Getting ready for the Blåmanen races again

It is soon time for the annual three races up to Mount Blåmanen in Bergen!

Last year the Blåmanen races gradually grew on me. I could not participate in the first one due to travel, I participated in the second one mainly for practice, and I really raced in the third one. The experience was so great that this year I actually planned my travels so that I can participate in all three Blåmanen races. I’m coming home the day before the first race, and leaving again two days after the last one!

Three races; three different courses. Thanks to them I learned great new “hidden” paths on my everyday mountains. And learning never ends; last week it was time to check out the course of the first race. I have never done that one, and since I will be on travel until the race, Frank and I did a test run of it on Friday. But first we had a stroll last Monday to learn the part of the course from Fjellveien via Sandviksbatteriet to Sandvikspilen.

Easier said than done! The stroll ended up taking a couple of hours, because we spent a lot of time trying to find the correct path and eventually enjoying the views.

The start is easy: from “The lady” just above Varegg club house, it goes left and down on Fjellveien, passes the start of Stoltzekleiven and the “BKK building”, shortly after which it takes off to right and into terrain. For a while it all seemed pretty straight forward, but then we started to go back and forth several times and just ended up hitting inaccessible huge rocks. We had read the description and we had studied the map, but in the end we had to ask a nice lady whether we could follow her to Sandviksbatteriet. It turns out that you have to turn left at a point that does not at all look like the continuation of the path. Why are the more established looking parts of the path there when they lead to nowhere??

After feeling pretty stupid for a while, we were soon taken aback by the beauty of the path and the nice views that it offers. From Sandviskbatteriet it was easy to follow the path to Sandvikspilen and the top of Stoltzekleiven. We just went back down via Skredderdalen, but the course of the race continues to Brushytten on the main gravel path, and then on the asphalt road up to Blåmanen.

For the test run of Friday my plan was moderate pace and moderate heart rate. It went easier and faster than expected, although the path until Sandvikspilen was pretty wet and muddy: 15 minutes to Sandviksbatteriet, 35 minutes to Sandvikspilen, 55 minutes to Brushytten, and finally 1:04 to the top. I feel ready!

I really like the course of this first race; I think it fits me well, as it requires quite a bit of climbing on steep uphills and not just running on moderate uphills. In that respect the second race is the worst for me, I think, as it does not involve steep terrain parts. My favorite, though, is and will always be the third one. I cannot forget how surprised I was by the secret character of the path from Skomakerdiket up to Fjellhytten, almost a bit scary at first, and that was the one I actually trained for and did well at. It was one of my best race experiences ever.

See your city from a new angle; join a race!