Ally vs. Me. The bet was whoever was faster in Tordenskioldløpet has to cook dinner for the other one every night for a whole week! After studying the splits from the last 2 Trondheim Sprint Cup races I realised I had no chance, plus I was tired from lots of good training. But then Ally came home from another mountain trip in Hurrungane also very tired. He'd taken his randonee skis to save energy compared to splitboarding (clearly he was worried about the 10K bet) but after 15hrs worth of ascending & descending Gjertvasstind & Store Ringstind I reckoned we were both at least equally fatigued and it was game on!
Mountain exercise is king!
Ally had made it pretty clear that his plan was to sit on my shoulder the
whole way and then outsprint me. I decided as a counter-tactic to start quite fast and hope he never caught me. The start was a bit uphill with lots of people jostling for position but I think I got a better start than Ally who had placed himself towards the back of the 600+ starters. Starting at the back meant Ally lost time early on but perhaps paced it better than me. He passed me at maybe the worst possible moment, at around 5.3 km, the start of the tough climb up Korsvik Alle. After that there's a gentle climb on Lade Alle and then a short steep climb up to see the nice view of the fjord out the back of Ringve Museum. I could still see him ahead of me as we ran back down from Ringve Museum and tried to stay positive that he might get tired on the last 2.5km of flat slog. But his endurance and aerobic fitness is good from all his mountain trips and he easily pulled away and finished 1 min ahead.
Ally ran 40:29 to smash his PB /only other 10K time: 43:16 set on snow at Troms Kraft Mila in January held alongside the Polar Night half marathon which I ran. I did 41:33, was running 39-41 min pace on the flatter parts and up to 45 min pace on the steeper uphills (approx. splits).
It was a pretty solid effort by both of us and we went to Burger King for ice cream to celebrate. Quite a few runners were there, we had run past Burger King twice during the race so we think that tempted them in.
Without intending to sound all feminist, this bet says something about modern day equality. One generation ago women were pretty much expected cook for their men every night anyway and only just getting started in competitive distance running (the first Olympic marathon for women was held in 1984). Now social norms limit women less. We have running role models like Paula Radcliffe (2:15 marathon) to inspire us! Paula has said she was inspired by Grete Waitz, Joan Benoit and Ingrid Kristiansen (pictured below with me a couple of years ago on Lerkendal bridge). What a legend! Still in great shape and very free with advice - in short: run a lot, orienteering is a running sport; check out Ingrid's website for more about her concepts for training and life.
0 comments:
Post a Comment