The week before the Hammer Trail was far from ideal. Firstly I was fatigued from having just completed a gruelling 5-day cycle tour of The Alps with my friends Chris and Tom. Then on the flight home I'd left my laptop on the plane. So I was juggling unpacking/repacking, going back to work, chasing up the airport lost property department and sorting out dirty washing whilst still trying to get a reasonable amount of sleep so that I would be adequately-rested for race day.
My flight to Bornholm was early Thursday morning. I opted to go straight to the airport after work on Wednesday - firstly so that I could go to the airport lost property office to see if they'd found my laptop, and secondly to avoid unnecessary driving/stress of getting to the airport early Thursday morning. I arrived at the airport at around 6pm and went to the lost property office where they didn't have my laptop. I tried to put this to the back of my mind - worry about this after the race when back home. So with lots of time to kill and little to keep myself amused I found a quiet corner in the airport and lay down my sleeping mat for the night after a tupperware pasta dinner at approx. 10pm.
After a relatively poor night's sleep I woke up at 5am. I had just under 2 hours to pack up my sleeping stuff and go through security/board the flight. This all went smoothly until I was in the departure zone. I'd found a laptop in a shop that I was able to use so took full advantage of this - I ended up leaving myself just 20 minutes to run to my gate and board my flight. By the time I'd run to my gate everyone else had boarded and there was about 15 minutes to spare - far too close for comfort. I got on-board out of breath/sweaty and found my seat.
As there were no flights that went directly from London to Bornholm I had to transfer onto a connecting flight at Copenhagen. One big advantage of this was that I was able to see Peter and Melkorka (I had met these two friends last year whist completing a long distance triathlon in Iceland that Peter had organised himself (named Snaefellsnes Jankarl), and his wife Melkorka had helped with). As they lived in Copenhagen they'd agreed to meet me at the airport and show me around some of the city during the couple of hours I had available. It was great to see them both again and hear about Peter's plans for Snaefellsnes Jankarl 2016. They were great guides and showed me around Christiania before we sat by the river and enjoyed a sandwich. By this time I had to go back, so bid Peter and Melkorka farewell before catching the metro back to the airport.
The short flight to Bornholm was fine. It was on a small old plane that looked like it had been making the same trip for the last 30+ years. My first impressions of the island: very flat with lots of fields/wind turbines, and not dissimilar to the landscape back in England. Nothing special. After getting off the bus and walking a few kilometers to my hotel the scenery started improving with some lovely stretches of coastline. I found my hotel OK (after asking several locals). After checking in I made my way to the event start area to collect my race pack. There were only a few people around - I was expecting it to be at least moderately busy. There was the start/finish arch, the feed station marquee, chairs dotted around and the registration trailer. I collected my race pack and was told about what would happen between now and the race start in the morning. Then there was the short walk back to the hotel. The next thing to do was to get dinner. The people at the race start had recommended a restaurant just down the road from my hotel. I found this but there wasn't any pasta or pizza options on the menu. The search continued. My second port-of-call was a hotel buffet restaurant that had pictures of pasta outside - I went in and they didn't have any pasta or indeed any pizza. I'd clocked a takeaway pizza place on the walk from the bus to the hotel earlier so made a beeline for this. It was just over a kilometer away so I power-walked there now very hungry and conscious of the time getting later. Thankfully the pizza place was open and prepared me 2 Hawaiian pizzas (I wasn't sure that 1 average-sized pizza would be enough to fuel tomorrow's challenge). Pizza's in hand I power-walked back to the hotel room and got stuck in. I devoured the first pizza very easily and had half of the second one (could have eaten all of the second one too but didn't want to feel too bloated). After the feast I lay some of my kit out ready for the morning before going to bed.
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