Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge

After a full 1 day back at Elina’s parents place after Ireland it was back on the train and off for Sweden, this time by myself seeing as Elina was not well from Ireland. The early flight out of Helsinki necessitated a late trip down the evening before hand, an overnight on one of the couches at the airport before ‘negotiating’ with the airline check in girl for an hour over why I shouldn’t  pay excess on my bike – what a mission.

Åre is very much like the Queenstown of Sweden and just like Queenstown can have temperature extremes either way – any time of year. On my first day it was stunning, 100kph winds, negative wind chill and the occasional splash of rain thrown in for good measure. One thing was sure, I hadn’t packed enough clothes. After meeting Magnus the race director and checking in to my apartment I thought it’d be wise to check out how big the Mountain we have to run over in the race was. It didn’t look quite so imposing but given that I didn’t know exactly how much of it was hiding in the clouds it was a little hard to tell. I headed off for a small run and headed up towards the first ridge. The course for the run is pretty simple – go up, straight up 1000m vertical and then down the other side, also a 1000 m vertical. After 30 min of tip toeing up the hill in somewhat pathetic effort to pretend that what I was doing was actually running I found myself in the full force of the wind with my jacket feeling like it was mere seconds from being ripped from my shoulders. By a rough estimate I figured I must have been close to halfway up but I still couldn’t see the top and hoped I’d get a chance before the race to check out the final slog. That evening I got a chance to test out the boat I’d be paddling in the race and also to see the sections of rapids and portages. The boat was called a rocket and although the front looked similar to a UFO it had been narrowed up considerably and the back looked more like that of an Evo Edge. It paddled like an Advantage only a bit tippier and was definitely set up for racing on the flat water as opposed to the rapids. I managed to escape the indignity of a swim though fortunately and by the end of the hour I was feeling reasonably happy I would survive without too many problems.

The following day I decided to check out the MTB and descent of the run as this is where I had been told most people go astray. Being two days before the race I was keen or this not to turn into a mammoth mission and with a town shown on the other side I packed some drinks, an apple and my wallet. To get to the start of the MTB and end of the run was 30 km by mainly gravel road so I was more than happy to accept a ride from one of the local Swedes for the final 15km. I arrived at the end of the run to find the town had no shops at all so it would be rations of apple and sports drink for the day. On good advice I rode 4 km into the run and then continued up towards the top of the mountain from the opposite side from the day before. The wind was still very much a factor and I was still feeling the cold on reaching the top despite being wrapped up more like a Mountaineer than a runner. There was still plenty of snow around and by the time I could see the top the clouds had returned to envelop the summit and me which gave me some confidence as the markings where still easy to find. I turned back just short of the top after I started to get frost bite (not really but it was bloody cold). I later learnt the official temperature at the top that day was -17C. On the way down I finished the apple and was very glad to have the bike to ride the last 4km downhill. Onto the bike and things were looking easy until I hit the bog (swamp) and had to resort to pushing when the bike and I disappeared up to the top of the chain rings in one section. The thing I found amazing was just how slow it felt and how hard it felt considering how slow I was going. The race times were usually around 1 hour 30 minutes for the fastest riders but I was starting to have my doubts I’d be going that fast. Finally almost 6 hours after I left the apartment in the morning I arrived back and proceeded to make up for the lack of caloric intake over the course of the day with a litre of ice cream and almost my entire shop for the week.

The last day before the race and I went for a quick paddle with my friend, which turned into a slightly protracted exercise when he had a swim, lost his paddle and then had some navigational issues battling through the forest to return to the car. We also later learnt he’d had a second swim while trying to paddle with a stick, something he mentioned was rather more difficult than he had anticipated. Luckily for him we found the paddle some 5 km away in one of the lake sections which showed how much flow there was even through the seemingly flat parts. The rest of the day was spent organising gear and arranging for gear to be transported to the various transitions. It is only fair I also mention the weather had now warmed up substantially and was now a very pleasant temperature and I could also see the top of the Mountain – which seemed to indicate I had a lot further to run up than I had thought on my first run. At least I knew the other side.

THE RACE

The race started next to the highest waterfall in Sweden, and I was kicking myself for not bringing a camera. The format is the teams and Solo Women start at 8am with the Solo Men starting 40 minutes later. The race started with the usual chaos and with the whole race being conducted in the Swedish language I almost missed the start. Luckily the trustee Rocket was good to its name and I got a bit of a jump on the other top paddlers. Things were going well through the rapids where despite the rocket briefly entering submarine mode through some of the waves I finished the section of rapids feeling good. I was a little bemused that two paddlers had started to catch me though and by the first portage they were just behind. I jumped out and went to lift my boat up only to find my poor speed was the result of several hundred litres of water in the boat, my spray deck had obviously not been doing its job properly. A quick empty, a slippery jaunt over some rockets and back into the boat I was now chasing one guy in front. I managed to catch him after a few minutes and then put a little more time on him before the second portage. Hear I had the jump on him and by the finish I’d a couple of minutes lead and over 4 minutes to guys like Martin Flinta who were expected to be my main competition.

Onto the uphill run and my goal was to run the whole uphill but not to kill myself speed wise, a lot of the competitors were using poles but not being used to them I had decided to go without. I made good progress up the Mountain but it was especially demoralizing over the last 15 minutes as false summit after false summit appeared. It took me 55 minutes to the top so based on what I’d been told I wouldn’t have made any more time, if anything I would have lost time. I set off determined to have a smooth run down when WHAM – hit the deck in a big way as I slid on a slab of rock covered in slime, I took the full impact on my back and elbows that were now scarlet from blood. Cursing I kept on going and as I started to recognise the run I made solid progress down into the transition where all the athletes were cheered on by locals and support crews in a real carnival atmosphere.

It was good to get off the feet and jump on the bike and immediately I set about hammering it as hard as possible. I knew there were some pretty handy bikers in the field and now was no time to be complacent. I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly the km’s were ticking by, except for the bog section that is and I arrived at the halfway stage feeling good. I got some info that I was now 7 minutes up but that some guys were biking really quick behind me. The final uphill isn’t steep but more technical with a lot of soft and very lumpy ground which is very slow and I always felt like I was losing time here. Finally I hit the top and began the final few kilometres to the finish which has some superb downhill sections, some single track and some extremely fast gravel sections. Crossing the finish line there was a huge crowd of people and as exhausted athletes piled across the line they all received a great reception. I was happy to have felt good all day and to have held off the challenges from some pretty stiff competition. I’d also managed to break the course record by 5 minutes which was the icing on the cake. Behind me there was plenty of drama with positions changing right to the line and punctures on the final downhill changing places further.

All in all it was a fantastic race, superbly organised and I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many Suunto watches and flash looking cell phones given away as prizes in my life. Åre was a fantastic little town, and everyone from the race crew to the locals I met made my stay a memorable one. Huge thanks must go to Magnus the race director for all his help in getting me to the race and looking after me while I was there, and also a huge thanks to Fredrik Lindstrom who loaned me the kayak and also helped me out at the transitions. It was only unfortunate that Fredrick couldn’t have been racing as it was his record I broke and I’m sure he would have relished the challenge as much as I would have. All in all a great event with a really good level, if you’re ever looking for a challenge in Sweden then mark this one in.