Triple triumph - Blåmanen race 3

Yes yes yes! Sometimes everything goes better than expected!

Blåmanen race 3 was yesterday. A bit sad that it's all over for this year. I have heard this from several people this past week - we should have Blåmanen races all the way to Christmas! Yesterday's race was perfect in all ways, in fact in more ways than I could have expected or even dared to hope for. Just an hour before the race I was not sure that I would be able to participate, but then everything worked out in the best possible way.

On Wednesday during a test run of the third race together with Fjellgeitene, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my ankle. It was so painful that I decided to stop and simply walk back, not to risk any injury. And then started of course several days with worries and wondering about whether I should participate in yesterday's race or not. I have a few long distance running goals for 2016; was it worth risking a long period without being able to run again, just for a single race? On the other hand, I had this kind of sharp pain at the exact same spot once before, and then after a couple of days everything was fine.

What would life be without the caring, compassion and advice of good friends? I discussed the matter with many people. Several of my friends who have had long time trouble with their achilles tendon advised me the be cautious. And a long term achilles injury is exactly what I am most afraid of. But my trainer Ketil and my friend Irene, who is a physiotherapist, concluded from the description that it is probably not the achilles, and as long as it is not painful I should simply participate in the race. Yesterday morning I had still not made up my mind. My plan was to warm up with my proper asphalt running shoes, and then decide depending on how everything felt. I used kinesiology tape on my heel after watching some youtube videos on how to apply it, and during the warm up I had no pain what so ever. At the end it was when talking to my friend Roger just before the race that I made up my mind. He said "that's not the achilles, that's just some simple ankle pain. I get it sometimes, too, and then the day after it's gone". Yes! Exactly my experience, so I decided to race. And it all went so well!

Thanks to breaking the practice on Wednesday, and not running anymore until yesterday, my legs were completely rested. This last course of the Blåmanen races is my favorite. It is also the one I know the best, as I practiced it twice last year before the race, and went there several times again after the race.  The weather was beautiful! Big sun from a cloudless sky. And cold enough for all the mud to have frozen to give a steady, albeit pretty slippery here and there, surface to run on. I used my shoes with spikes and they worked perfectly.

So many heroes yesterday! I got so much help all the way up; it was simply heavenly! On the first flat part I was running with Cathrine and Tone, and we were laughing all the way. On the Fløyen turns, in fact all the way up to Fjellhytten I had the company of Hans Erik. Just like last year! So reassuring to have the same feeling as last year, where this was the race I did the best. This is our course, Hans Erik! Just before we reached Fløyen, we met many of our Melkesyre friends who were doing the regular Saturday intervals. They stopped and cheered vigorously. And then came Bjarne, as always in the middle of the steepest hill! I was so happy to see him, and he kept me company during the worst part. Just at Fjellhytten, Jan Erik was cheering and taking photos. And from Fjellhytten and all the way to finish I had the company Aldona who was just in front of me. I cannot describe how great it feels to be surrounded with all this goodness and kindness. Thank you so much everybody, I owe you all big time!

The best part was that I felt no pain whatsoever in my ankle (and of course my hamstring injury was completely forgotten for the time being), so I was exceptionally happy, cheerful, and not the least grateful all the way. The sun was shining brightly all the time, I found myself smiling all the way, especially towards the end when I knew that I would actually be able to finish without having to stop or slow down due to pain. And then my finish time.... 57 minutes!!! OK, still one minute worse than last year, but one minute better than last week's race, which is for most people a faster race. Last year, I had exactly the same time on both races, 56 minutes. This year, 58 on the last and 57 on this one. So in a sense I did better than last year, given the circumstances.

I feel that I am the luckiest person in the whole world!