The Magic

Day 5, Friday September 13

This morning only a vague silhouette of the Paljevine. While the wind howls around the pointed roof of our house, and the rain pelts against the window. A big contrast with the free and sunny view of yesterday. I stay in bed for a while before I go downstairs, light the wood stove and install myself behind the laptop with a nice porridge and Fleetwood Mac.

Yesterday would have been a perfect day for the race, sunny, not too warm, light breeze. After a sober morning run we had a nice breakfast outside and did the bike check. In the afternoon we drove to the Tara River Canyon for a final bike training. With a depth of 1300m and a length of 80 km one of the deepest and longest canyons in the world. After 160km in the race Saturday starts at the Djurdjevica Tara Bridge the last big climb and today victim of my final bike training.

The 170m high arch bridge is an interesting story in itself. It was of strategic value in this region in WW2, was occupied by the Italians and elevated Yugoslav partisans to heroism. Our own A. den Doolaard wrote about it in 'The country behind God's back'. Maybe read it at home. And it has been the setting for various films including 'Force 10 from Navarone' with Harrison Ford, the successor to the well-known war classic 'The Guns of Navarone'. Nowadays it is a tourist attraction with various ziplines and rafting tours. Boy decides with great enthusiasm to take the longest zipline of over 800m to the other side. I gladly sacrifice myself to keep my feet on solid ground and take some pictures.

The climb from the Canyon has a length of 10 km and a height difference of 600m. Initially the plan was to cycle for about half an hour, but it went quite well and I didn't have to go deep and decided to do it all. The hill reps on the Huls near me pay off. In 45 minutes I am at the top and by car we drive the remaining part to the T2 exchange point at the ski lifts of Savin Kuk.

In the meantime, the wood stove has made it pleasantly warm and the porridge has made way for a nice cup of Nescafé Gold. On the Boom, Lindsay Buckingham is happily whining away on his guitar in 'Not That Funny'. And when I look outside, what I see is indeed not that funny! But I shouldn't complain, I'm here voluntarily. And besides, the journey of the past year to this moment, here by the stove in Chalet Hill Zabljak with Stevie Nicks singing to me with her unparalleled voice in Landslide, is pure Magic. And BlackLake Xtri is just the means…

Today is all about the final preparations, which are not insignificant for a self-support triathlon. Registration will open soon to pick up the starting number and the stickers for the car. Maybe chat with other participants and have some coffee. And later this afternoon there is the briefing. Tonight of course I will eat some pasta and then see if I can get some sleep before the alarm goes off around three o'clock. Let's just not oversleep …