I guess the best place to start is to explain how come i entered such a challenging Ironman when my last attempt at Austria ended in Disaster ! well actually thats the reason, a sort of punishment for been such a wuss !

And so the day arrived, for those not familiar with the Norseman its universaly agreed thats its the Worlds Toughest Ironman, to put it into perspective top pros like Bjorn Anderson take 10.5 hours to complete and he is a sub 8:20 Ironman. Anyway the swim starts with athletes been taken 3.8 k out into the fjord on a car ferry at which point the tail gate drops and you are faced with a jump of about 20 feet into some ice cold water, this year the water was so cold that the swim was moved 20k further into the fjord where the water was warmer...11 degrees so i hear,god knows what it was at the original point.  this photo is the ferry and you can see the drop, those little specs to the left of the boat are athletes !.

It was decided by the race organiser to have the athletes exit the water at half way so he could make sure we were all alive ! so he lit a massive fire on the shore and you basiclly headed for that, climbed out ran around the fire (real Viking stuff this !) and jumped back in to do the other half, also available were cups of hot tea ! I passed !

My swim went well 53 minutes so im very happy, of course those that know my swimming prowess will note that this isnt a true reflection and its becauce the ferry had drifted about 200 meters and we had a positve current over the first half.

I should have mentioned that in this event there are no aid stations...period ! and you must provide your own support crew for the day, on the day with the swim having been moved 20 k it was left to the crew to take our bikes to T1 and rack ect so we didnt know where the bikes were, i thought it wouldnt be a problem as the crew were allowed in transitions obviously as they had to collect eveything we left behind, so i should be able to spot Dianne, alas first hiccup of the day and she was having trouble getting into transition, some over zealous marshal blocking her way ! so after what seemed like an age i finally found my bike and as i did along came Dianne, so alls well.

the bike is now 200k with the addition, in a way not a bad thing as the 20k is rolling and the original course is straight uphill for 25K at between 8 and 10%..I kid you not ! cock up number two about to materialise, i hadnt allowed for the extra time and had just the 750 ml drink onboard, one botlle for what turned out to be almost three hours riding, not a good start to the nutrtion plan !

You were at liberty to plan your own feed points and our was like most at the top of the first climb, i was feeling less than good ,freezing and under fuelled allready ! Dianne was ready as we had planned and i put on the full winter gear, total assos inc overshoes gloves the business, im not usually cold on the bike but this day i was , probably due to the altitude gained and low energy levels.

The next section was well fast and i made good time, a few hairy momenets with the strong crosswinds throwing me about as i was using tri spokes front and rear but i made Geilo in good time, too good ! my crew were not there, i stopped and waited but they didnt appear, fortunately one of the other brit crews were also in this car park and i begged a drink off them and asked thet took one of mine from my crew once they arrived, and to also tell them to catch me up pass and wait atop the next climb.

well the first bit worked they caught me and passed me, unfortunately they never saw me and proceeded to T2 which is 56 miles away 1 and ive no food no drink and no crew !

The rest of the ride is made up of four climbs, three in quick succesion at 8% and each one 5k long then comes the beast also known as Immagefell, this little beauty is over 5.5 miles long and varies in gradient from8 to 12 %.

My plan had to change as my race was really ver and i would have to back off just to finish, i got through by simply begging spare stuff from other crews, my nutrition from 56 miles out consisted off,  a bottle of water, a bottle of coke, a fish paste sandwich and a chocolate bar..pefect Ironman fuel...not !

The climbs really got to me,more in the head than anything as i had to simply let guys pass and just sit in and spin I couldnt afford to race. the top of the last climb is probably the worse weather i have ever ridden in, its a false top really as once you crest the steep section at 5.5 miles it just climbs steady for another six, to make it worse the clouds dropped and when they did it was blowing a gale,throwing it down and bloody freezing, i was on the tri bars trying to tuck in, 39/28 selected as thats as low as i had and with all my energy all i could muster was 6mph so you do the maths, that 6 mile on the plateau took an hour !

From the top of that section its a 20k drop to T2 the first part of which is 6k through very steep swithcback type roads, great yes but my carbons rims soon heated up to melting point and were not exactly 100% efficient ! i have had a rim blow before and i wasnt having this happen at 40 + mph, so it was steady first part descent, once to the valley floor the TT head took over and the remaining miles were done at silly speed,it was still downhill so you can imagine how fast i was moving, i took off twice over bumps made by tree roots lifting the surface tarmac, not cool !.

All in all the bikewent as well as i could hope given the circumstances, i lost alot of time stopping to explain to people why i needed some of thier food/drink and had a lenghty stop while a friendly Norwegian guy tried to contact Dianne by phone, which incidentally he eventually did and came and caught me up to explain where she was, great guy.

T2 and here is where my race was about to end, i dont race to finish i had a goal and once again it had gone away I had blwn it and i basically threw my toys outa the pram, the look on Diannes face though told me i best shape up or she was about to collapse in floods of tears, she ws blaming herself and it got quite emotional, not my strong point ! but on this ocasion it was no longer about me and it took just one sentence from her, "look, remember how you felt at Austria, do you want that for another year ? you can get off the floor and walk the bloody marathon and still make the black t shirt so come on...please" ok, im up and out of T2.

heres where it gets weird, having convinced myself this was gonna be a jog walk to the top of the mountain i found myself quite able to run, so well that i almost straight away was hitting 7:40 miles and cruising ! this brought some much needed boost to all concerned, dianne was driving a mile at a time waiting with whatever i required and then moving another mile, she couldnt believe how quick i was getting to her, sam tried to run a bit with me, bless him for trying but he couldnt keep up and dived back into the car ! at the 12k point i had passed about 15 runners and i came across one of the Brits, i knew him he is a Norse vet and has completed this thing 4 times out of the five runnings, he has finished first Brit every time i believe, i passed him, we swopped words and on i went, at the time i just assumed he was also having a bad day but later found out that he was again lead brit and passing him put me in that spot ! which i kept for the next 28k approximately.

The run then basically loops a lake, jus a roller really, not flat but not hilly, 25k is where the fun starts, its a 17k  10% climb on Mt Gaustatoppen, not a ru then....a fast as possible walk ! the cut off wasnt an issue for me but happens at about 35k they kinda look at you and decide if you can continue, unfortunately the mountain top was closed due to extreme weather and we had to go to the top of the road section and the off road bit was replaced with a run loop ending back at the finish hotel, i hadnt even realised it was raining and i was getting the shivers, I treid to run as i saw John (the lead brit guy i had passed some time ago) coming up as i was coming down, but along the flat 3 k sectin back to the hotel he caught me, we walked a while had achat but then he took off and i couldnt match him, so he once agian took the top Brit honour and left me to celebrate second !

So all, if you fancy a real tough challenge that will give more of an ater race buzz than any Ironman...sign up ! I will be going back, some unfinished business !

Oh my finish time bye the way 14:16.

Late addition ! if anyone would like to view some photos of this awesome event go to:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nxtri/

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