Shortly before the swim start, Bernd runs back to the transition area and covers his bike with a blanket. The coup succeeds. Harry, who of course noted the position of Bernd's bike beforehand and walked it 5 times, doesn't see it anywhere and thinks from now on that Bernd came out of the water before him. He curses and scolds, that doesn't exist, for the first time Bernd is faster than him after swimming.
Anyway, he thinks that he takes Bernd at least half an hour off while cycling and catches up with him after an hour anyway. He even has a funny saying ready for the overtaking maneuver 😉
After 100km Harry is slowly wondering, there is no Bernd in sight. At 160 km he was already plagued by the first doubts as to whether his opponent had consumed prohibited substances, that doesn't exist!
Finally the running track, Harry sees Denise (a friend of the two) and calls to her "Is Bernd schoon duurch ?? !!" She answers "Yes", as it turned out later, she did not understand Harry correctly, but simply said " yes ”called… Harry approaches at a speed of 5, which is actually much too fast for him, but Bernd is in front of him, so he has no choice. After all, there is a lot going on today - the loser has to cycle 400km in a row ... and Harry definitely doesn't want to experience that! :))
After one lap (4 laps of 10.5km each, no turning point route) he sees his wife and now wants to know specifically where Bernd is.
“6 minutes before you” he hears with astonishment, that can't be true!
Harry runs even faster, but at 20 km he realizes that it is no longer possible, his stomach is on strike, no goal in sight: he has to go ...
At 28 km he was there, Bernd on his supposed lap, but to Harry's surprise he had the same colored ribbon on his arm as he did !!! ie he was behind him the whole time, yes Harry even stood 6 minutes before Bernd lapped him after the first lap !!! :)) With this knowledge he would have easily rocked the whole thing home and would not have had to burn himself out. What a bitter defeat !!
Since betting debts are of course debts of honor, Harry really and truly went on the 400km bike tour.
100 km run from Biel
When most of them are asleep, there are also those who run, for example 100 km in Biel from 10 p.m. until the next day. So also in the case of Harry and Bernd. It should be noted that with Bernd (according to his own statements) the training budget is really "sewn to the edge" due to his other obligations (only 720 training hours per year). To get on his budget, he can sometimes only do a little run at night when others are sound asleep.
Harry and he ran the first 30 km together, then Bernd started an attack when Harry was involved in a phone call from Germany (Stefan) and was accelerating. But after about 2 to 3 km Harry caught up with him again. Bernd didn't give up, on the contrary: about 5 km later, after another refreshment station, where he didn't eat anything, Bernd wanted to know and Harry finally wanted to hang out. That went very well, when passing through a small town with lots of curves he extended the lead so that Harry could no longer see him from now on, the curves of the town served well for this purpose. So he ran alone to km 60, knowing that if the opponent no longer sees you, he would morally give up faster.
What Bernd didn't know, however, was that relays were also at the start and the military championship was taking place, which only ran parts of the 100km and could therefore run faster (e.g. 33 km). He was surprised to see runners again and again, even in droves overtaken. So the stress continued: "Is it Harry who is overtaking me again?" It was pitch dark! At km 60 in Kirchberg in the night at around 4:00 am, one of the largest refreshment stations of the run (there was everything your heart desires in addition to bouillon, bread rolls), he looked closely at the people behind him so as not to miss Harry, in case he tries to walk past him unnoticed. He didn't come, so Bernd allowed himself an extra 2 minute break to prepare for the infamous HoTschi Minh path, a slightly sloping, dried out river bed as a single trail in totally dark surroundings.
- here you have to briefly note that both are real masters of unnoticed overtaking maneuvers, changing clothes (in the middle of a competition) shortly before overtaking is still rather harmless or completely normal -
In the following 10 km of this path Bernd always suspected him to be just behind him, in retrospect it also turned out that Harry, due to an increased tempo on his part, was close on his heels and Bernd could literally "smell" him. Whenever Bernd got a bump from behind (a run through Nuremberg's Breite Gasse during Christmas week is a mess!) From someone overtaking him in this darkness, he thought it was Harry. But it wasn't. At km 74 Bernd took a pee break and turned against the runners just to see if he was finally coming? He never came, but at 78 km he was so close to Bernd that he could see him (his silhouette) in the distance.
In the "Valley of Death" at km 90 and in the blazing sun in the morning around 7.30 am, Bernd slowed down (he had to give up his goal of running the 100 km under 10 hours), he turned around at almost every step, in the disaster fantasy To see Harry after all. Finally after 100 km and 10:38 total time, Bernd was at the finish. What an ordeal !!
Harry got blood blisters at km 80 and could no longer walk properly after that, about 2 hours later he also reached the goal. Bernd could have saved himself a few pulse beats when he constantly turned to Harry during the last 10 km 😉
... next time Harry will be on the trigger !! 🙂
have fun at the next competition with friends!
krelli