A star is gone

Døden kan flamme som kornmo;
Klarere ser vi enn før
Hvert liv i dens hvite smerte:
Det er de beste som dør.
(Nordahl Grieg)

Some people touch the lives of others in very special ways. And then they leave.... Running and training with friends is great fun, and in every running group there are special people who are very good in sharing their wisdom, motivating others, and genuinely enjoying to help others achieve new goals. Still, some of these people stand out. Like Mats. So pure at heart, so full of love and kindness, so uniquely wonderful in giving and helping, so wise and knowledgeable, so curious and interested, and so much fun. And then he leaves...

Mats is best in everything. He is the complete athlete. First person from Bergen to reach the top of Mount Everest, super fast street runner, ultra marathoner, trail runner, mountain climber, skier, biker, swimmer, and a tough triathlete of extreme races, ... you name it. There is nothing he cannot do, nothing he is not good at. But what makes him unique and outstanding is not the list of all these achievements. It is his extreme kindness and how he gives so much of himself to lift others up. He volunteers to accompany youngsters in races, and to teach kids skiing. He takes the goals of those of his friends with much much more modest achievements as important as his, and helps them in every possible way. Countless people have been helped by Mats when he accompanied them through races to reach their finish goals. Even more have learned so much from him, have gotten invaluable advice and motivating pep talk through tough times. Including myself. But now Mats has left... I cannot bring myself to write these sentences in past tense. I cannot accept that he is not here anymore. Because he is. And he will always be.

This blog already contains several posts about Mats. Just look at the above picture. It says it all. During the long injury period of 2015, Stoltzekleiven Opp uphill race was the only thing I could train for, and reaching a new PB was really really important to me. Things simply did not go so well during training. But Mats was there with help, support, motivation, inspiration, cheering, and making me believe that I was doing all the right things, and it would all work out at the race. Which it did.

So many of us have our own memories with Mats, and we are grateful to him for so many different things. You might remember that I was struggling both with motivation and form during the winter that followed the Amsterdam marathon last year. During a 20 km run with friends, I felt exhausted already from the start and decided to go slower than the others. Mats, pushing the stroller with his little daughter inside, immediately slowed down and ran with me behind the others the whole way. During this run, we had one of our perhaps most interesting conversations. He taught me about veganism and the benefits of cutting out dairy. I was convinced right away! Since that day I have avoided milk, cheese, cream, yogurt, and I have been feeling so much better. Gradually, this has even grown on Frank. Now we don't at all buy milk or yogurt anymore, just the alternatives made of almonds and soy, which we have come to like even better than the dairy versions.

We also talked a lot about how to train correctly, keeping everything at heart rate zone 1 or lactate threshold. I have also been implementing that conscientiously since then, with very good effects. Everything started to get better since that run. This year I have broken my previous records in every race, have achieved a calmness and confidence about my training, and started to enjoy everything in a different way. So much thanks to Mats! There is one thing that makes me sad, though, about that conversation. Mats was so thrilled that I was so enthusiastic about the things he was telling me. Because these were not just things that he was telling from the top of his head. He had read a lot, watched a lot, and he had quite a bit of evidence for why it should work. Still he experienced that some people would be negative, even condescending, about what he was trying to explain to them. I find comfort in thinking that maybe I was able to cheer him up in that matter, telling him that people find it so difficult to change their habits that it is sometimes easier for them to dismiss the facts than to try to understand them.

There is so much I am grateful to Mats for. I miss him so much already. We all do. I must admit I am struggling to imagine how we will go on as a group without him. But hey! We are not without him! He is with us all the time. He will always be...

De øket det livet de gikk fra.
De spøker i nye menn.
På deres grav skal skrives:
De beste blir alltid igjen.
(Nordahl Grieg)