All good things go by three: Blåmanen Opp 3

Yesterday I ended up having one of my best race experiences. Again! The last one of the three races up to Mount Blåmanen in Bergen, Blåmansløpene, took place yesterday. These are three races with two weeks in between, starting from the same spot at Fjellveien and ending at the same spot on Blåmanen, but following three different courses, 6-7 km each. These races were on my B list, and they ended up gradually "growing on me". I could not participate in the first one because I was on travel,  I took it easy on the second one, and finally I really raced in the last one!

Already Saturday a week ago, during the uphill interval training with Melkesyre, I felt that my racing form was back, and I decided at that point to really go for it at the last Blåmanen race. Monday afternoon I went for an easy pace trial run to see the course, and I was simply amazed by how beautiful, interesting, and exciting the part of this course from Fløyen to Blåmanen is! I have been hiking in Bergen mountains for more than 25 years, but there are so many incredibly pretty paths that I have never been to earlier. And it is not only me! Many of my hiking/running friends who are born and raised in Bergen are also surprised to discover these paths. I am extremely grateful to Varegg and Viking sports clubs for placing the courses of the Blåmanen races and Bergen Fjellmaraton via these incredibly nice, less known paths on the city mountains!

Although I always print and take with me instructions and maps, I never manage to find the exact course when I am on a trial run. The same happened on Monday, and I decided to do another trial run on Wednesday. However, I was a bit hesitant to do it alone; the path is indeed incredibly pretty, but it is quite far off the main path. I was extremely lucky that one of my Melkesyre friends Hans Erik was also planning a trial run on Wednesday and could join me. We had the perfect trial run: the beginning of the course was clear to me after checking the map again, and Hans Erik had been to the last part of the course with other Melkesyre friends, so we had the whole course more or less under control. We had a quite faster run than my first one, as we were pushing each other in the first part up to Fløyen, which is the toughest part for me: uphill but not steep enough to walk, and one has to keep running to cover the distance in reasonable time.

Of course when the race came, we discovered that we had not found the exact correct course! But pretty close. (In fact I consider it a lucky charm that I don't have the whole course fully under control before a race.) On the race day the weather was warm for November in Bergen. Partly cloudy and 12 degrees C, but quite windy, at least at the top. This time quite a larger group of my Melkesyre friends gathered to start together, about half an hour before the elites. This turned out to be a great experience for all of us. In the previous race, many of us ended up running alone, but this time we could see each other almost throughout the whole course, which was very motivating. I was in particular helped a lot by Erik, who passed me on the way to Fløyen and I could follow him all the way up there, and by Hans Erik who ran with me all the way from Fløyen to Fjellhytten. After that I could again see the backs of some of the faster ones, and I got closer and closer to them towards the end, which gave even more motivation. I had an amazing race experience, and I was very very happy with my finish time, which was better than my most optimistic estimates.

The great fun of starting together half an hour before the elites was that we all arrived within minutes of each other, and could cheer each other into the finish. I could hear my friends shout my name as I was approaching the finish, and it really made me make an extra effort towards the very end. After a few minutes, the best runners started arriving, and above is a picture of us together with the winner Thorbjørn to the left. It was marvelous to cheer the winners, the elites, and the rest of our friends into finish, as they arrived. I was cheering and clapping and jumping so much that I might have given the impression of being high on something. The wonderful thing about a good race experience it gives a high that can hardly be matched by anything else.

The Blåmanen races are organized by Varegg in a very low cost way, with tiny participation fee, just by volunteers. In fact several of my Melkesyre friends participated in the organization rather than the race, and I want to thank them all and Varegg for giving us all these wonderful experiences! And as I thought I was done uphill racing for a while, I was reminded yesterday that new races up to Fløyen are coming up in January....

I can see my B list growing!