A year gone by since our 2014 Norway holiday/Norseman recce and Marie, Donnie and I were back for Marie’s actual Norseman, which perhaps not surprisingly turned out to be a tougher gig for everyone than last year’s sightseeing fun trip with no ‘touristy’ days at all (the one obvious chance of last Thursday going begging with everyone basically just too frazzled after a 24-hour journey to head out again) despite much stunning scenery etc. still enjoyed over many hours of driving. So some interesting things noted in passing like Øye stave church, where we coincidentally stopped to change drivers en route from Oslo to Oppheim, and the Lærdalstunnelen (24.51km world’s longest road tunnel), which we drove through not that much later, but really it was all about the triathlon. And here Marie had a tough time (on her birthday!), not placing where she’d hoped/expected (something I can fully emphasise with after my 2014 West Highland Way Race struggle!) but characteristically fighting on to make the ‘black T-shirt’ cut-off, finish up Gaustatoppen and record the still-more-than-respectable time of 13:36:26 for the 1.9km open-water swim (shortened from 3.8km for cold water temperature), monstrously hilly, frequently chilly 180km bike ride and 42.2km run. So, Marie… we’ve waited a year to see you back up Gaustatoppen after the whole shebang, you got there in good shape even if you were struggling to run and we couldn’t be more proud of you if you’d won! :-)
Ah, another blog…..about time too! :-)
It doesn’t always work out how you think it’s going to or how you want it to. And that’s when you find out most about yourself and your ability to work through it. Good on her for persevering and seeing it through. That will stand her in good stead in the future and is as big an achievement as all the times she stands on the podium.
Comment by Richard Airlie-Gilbert — 5 August 2015 @ 12:55 pm