Champs rule

 

Well of course they do; they are the winners. But many of them rule in so many other ways than just being the best. I am always amazed when famous athletes turn out to be incredibly kind and nice people. I tend to think that you have to be very competitive and quite egoistic to become a champion, but surprisingly many super good athletes are also super sweet people. I think, for example, the alpine king Aksel Lund Svindal is simply unbelievably nice, although I have never met him (I might be a tiny bit biased since my youngest son is called Aksel). It is just incredible how kind and encouraging he is when he talks about his competitors and team mates, and how he can keep an unbelievably positive attitude even when he is seriously injured just at the start of a season. After I started participating in races, I have had the pleasure of meeting several winners. And I must admit that I was quite surprised to see how humble, kind, and encouraging these people are. I already told you about my meeting with Kirsten Marathon Melkevik, and how incredibly encouraging and complimenting she was about my achievements, as well as my leg muscles, balance, etc. Well, there are many sweet champs out there.

In June this year, I participated in Bergen Fjellmaraton. I will write about that experience in the next post, but for now let me just write about the finish of that race. As with many mountain races, we had the option of starting earlier than the elites, and I had started early enough so that I could be already in the finish area when some of my friends participating in the elite class would arrive. I was sitting down on a roll of material at the side of the stadium and waiting for the others, when a person came and asked whether he could sit next to me. He was enjoying a hamburger, and wanted to sit down while eating (I was feeling too sick of exhaustion to take the offer of free hamburgers at the finish). We started chatting and he asked me about how I had done. I told him my finish time, and he seemed very impressed. I also told him that I was a fresh runner, and went ahead and told him about my Bergen half marathon adventure as well. He was really encouraging and gave me lots of compliments on the "incredibly good" times that I had achieved in these races. Finally, I asked him whether he was happy about his race performance and his finishing time. Yes, he was indeed quite pleased, he said. When I asked him about his time, he replied 1:35 (1 h 35 min). At that point my jaw dropped; I had managed to hear over the loudspeakers that the winner finished in 1:35. I asked him: are you the winner??? Yes, he replied shyly... O-M-G! Those who know me can perhaps imagine how excited I got at that point. First of all, how could it be that the winner was simply sitting there and enjoying a hamburger all by himself? (Well with me, but I am nobody in this context.) Where were the cameras, where were all the admirers? Alright, so things are pretty low key in Norway, but still I would expect the winner to get some special treatment, at least be inside in a warm room... Then I started asking him millions of questions. He could not have been kinder and nicer when he explained how he became so fast: he has simply been doing this since he was a little kid, he said. I asked him how fast he can run on a flat road, and he said he did not really do flat roads and was not very good at them. Of course by now I know better. He is in fact amazing in all sorts of running races, flat, steep, long, short, he simply wins almost everything. He also does some ultra races of incredible lengths in incredible short times. I was new and ignorant at that point and had never heard of him, but by now I am a big fan of Sverre Slethaug! He is an incredible athlete, and he is indeed very famous, both in Norway and internationally. Since then I have had the pleasure of meeting him at several races, and he is just as sweet every singe time. When I congratulated him on winning a 10 km race last week, he replied by congratulating me and all other participants... As we were all winners!

Several examples of incredibly sweet champions are among my team mates in Team Melkesyre. In August this year I participated in the Skåla Opp race (I will write about that very soon), and the winner in my class was Jeanette Amundsen. Later I learned that she is a Melkesyre Team member, and the first time I joined a Melkesyre training, I had the pleasure of talking to her. I was telling her how impressed I was with her achievement, while she kept going on asking me about my finishing time and my experience of the run, and all the time telling me how incredibly well I had done at the race. She also told me that there is no reason I cannot be at least as good as her, and that I should just keep training to get there. So incredibly sweet! Of course I don't believe I can ever beat Jeanette, but winning my class in some competition at some race some time is indeed one of my goals. Other champs in Melkesyre are Gro Svendal and Eva Quivey, and they are equally humble and sweet about their achievements compared to other people's. I also want to mention my friend Cathrine Haugstvedt in Melkesyre. She came number 2 in her class at a 5 km race last week, and she can do both short and very long distances very fast. I am so incredibly inspired by her; she is quite new to running, and just unbelievably humble about her achievements. I could have mentioned so many more of course, but somehow women around my age are most impressive to me, as I consciously or unconsciously compare myself to them. Guys, I am very very impressed by you, too!!

Talk to a champ; you will find it super rewarding!