Swiss Gigathlon Camp Day One

Sleepy-  Last night I did not get to bed until midnight.  We  got back to our hotels and I knew that I needed to get up at 6am.  I then noticed there was not an alarm clock  and I needed to figure out how to wake up.  I normally use my cell phone but I  had a blackberry that I purchased before leaving the states. I did not know how to work it yet and was not sure if it would work on vibrate.  The phone had an annoying beep on it that would go off with every email that I got so I had it turned down.  I finally found a way to turn the ringer back on and an alarm clock to turn on.  The phone was also on my time zone back at home so I had to set the alarm for 11pm  to be up at 6 am here in Switzerland.  This took forever and I got hardly any sleep.  Every time I would get an email my phone was going off.  I was up at 4:30 am and wide awake.  I did not want to miss my first day of camp.

The wreck- We were staying in Leukenbah up in the mountains but we drove to a place about an hour away to start our ride.  I was helping with the rode biking and we were going to do a hard section on Day 5 of the race.  On the way we were cruising along and all the roads were narrow on the way.  I would have been freaking out with the on coming traffic being so close but Wolfi, the driver, was nice and calm.  That is not his real name but that is what I call him “Wolf….eee.”  Anyway next thing I knew the side mirror was off the car.  I guess this does happen in Europe so watch out!  We were on our way after a few minutes and pulled up the parking lot to greet the people attending the camp.  We were starting a ride in Interlaken and riding road bike to Fisch.  I really did not pay attention to the details of the ride before hand but it was one hard ride.   I was not a guide since I had no clue of what we were doing. I was really there to hang out with the last person and encourage them.  I am not sure if I did that great at that.  If they ever asked me how much farther I had no clue.  The coaches meeting was in German and I don’t use a speedometer so I had no clue where we were riding or how far we were going most of the time.

Rode Biking-  This was an amazing ride.  Everybody was riding really well.  There were about 30 of us riding together for while.  We were headed for a huge mountain to climb.  As soon as we got to the mountain we all got spread out.  I am telling you that I really wanted to go hard and climb it but I did stay back.  There were two girls that were riding good enough for me so I just stayed with them.  We were later joined by a guide named Corsin to make sure that we stayed on course.  This was a really long climb but it was fun and the girls were nice to ride with.  We climbed up a mountain pass forever but it was really pretty. I saw some snow again and was glad that we did not have to ride in it like yesterday.  There were cable cars that would take you to a glacier and believe me I was tempted to play tourist.  At the top of the mountain we had a sag vehicle to refuel and put some clothes on.  I was not really cold but I saw Corsin putting on dry clothes and more layers.  I decided that he might know what he was doing and decided to copy him.  He knew what was ahead and I did not.  After bundling up like the michlen man I was ready for the downhill.  This was a blast and lots of fun.  By the time we got to the bottom it was all nice and warm and it seemed like everyone was riding hard.  I was one of the coaches and I was in the back.  I decided to stop and take the clothing off hoping that I would catch the others later.  I did soon catch up and rode behind the others.  I am not used to riding with others but I found that drafting was quite nice.  You can draft in the gigathlon so I might see about learning some of those skills.  The ride was a really great ride and I enjoyed it.  I can tell you that it will be one hard ride on Day 5 of the race…yikes!

Swimming-  we all were planning on swimming after the ride but my group got in a little to late for that.  Just as we were pulling into the parking lot for the bus it was driving off with the fast guys on it to go and swim.  This really burst my bubble. I was hoping to get another workout in but life goes on. WE did have a car there that had some sandwhiches and had to wait until the bus got there.  After a while the sag vehicle got a call and he needed to go get some mountain bikers.  I was really sort-of glad to hear that some mountain bikers needed to get picked up.  They were on the course that we did the day before.  There are some others at the camp that are struggling.  So there we were left in the hot sun waiting for the bus.  After a while a bus did arrive but it had a trailer on it to load all the bikes on it.  The fast guys had all left their bikes and we beginners were the ones loading them.  I guess that is one advantage to being fast.  They did not have to fool around with the bikes and stuff…we did. 

After getting back to Leukanbah it was about 6:20 pm.  I had to be at a coaches meeting at 6:30 so there was not time for a shower. I was also staying at the hotel down the street. The only way that I was going to get a shower was in the co-ed spa that cost 18 franks so I went dirty.  I am so glad that I was in time for a meeting in German…hehehehe.  I did not have a clue what was going on but I still attended.  Dany was nice enough to fill me in afterwards as to what I was doing the next day.  He had me on the mountain bike the next day and he was going to be my guide.    I think it is really terrific that they invited me to the camp but I did not feel like I was helping out much since I did not know where to go or how to read a darn map.  I know that the people attending the camp were all thinking the same thing since I was always bringing up the rear.  To tell you the truth…I do not think that I would have needed to ride any harder then the beginning girls that I was with.  I was doing all I wanted to do and getting a great workout out of it.

Thanks for reading