Completed: 22 August 2020
The biggest challenge: the elevation gain
The catchphrase: “If you don’t want to work, just put your feet up right now so at least I don’t have to put them up for you.”
As the name suggests, the Ore Mountain race is no cakewalk for the untrained, but instead “an extreme where it’s 100 % about the experience, sharing the joy and the pain”. The triathlon route consists of a 4 km swim, 180 km bike ride over a stretch of seven peaks with an elevation gain of 4,500 m (in previous years, some competitors preferred to give up on this passage outright). The triathlon then concludes with a 44 km off-road run with 1,000 m of elevation gain, finishing with a long and steep climb up a ski slope.
At 6 am, we stood at the start at the Barbora water reservoir together with the tracker Marek Peterka and 30 other competitors. Unlike my first triathlon, I enjoyed today’s four swim laps and after the swim, the support team was eagerly waiting to send us off for the bike portion of the race.
We headed for the mountains on a tandem bike with pilot Mark and escort Martin, who supplied us with food and drink while Bára backed us up us from the car along the ridges. The first two hills seemed endless, until an incredibly loud crash broke me out of my concentrated pedalling. A cracked rear wheel! It was extremely fortunate that it didn’t happen on the way down the hill, otherwise the consequences of a crash could have been much more dangerous. The support team helped us to quickly repair the blown tyre so that we could get on our way after a short break.
Climbing the steep hills was complicated by rain and the harsh chills that had not escaped us in the mountains. Despite this, we held on to the second position after the bike ride. After the first few minutes of the run, however, I got a sudden stomach ache. The idea that I still had 40 km to go did not fill me with optimism. The hardest part was the last 2 kilometres up the slope, where I had to deny myself to even scramble up there exhausted. But after the top, a crowd of fans were deservedly waiting for us and we crossed the finish line in 16 hours 30 minutes, finishing in 5th place.
Thanks to the father of the whole idea of Punk, Tomáš Langhamer. A big thanks to my tracker Marek Peterka, also to Martin Havlík and Bára Živná who sacrificed their time.
