My first Grand Prix competition is out of the way, and I walk away from this experience with mixed feelings. I was a little disappointed that I did not place top 3, however Grand Prix races draw the most competitive fields so in the end I cant be upset and I have to learn to accept that I gave it my best and I did well even though I did not win. Early on, about 5-6 Kenyans dominated the front with Jon Wyatt (2008 World Champion) also in the pack. I was a few feet back biding my time for the tougher sections of the course. As I have said before many of the races in Norway feature long rocky sections where you are more or less walking/hiking/scrambling and not running. In a sense this would not be considered mountain running, but what I like to characterize as mountaineering.
I started to feel great on the runnable sections and passed all but two Kenyans and Jon Wyatt. The last part of the course had a ton of snow and on top of that you are carrying a 2.5 kilogram rucksack so running on rocks combined with the added weight just didn't mix with my style of mountain running. In the end I was happy with my performance being that I challenged myself with a new running distinction and placed 6th in my first Grand Prix race. Also, I gained a little experience running on technical courses so it gave me a chance to work on balance and power. World Championship courses are much different and you usually can run the entire way, at times maybe so slow that it looks like you're walking due to climbing a 30% grade!
The day after the race I went for a nice long run around some of the local peaks and up to a few breens (glaciers). I found this trail called Loasvegan, which had alot of interesting droppings along the way. It was like a minefield out there. I put a little video of some new friends I ran into along the way on Loasvegan and Lostoylen! I'm now in Oslo getting ready for my first "mountain running" race in Europe in preparation for the World Championships on September 6th, so about 3 weeks until the big day. The trails in Oslo and Loen have been great, so many places to run and so many places to see. You find trails in the most random locations, sometimes throughout residential areas and I have even found some that start in the backyards of residents' homes. I know in America running through someones backyard could get you cussed out or even chased away. In some of the villages in Norway I have found that even camping on someone's farm is just fine! I was shocked by this when talking to some of the locals, but they couldn't understand what was wrong with camping on someone's farm. I guess we Americans take our property a little too serious hahaha. Go figure...
The day after the race I went for a nice long run around some of the local peaks and up to a few breens (glaciers). I found this trail called Loasvegan, which had alot of interesting droppings along the way. It was like a minefield out there. I put a little video of some new friends I ran into along the way on Loasvegan and Lostoylen! I'm now in Oslo getting ready for my first "mountain running" race in Europe in preparation for the World Championships on September 6th, so about 3 weeks until the big day. The trails in Oslo and Loen have been great, so many places to run and so many places to see. You find trails in the most random locations, sometimes throughout residential areas and I have even found some that start in the backyards of residents' homes. I know in America running through someones backyard could get you cussed out or even chased away. In some of the villages in Norway I have found that even camping on someone's farm is just fine! I was shocked by this when talking to some of the locals, but they couldn't understand what was wrong with camping on someone's farm. I guess we Americans take our property a little too serious hahaha. Go figure...
Before heading down to Oslo from Loen, I took a few minutes to relax in the Fjord outside of the hotel the race directors provided. The water in Fjords can only be described as bitter cold, as water falls from the top of glaciers fill the fjords as well as ocean water. We (Sylta, Buraas, Kjersti of SK Vidar) then started a nice 7 hour drive to Oslo. Its crazy driving in the Mountainous regions of Norway, the speed limit is usually quite slow compared to the US so driving 500 Kilometers will most likely take you over 5 hours and you must stop and slow down quite frequently due to the skinny roads in the mountains. Many times huge RV's come by and you must nearly stop in order to avoid getting pushed off the road. Coming from America this scares the crap out of me. My trick is that I just try to not pay attention to the road as much so that I lower the probability of having to screech like a teenage girl. Well now its time to get ready for my next race, I will give the update on that as soon as I can. It may be a while as I will travel to the UK for a day and then off to Italy where I will race one additional prep race and then the World Championships!
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