The most wonderful time of the year: Blåmanen race 1

One down, two to go!

The Blåmanen races are on! Yesterday was the first one of this year's three races. I came home from Paris Friday evening, and I was very tired after a week with early mornings, long days at work, and little sleep. Still yesterday morning I felt very ready for the race. I also felt very happy and excited because I knew that I would meet many of my friends whom I haven't seen for a few weeks. This race series offers one of the most fun race experience ever. I think it is because I seem to know about 80% of the participants. It is like a playground!

I had a test run with Frank a few weeks ago, which I completed in 1 h 04 min, and yesterday my goal was to go below 1 hour. Unfortunately, it did not work. I completed in just over the hour. Although I have been running and trying to push myself in Paris, I haven't had uphill training for the last three weeks. I went with really high heart rate throughout the race, and was pretty exhausted in the end, so at least I think I pushed as much as I could. Although slightly disappointed about the time, I am so happy about so many things around this race. For the first time in a long long while, I did not feel any pain in my thigh or butt while racing, and it was only my breath that was limiting me; not at all my legs.

Frank and I arrived the start well ahead of time. We had both decided to start individually before the elites, Frank a little later than me. We were extremely lucky with the weather, which was sunny between heavy showers the night before and the following afternoon. After getting our tags for timing, saying hello to our friends, and warming up a little, it was time to start. I was chatting with people and missed my friends who started a couple of minutes before me, so I was alone most of the time. The track until Sandvikspilen was extremely muddy. In the beginning I was trying to jump from stone to stone, but in the end I did not care anymore where I stepped. Sometimes I was down into the mud up to my knees, which was fine except that I was afraid to lose my shoes a couple of times. As I was getting close to Sandvikspilen, which is the end of the steepest part, I was feeling pretty tired. Then I heard the voices of friends who were cheering and taking pictures. It was wonderful to have Bjarne, Helge, and Cathrine there at the top! They made sure that I kept going at a moment when I wanted most just to stop, or at least slow down.

As usual, all the time I was wondering whether I had started too hard. Compared to our test run, I gained a minute until Sandviksbatteriet, another minute until Sandvikspilen, another minute until Brushytten, and finally another minute until the end, so I seem to have run pretty evenly. I was hoping to be significantly better at the race than at the test, since I had significantly lower heart rate at the test, but I had forgotten all about the backpack... I did not have a backpack at the test, while at the race a backpack of at least 1.5 kg is compulsory. I must remember to train with a backpack (or lose 1.5 kg until next Saturday!). Since this was the first time I did Blåmanen race number 1, I have no previous recorded time. So at least I can hope for an improvement next year. In the meanwhile I am really curious to see whether I will be able to improve my time in the next two races, compared to last year. Already looking forward to next Saturday!

Thank you Varegg!!!