Becoming a goat: The Little Christmas Whisky Race

Goats just wanna have fun...

Several weeks of wonderful fun with tough racing and hard partying culminated on Friday with the Little Christmas Whisky Race, organized by Fjellgeitene. I have been mentioning Fjellgeitene in several posts, and what better opportunity than now to devote a whole blog entry to them? After an unbelievable form improvement and (for me) amazing achievements in 2014, I had many goals and hopes for 2015. Unfortunately most of them had to be canceled, as the year was characterized by injury, rehabilitation, recovery, and trying to regain form. Two of my goals for 2015 were achieved though: a new official record at Stoltzekleiven Opp, and becoming a proper member of Fjellgeitene.

In fact, it was largely thanks to participating in the Stoltzekleiven training sessions of Fjellgeitene that I managed to do well at this year's race. Although I had a couple of unofficial personal records during last winter, after the summer holidays I was finding it hard to achieve the same; not even close. Fjellgeitene organized a lot of interval training sessions during early fall, which were just perfect in many ways. First of all, since it was intervals we did not keep track of total time, and thus I did not get depressed by possible bad times. Second, and even more importantly, we had so much fun after the sessions, like swimming in the lake at the top, or exploring (to me) totally new paths in the mountains.

After that I have tried to join the training sessions of Fjellgeitene whenever I had the opportunity, and when the described training felt right for me. This is the thing: the average form of Fjellgeitene is quite a lot better than mine. To not slow the others down or ruin the practice, I try to choose well. The strength training sessions are just perfect. When it comes to the running sessions, for the moment I join them when the description says "relax". I know that it will then probably be a zone 3 for me, which is perfect when it fits my training plan. Sometimes a route and an anticipated completion time of the session is given, and then it is very easy to decide whether I can and want to do it.

As with Melkesyre and Varegg otherwise, a lot of laughter is involved in the training sessions of Fjellgeitene. Several of my friends join all three group's training sessions, and consider themselves a member of each of the groups, like myself. Although some people clearly identify themselves mainly with one of the groups, it is really more like a big happy family. This was also obvious at the Little Christmas Whisky Race and the following party. A short but brutal evening race, starting from just above Sandviken Hospital, following the turns of Munkebotn up to the lake, and continuing on the main gravel path up to the area where the drinks are served at the top of Stoltzekleiven Opp. It is about 2.5 km long, pretty steep, and the estimated time is around one's time for a 5 km flat race. The best part is the whisky bar at the top when you reach the finish!

I participated in this race also last year, and had so good memories that I signed up as soon as the event opened for participation. Last year, I completed a test run in 24:54, and I was expecting something around 24 minutes for the race. But on the evening of the race, the ground was covered with snow and ice and my completion time was 26:04. I was still very happy with that time, which was just seconds within the time of many of my friends. This year, though, I kept getting around 27:30 during training sessions, and was again feeling a little bit the same frustration as before Stoltzekleiven. At the race, it went better than expected, although not as good as I could have hoped for: 25:24. No matter what, the whisky session at the top was a wonderful reward.

So lucky to be part of such an amazing gang, and so many things to look forward to in 2016!