The Danish
championship in short trail running for 2018 was held on Bornholm this year at
the iconic Hammer Trail winter edition, hosted by Tejn IF club. A geology with
cliffs and granite give Bornholm a landscape that is unique in Denmark and
probably the spiritual home of Danish trail running. For the winter event there
were races over distances from 10km to 50miles, but the championship race was a
half marathon with 800m ascent.
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| Teammates line up |
It takes a
certain investment of time (and money) to get to Bornholm. We left Hillerød in two
cars at 05.45, pausing to pick up more in Birkerød and Copenhagen, over the
bridge to Sweden, and then onwards to Ystad for the ferry to Bornholm. 30 mins
drive across Bornholm brought us finally to Allinge by 10.30, for the midday
race start.
In fact, it
already seemed like it had been a long day by the time the race got underway, but
finally it was time to start. Despite having had an hour and a half, I hadn’t really
warmed up properly (duh!) and it felt like a struggle to get moving after all
the waiting around. The first couple of kilometers were flat, ‘transport’ out
of the town and across a muddy field. Then it was into Slotslynge and forest
trails. After about 8.5km we reached Hammershus castle ruins and a lot of steps
up to the top!
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| Steps up to Hammershus |
This was a
route of two halves, and when I reached the halfway point after just under an
hour, I knew I had done the easy half. From here it was a constant up and down over
the rocky Hammerknude and past the Hammer lighthouse. But running in this
terrain is the whole point of making the trip to Bornholm so now was the time
to make the most of it. Despite being based in a flat land, I try to do as much
ascent as possible, so it was now it was time to put it to the test.
It seemed
to be paying off and I overtook quite a few on this section. Unfortunately, I
coincided with the back markers on the 10km race on the narrowest, most technical
part of the course and struggled to come passed them as quickly as possible –
irritating for all parties. Eventually I managed to pass them, and also managed
to overtake one or two more of my competitors. Just when I thought it was over
came the sting in the tail, with probably the steepest section of the whole
route, but it gave me the chance to overtake one more before getting back to
level ground.
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| The final climb |
The last 2
km were the same as first two, but back on the flat it turned out that I didn’t
have the speed left in my legs to maintain my position over the guy I overtook
on the final climb and he came passed me again a kilometer before the finish.
I finished
in 2:08:46 which gave me 6th place in my category, 4 minutes off
what seems to have been a close race between three for bronze. So, no medal for
me but I still felt like I had had a good run, and feeling inspired to train
for the coming season. A great result however for my clubmate Guillermo with a
gold in the M45 category, with an impressive 1:45:16, especially considering that
he really feels most at home with solid tarmac
under his running shoes! Also a good result for clubmate Carina with a bronze in the W35 category.
