Yesterday was our National Championship over the olympic distance. It was held during Oslo Triathlon, the very same place i had my triathlon debut in 1990. Triathlon is on a roll in Norway, and they had to close entrys on 400. Over 100 in the National Champs with elite license is a new record!
Overcast and dry conditions with 16C in water at start, ended in a very wet and cold event. My plan was to race hard from the gun. No HR monitor, no watch, just go! Started behind Even Olsen. He has been just a little faster than med in the water this year, so I hoped to stay with him cause he`s a ultra strong biker, and I wanted to try his bike pace. But as soon we got going I lost track of him in the frency. Some idiot cut inside the first bouy, resulting in angry me pulling him back. But the ash..... came back, stole my feet and kicked my gogles of! Good for him I did not catch his racenumber!
My twinbrother Truls swam by while I was mending my loss and got my goggles back on. Barely hang on to his feet but he got a gap on me going out of the water after lap 1. Lap 2 and 3 was pretty uneventful, just hang on to some feet fraom Stavanger. But much to my surprise Even got into T1 right after me, and I still got the chanche to test his bike speed:-)
So after 1km he came flying from behind. I got onto his 10m and pushed as hard as I could. Held him for another km, but after the first climb my legs was toast and I had to let him go. But at least Truls was caught and with the bike of his life he stayed with me for the rest of the ride. going after Even made me feel bad for over 20k but on the 2nd lap my legs started to work pretty well again.
Out of T2 my brother did a kamikase stunt, an sprinted crazy yelling "I`m on fire" :-) Told him to slow down otherwise he wolud blow before 3k mark:-) I got a gap on him pretty fast, but was soon overhauled by Per Gunnar Mustad. And on lap 2 i lost another place or 2. Ran pretty wel and finished strong in 14th place. Winner was Øyvind Johannessen, 13min in front of me.
