Ironduck 2004

It was not my intention to do this. But in the middle of the week, I got this unbearable urge to do it. After all, we were going to Fredrikstad anyway, to support them. My body was surprisingly fine after last weekends crew race. Just like normal of the days after doing an ironman, I was high and had limited contact between my body and brain. I just had to do it.

It was great to meet the others at early Saturday morning. All the other 9 made their ironman debut. Some of them were not what you would normally consider as fit for doing an ironman. But they all had the urge to do it, even if this was covered by nerves before the swim start. It was early atumn and rather heavy fog.

I could not get rid of Bent during the swim. He was like a lovesick whale. It is strange how 10 people can appear as a pretty huge triathlon swim pack. I was just a bit more than normal tired during the swim. At T1, we were all together. There were really no sense or urgency there. People were just happy to have survived the swim.

Starting on the bike leg, I forgot everything about my plan of going slowly. Fredrik must have infected me with his kamikaze-sickness. I was hunting Steinar that was in the lead and I biked as fast as I could. After a couple of hours, I was only 2 minutes behind. I was going to get him. Not to win, but just to get in front of him for a moment. It is not clear to me how this made sense.

I had found a race fuel food that worked perfectly well this summer. I learned it from Rune Høydahl that won HP Norseman this year. Bread, olive oil, smoked salmon and scrambled egg. The only problem with the food was that Hege could not find me. She had been working as crew and then she had been driving around the bike leg to find me. After 3 hours she did. Then I was more hungry than polite. I did not really hunt for Steinar anymore.
The bike leg had a totalt ascent of 1,100 meters . It is difficult to find a flat circuit in Norway . 180 km’s at the bike can be very lonely when you do 30 km laps with only 10 competitors..

At the run I felt strong. From my navel and up. My legs didn’t appreciate my decision to run. I taped my left leg in T2, but that was not at all successful. I missed my daddy, who had such a success with the tape last weekend. (My messed up ankle was operated a couple of months later and I was able to run properly shortly after).

I gave up after 18 km’s and started a long night’s walk toward the finish in Anne Sofie and Bent’s garden. The good thing about being slow was that Hege could walk with me. That was super nice. After 32 km she even gave me a hamburger.

The idea of having transition zone and finish line in the garden at the farm was great. It was a beautiful place, filled with people cheering and barbequing. They thought we were doing great, no matter how slow we were. And the finisher t-shirt was fantastic!