Run or Ride Rila is a race that invites you to climb with a bike or running shoes one of the craziest roads in Europe, made 80 years ago for the purpose of an ambitious at the time hydroplant that is still functioning.
It’s been a year without racing. And here it is, the full recap. [Music] [Music] Got dropped by a child on that hill. For my return, I wanted a nice flat and fast five for 10k race. But then I remembered I was rubbish at those. So here we are in the heart of Rio, the highest mountain on the Balkan Peninsula. And I’m a bit worried about well everything. [Music] First, my running shape is terrible thanks to some niggles, wisdom teeth removal, and general lack of talent. Second, the race I enrolled for is slightly met. It is the eighth hardest bike climb in the world. And did I say bike? In fact, I registered for the two-day option, running and cycling all the way up the mountain. And it is a long way up. Matt going to see the start zone the evening before. I became worried about my choice of gravel bike. Okay, off to the ground. A bit worried. It’s not exactly smooth to be honest. I mean, it is a concrete road. But it has some rough patches and a full off-road finish. I haven’t done this inspection on the bike. I was worried I overdid it the evening before the first start. Maybe you’re not too smart, but doesn’t matter. Since everything was going wrong anyway, I decided not to worry much about the decision to test the strongest performance-enhancing substance that you can find in every kitchen. Sodium bicarbonate or simply by carb. While it boosts you to a level of super shoe, namely one that feels like it should be illegal, but it isn’t. Its small side effect is that it also sickens you completely. But now Morton claims to have fixed that slight issue. And for a price of €75 for four doses, they better be not too bad. This is the first time I’m trying this bicarbonate nitrate and it’s a race day. What could possibly go wrong? A lot of money, no taste at all. I think we are in the future now. I wanted to test it in advance during a solid training session, but well, I haven’t got one. It’s 9:00 and it’s already obvious heat is going to be a problem. But I was not worried about the heat because instead of solid training, I had hours of mediocre training on every conceivable fitness equipment. This guy is the fastest one. his 220 marathoner. I’m trying to attempt now to put some pressure on him. So, let me take you through the race strategy since I seem to be able to run 5ks at 94% of my maximum heart rate and marathons at 91. Wasn’t exactly rocket science to figure out where my effort should be on this. Hopefully, about 90 minutes race. In fact, I was worried about my heart rate going too low because of legs malfunction. So, I decided to push like hell from the start and see how it goes. This decision helped me stay with the lead group. But everyone around me seemed to work a lot less harder. Speaking of which, let me walk you through the competition. This is Nikki. He did a 235 marathon recently and this was in a Bulgarian marathon which makes it extra tough. Next in line is Miro and there is no way around him as he is the fastest Bulgarian marathoner for more than a decade with 220 in Berlin. The hidden favorite is someone you might remember from the Rotterdam video. Nikicoa has the most elevation in his feet and I know his shape is formidable because we’ve been running up and down a mountain all spring. His only problem is he finished a 100k ultra just weeks prior to this race. 80 kilometers into this race. We’ll try to push from here to the finish. But don’t tell Nicole there because he’s g getting progressively annoyed with me. I hope he doesn’t hear me. And some suspicious mind might suggest that I pace him for the final 30 just to make sure he pushes hard and is unable to recover too fast. I wish I was that clever. Then in the beginning of the steepest part of the climb, something strange happened. The puck stretched and I wasn’t at the back of it. Soon it was all about the age-old fight between Vapor Fly and Alpha Fly. See? And I think I had a better draw. That no idea how that happened. probably the bike car, I guess. Well done, Borton. Which brings me to the sponsor of today’s video. Dollar for dollar, the allnew Yugo is the best new car value in America. Normally, it would be time to celebrate, get a lot of food, maybe a beer, maybe two. But then I remembered I had to do it all again the next day. Will it be easier on a bike? Physics says no. And my training exquisitly held in swift mode suggested the same. I didn’t have time yesterday and by the way that’s as well to report on the race but the short story is that uh the bike system works registering for the bike race. I’m not sure it was the best idea. I mean, you have to pick up your files. My biggest competition on the bike was well, not that guy. This is my first bike race ever. And this is the course record holder. [Music] It must be Miro again who aimed at the over ranking from the two days. Strategically, I should have stayed around him and made sure I didn’t lose too much time on the final offro section. Instead, I decided to go out with a kid half my age that ride 6 hours a day. I guess I’ll never learn. 700 m of elevation, about 1,000 left. It’s slightly matte. I think I’m seventh or eighth. But that’s not the problem. The problem is that I’m over a minute per kilometer slower than on the run. And this is crazy. You know what else is crazy? This rope and the finish line, I’m afraid, is not visible from here. 700 m more right. Okay, I’m in trouble now. I’m in gravel travel. There’s the killer ahead. I’m not catching him. And here you can see the damn that’s a lot of cows. Nothing to worry about. Don’t get up for me. Hello. No one dangerously close on behind. I see one guy. He’s not catching me here. I a bit rubbish on the bike. Being that much slower on the bike, I still made it to the final stretch where Nicole was already waiting, having climbed the mountain again from the other side just to see me suffering badly. Should I stop the camera? I think the stopwatch is disgracing me enough. I think it’s better to cover my myself in shame than what. [Music] But as bad as I was on the bike, I somehow finished sixth. Then for some biking reasons I don’t understand, they gave me the third place. Something to do with me being too old. Well, I’m not exactly disgraced, but I’m humbled. Humble. I would have lost the data. I have a feeling you probably would. And annoyingly for Miro, I won the two today overall as well, which means the next time I go for a 5k PB, he’s going to show up and try to destroy me in a pair of sandals or something like this. Well, I hope someone films that small design issue. Let me show you. Part of part of the shoes that that thing is staying inside forever. He’s part of the carbon fiber. This is basically a bowler.