different lakes, what means that you also have to run sometimes with the boat on the shoulder. A totally new experience for me, which I was also training a bit the days before.

 

My old horse one day before the 55km Race

My old horse one day before the 55km Race

I know that I have a quite good endurance so I was hoping to do a good result. But I had not so much knowledge about the concurrence. The winner of the last two years was René Olsen from Denmark which is a big name in Marathon racing. I guess I was one of the first Flatwater guys with no experience in Marathon racing who started on this competition. I’m used to do 54km less than this but for me this was not a reason to start with no expectations. Also the speaker was talking about me at the start and I was mentioned in the local newspaper. It was making me quite proud that my results this year in Sprintracing were respected so far away from home.

I started next to the René and this was a really wise decision. From start on I was in the leading group which was including five Kayak singles and one double kayak. I really felt good and was helping to keep the speed high. The running passages from me were not brilliant but for a sprint kayaker it was more or less acceptable, at least I did not lose the contact. After 30km I got cramps in my arms and my breast muscles and after every running passage my legs were burning. I spend a lot of energy to stay in the leading group and I felt that they try to get me off. The speed was high and I had not anymore good positions for washriding. I was until 38km in contact to the best but then it was coming like a fist in my face. There was no energy anymore and my speed went really down. I felt more and more dizzy, cramps where getting more intensive and blasters on my hands completed my pain. And because this event is called Marathon Plus there were still 17km to paddle. What is still quite long…

 

1st René Oslen (DEN), 3rd Nikolaj Blach (DEN) and me in Fourth at the Price Ceremony

René Oslen (DEN), 3rd Nikolaj Blach (DEN) and me in Fourth at the Price Ceremony

The victory was away but there were still small chances for a place on the podium. At the last very short running passage I saw that the U23 Marathon world champion Morten Minde was giving up his race. So I was on position four and I saw two paddlers around 200m in front of me. My head turned off the pain and again I was able to pull with pressure on my blade. I catched the Danish Marathon national team paddler Nikolaj Blach and we where paddling together for some kilometres. But again after some minutes of freshness and motivation my body was rebelling against my head. I lost pressure and got cramps. Nikolaj used this moment and speeded up his boat. I had no chance he was too strong. The last five kilometres where full of pain, when I crossed the finish line I was proud to survive this event and finish with a fourth place. I was long time in contact with the winner but I paid for that in the last third of the race. I’m proud of this performance, and feel absolutely no bad feelings about missing the podium. I was paddling with a greenhorn tactic and a 12kg boat against experienced marathon paddlers. I learned in this 55km more about my body than in the 5000km that I train in every year. I want to congratulate to all the participators and can really recommend this event with hundreds of great fans, a beautiful course, familiar ambiance and a really good organisation to all paddlers on earth!

Results

1. René Olsen (DEN) 4:16.27, 2. Steffen Burkhardt (GER) 4:21.18, 3. Nikolaj Blach (DEN) 4:25.12, 4. Fabio Wyss 4:26.06, 5. Rasmus Nielsen (DEN) 4:28.25

4 Kommentare

  1. Ciao Fabio,
    guter Schnitt, respect…
    Wie geht es dem Ar*** und den Schultern?
    Grüsse aus SH

    • Hey Pascal

      danke, habe glücklicherweise viel Haut/Fett/Muskeln über dem Steissbein, so dass ich während dem Paddeln keine Beschwerden hatte. Danach gab es aber schon zwei Nächte ohne Schlafen auf dem Rücken 😉 Der Rücken und die Beine hatten viel Muskelkater

      Bis bald, LG

  2. Ꭱówniez dla wieśniаków prᴢeкazywane sѕa obramowania PCV.

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