2016 Norseman was 3 weeks ago today and finally I have a chance to put my thoughts down on what it was like to do the race.

A lot of people have seen the videos that they make after each year’s race. The videos show the iconic images like jumping off the ferry, the harsh landscapes and steep climbs on the bike and the near vertical finish atop the mountain, Gaustatoppen.  These alone are enough to make anyone who is looking for a challenge want to do this race. There are a few interesting things about the race which people might not know. 

First off there is one start line, but two finish lines. The mountaintop finish which is featured prominently in all the videos (these finishers receive a black t-shirt), and then lower level finish at the ski resort of Gaustablikk (these finishers receive a white t-shirt). The point where it is decided if you finish high or low is made at the 32.5 km mark on the run, at the top of Zombie hill. The deciding factors at this point are both time and your position in the race. Of these, position is the crucial one, to be in the first 160 of the 250 that start the race, at the 32.5 km mark. 

It’s an unsupported race which means you have to provide your own. This alone made it one of the best experiences I have ever had doing a triathlon, to have your own sag wagon with friends and family on board. Encouragement, food, change of clothes available pretty much the whole way! 

Lastly, there are no age group or gender divisions and a single mass start which which means you are racing for position with each athlete that you encounter along the course.

Pre - race

Norseman has a reputation as the toughest iron distance triathlon, and for the swim leg the tough part relates to the water temperature in the Hardangarfjord. Last year the water was 10 C on race day that was the number I had in my head during training and a major hurdle that I felt had to be overcome. With this in mind I swam in Lake O in mid-April when the water was 10 C managing only half an hour and a measly 1 km. At that point I was despondent, thinking there is no way I could cope with the full 3.8 km in those conditions. Fast forward to June and a trip to Scotland to support my friend Sean, doing the Celtman Extreme Triathlon which has a similar reputation for cold water. Watching everyone suiting up to get in the water was a revelation. These people had neoprene vests under their wet-suits, neoprene socks and even balaclava style wet-suit hoods. Not to mention wet-suits that were not full of holes like mine! Once home and with a new wet-suit, vest and socks Lake Ontario at 13 C just didn’t hold the same fear for me.

I Arrived in the town of Eidfjord on the Wednesday evening before the race, which is where you board the ferry to the start and also where T1 is located. I found parking and walked straight down to the water’s edge and put my hand in expecting the worst. Instead, it felt cold, but not painfully so. Next morning I went for my first swim which felt good, and learned from the race organisers the water temp was 14. Finally a feeling of ‘I can do this’ at least as far as the swim was concerned.

All three of us stayed in an apartment on the bike route about 2 km from Eidfjord . The owner of the apartment made this sign which I saw for the first time as I was starting off on the ride.

Race Day

Race day wake up was 2 am after about 3 or 4 hrs sleep. Stepped outside to find a stiff breeze blowing, but no rain. Did the race tattoos, and had breakfast of the night before's left overs, a pork chop and pasta with tomato sauce. Breakfast of champions or what? 

My god it's early. Especially for wine.

Got everything packed up including bike (no racking the day before) and drove into town. In transition by 3:15 and then board the ferry at 3:45.

Trying not to look nervous

Getting everyone on board took ages as they had to mark each athlete off on a duplicate system of 2 separate boards. They then took these to the swim exit later and marked everyone off again as they came out the water. All this in addition to the timing chip and mats, so safety is obviously a major priority for the organisers. 

Ferry at the dock

Time to get on board

While the ferry is heading out into the fjord they get a fire-hose set-up and start hosing down people to get them used to the cold water before jumping in. This is one of the scenes they show quite a lot of in the race video, and seeing it in person gave me one of those ‘Holy shit, I am actually doing the Norseman’ moments. The first guy to walk under the hose got quite a big cheer. I followed a bit later.

The Swim

Finally they open up the big door at the end of car deck. It's time to jump. I get close to the front as I am eager to get going. I go to the edge, look down, find an open spot and jump into the water. Forgot to put a hand on my goggles as I had planned to, but no problem they stay in place. Being in the water finally was a relief, just to get moving and get the blood flowing. A lot of stress also disappeared at this point, thoughts about ‘have I trained enough’ or  ‘have I packed the right food, clothing etc’ are all gone, and there is only one thought left, get to the finish line. 

The famous leap into the fjord

The swim to the start line was about 200 meters and then there was about 10 minutes of treading water waiting for the start. The bright lights of the ferry now some distance away and in front of me I can see the headlamps of 20 or so kayakers. Finally I hear the ferry’s horn sound and see all the kayakers raise their paddles above their heads so we can swim between them. We’re off. 

The wind is quite strong from behind us, making the water choppy, but not enough to bother me. I swim further away from the shore, trying to keep a straight line. Later I find out that this where the current from the tide going out is strongest (against us of course) and the fastest option is to hug the shoreline. Ah well something to bear in mind if there is ever a next time! After 1.5 km its starting to get light and I can see I am in a group of 3 or 4 other swimmers all doing the same speed and course. The cold water is now having an effect on my legs. At around 2.5 km in, I am getting cramps in my calves. I do some kicking for a while to get the blood flowing again and the cramps are gone. We make a 90 deg left turn after 3 km and now the chop is coming from the side slowing things down a bit. After a couple of course changes I see the swim exit up ahead. Eventually I feel the rocks under my feet and there is a Norseman crew member there to steady me before heading up the grassy slope to T1. I hear Sean and Meg calling my name and think yes Norseman Swim is done! My watch says 1 hr 34 min and  4.15 km.

Swim exit - relief!

All smiles in T1

   

The Bike

The bike leg is the part of the race that held the most unknowns for me. All I had in mind going in was that it was the toughest bike leg of any iron distance triathlon by some margin. But beyond that I was pretty ignorant about how the course looked, and this was intentional on my part. I just didn’t want to phsyc myself out! I did my best to include as many hills as possible in my training, but beyond that I knew I would just have to deal with things as they came.

Bike course profile

Tattoo with the course profile. Never saw it once during the ride because of long sleeves. Probably a good thing in hindsight!

Because of poor visibility in the tunnels, which are normally closed to bikes, everyone had to wear a high vis vest leaving T1. Lights front and rear were also mandatory and had to be left on the entire bike leg.

Almost immediately after starting the ride you get a chance to see the amazing scenery that this course is known for. It's a flat 15 minutes of calm before the storm so to speak. On any other day you would be stopping to whip out your camera. Then 7.5 km in comes the first major climb, an ascent of 1250 meters over 30 km. For sure this was new territory for me, never having climbed constantly for what turned out to be 2 hours. I felt some relief after this climb, and maybe a bit less fearful about the ride. If I could do that then how bad could the rest be right?

Breathtaking scenery that would have you stopping every few minutes to take in, on any other day.

After the first pit-stop. Shoe covers and gloves on!

As we hit the plateau after the first climb the weather became a factor. The temp in T1 had been around 12 C with wind around 20 km/h but up on the plateau around the 38 km mark the temp had dropped to 5 C and wind around 30 km/h. Also it was raining by this point. This was one area where I had done some research beforehand and looked at pictures from previous years to see what people were wearing. As a result I had plenty of layers to choose from along the way, including a waterproof jacket which really helped.

I didn’t feel cold on the climbs but on the descents I could feel it, with my whole body shaking which then made my bike do the same, not good at 70 plus km/h! 

For food in the back of the van I had sandwiches, boiled eggs, oranges, tomato soup, gels, bars, coke and then my bottles on my bike, one skratch and one water. At first I tried to eat while riding, but it was no good. With cold hands and gloves on I was just too clumsy and there was too much chance of wiping out in the wet. After that I decided to only eating on my stops with the crew, and just try to drink plenty between stops. The sandwiches for once were not all appetizing, even though they are my staple in training. Never mind there’s soup! What a life saver. That and a couple of boiled eggs and I was going strong again.

Soup in hand, boiled egg in the other!

 There are 5 big climbs in all and the final climb called Imingfjell, is from 130 km to 150 km. This is the one that really made me understand why this called a tough bike course. It just seemed that each time you came around a bend there was just more hill in front of you. And after an hour of this, you’ve only covered 9 km! 

The last 30 km of downhill was a blast though, averaging about 50 km/h.

Final time for the bike leg was 8:09:47, avg 22 km/h, around what I expected.  In case anyone is thinking of doing the race and wants to make a comparison to other courses around here my bike times for Mont-Tremblant and Muskoka last year were 6:10 and 6:18 respectively.

The Run

At the exit of T2 a race official showed a board to each person with their position in the race at that point. Mine was 203. This was the first confirmation I had of where I was. Up to that point I had got updates from my support crew who were using data from the GPS tracking website. Later we found out that the GPS tracking system was a bit messed up, and was telling everyone that I was 30 positions further up than I actually was. So at this point being in position 200+ I thought OK its going to be a white t-shirt but lets see what can be done on this run first.

Run course and that F@#$ing hill!!

I think because it was cold on the bike and I didn’t dehydrate too much, my legs felt good right from the start of the run and I didn’t get any of the cramps that often plague me. I found a pace of around 5:45 for the first few K and pretty soon I was gaining on the runners I saw up ahead. 

I had arranged to meet my support every 4 km on the run, and by the time I reached the first stop I had passed maybe 3 people. As I come up to the car I see Sean and Meg are pretty excited. They are looking at the GPS data and think I have moved from position 173 to 170 and have a shot at getting into the first 160. 

I tell Sean the news that I am actually more like position 200 but he is not having any of it. While I carry on running he is getting people in 3 different countries to make a count on their PC’s, phoning the race organisers and basically doing everything he can to verify what the ‘actual’ position is. I had to smile at his determination. If ever you needed someone in corner Sean is your guy. In any case I kept the pace around 5:50 which was still enough to catch another few people and at each stop Sean and Meg are updating me on the online messages, where everyone thinks I am getting close to the magic 160 number. I must admit it was a great motivator, even though I knew the ‘race’ wasn’t close. Don't be shit Laurence, I hear Natalie saying via Sean :)

Just past the 25 km mark is Zombie Hill, a climb of 650 meters over 7 km. Just about everyone except the podium finishers walk this. I know if I tried to run, the pace would have been the same as walking. Luckily by now I had Sean with me and Meg in the van supporting us both. We arrived at the top of the hill in good spirits with a total race time of 14:14:00, about 15 minutes inside the time cut-off, however as mentioned it’s the all-important position that really counts, and I am told I am number 191. 

Sean and I nearing the top of that ridiculous hill

Definitely an improvement from T2, but as I knew, not close to getting a chance to finish on the high route. I worked out later that I would have had to be at the cut-off 1 hr 7 min earlier in order the catch the person in position 160. I am not sure how I would have handled it if I had been the person in position 161 who arrived only 3 minutes too late. So now with only 10 relatively flat km to go and with my support at my side, we headed off towards Gaustablikk which is a hotel / ski resort and the finish line for the white t-shirt route. 

Our Norwegian honour guard.

We reached the hotel at the 36 km mark and I see the finish just there at the main entrance. We then do a short lap of the parking lot, about a 1/2 km, passing within a few meters of the finish line. Do that loop another 10 times, says a race official as we pass. I got to know the spectators on that loop so well I literally had a chance to make new friends! And then it was done, final time 15:30:16 position 22 out 67 white t-shirt finishers!!

Happy finisher with the most amazing support crew.

Final Thoughts

Getting to do this race was a dream come true. Winning a spot in the lottery was pure luck, but the rest of the path to the start took a few other key ingredients. There was lots of training yes, but almost every step of the way there was encouragement from everyone around me and even excitement that I was getting to do this. So many people to thank. Firstly from my wife Les, who never once gave me a reason to feel like I should have been doing something other than train with my free time, even though that would have been justified. For all you put up with, Thank you Les!

Thanks to my support crew in Norway, my sister Meg and Sean, who both took off work and gave up valuable time to come over and look after me both during the race and afterwards when I was a shivering wreck, not to mention doing such a great job of keeping everyone at home updated with my progress.

A lot warmer the next day.

Thank you IronCanucks. Emma, for the training rides, You powered past me up Weirs, Sydenham and Bell School so many times and made me work that much harder trying to catch you. And yes you can buy me that coke now:) Danielle, the video you put together was amazing and thanks to everyone that contributed. Watching it the morning before the race put a lump my throat and reminded me again that everyone was with me.

I got home to Canada after the race and I found this group of smiling faces come out to greet me.

And the next thing there was a celebration happening!

Finally, I discovered that there is a passion for triathlon amongst the Norseman crew and volunteers which is quite remarkable. They believe strongly in their particular way of putting on this race which they sum up with their motto for Norseman which is True, Basic, Unique. And its obviously working when you see how this race captures peoples imaginations and creates so much excitement in the world of triathlon. My thanks to the Norseman Crew and Volunteers keeping me safe on the adventure of a lifetime.

Bent Olav Olsen