Ironman Norway Race Report - and why you should race it!
This was a small, difficult, but outstanding event held in the fishing town of Haugesund on the southwest coast of Norway. I completed the race in a mediocre 13:30:07 for 5th of only 8 men in the 60-64 AG. There were 2 men in the M65-69 and none higher, making me one of the ten oldest men to do the race. Further, Haugesund was my 13th IM finish after 13 starts, zero DNFs despite occasional obstacles like racing IM Cozumel with pneumonia and IM Florida with 2 stress fractures. And I had some challenges getting ready for Norway as well. In late April, I started having some groin discomfort and was diagnosed with a probable right inguinal hernia (yes, I am now going to see a specialist). That forced me to do long rides with a hernia belt, but my doc who knows my athletic history thought it would be OK if I wasn’t exercising in pain. Then just eight days before the race, I took a fall on the bike while performing a hard U-turn. I slammed into the concrete with my left hand and right shoulder, and for the next two days, I could not even lift my right arm, or put any weight on my left hand. Didn’t matter, we were going anyway, and with a lot of sports cream and a couple of ibuprofen I was able to gut through the swim and go on to finish the race. Haugesund was my 11th different ironman venue and hands down had the most spectacularly scenic bike course (with 6500 ft net elevation), dwarfing the beauty of IM Switzerland and IM South Africa. There were only 525 finishers in the full Ironman...yep, a branded full with independent numbers...it doesn't get any better than this. My math suggests the race had a 20% combined DNS/DNF rate, but only 8% true DNF of actual starters. But all 10 men 60 and up finished…yes, old men rule! I would strongly endorse this race. Accordingly, the rest of my report is long and only intended for those considering racing Ironman Norway. STOP, you have been warned!
Ironman Haugesund 70.3 had been held 6 times before 2018, but this year a full distance option was added for the first time. The full started at 7AM and the half started at 8AM. Between the two races there were only about 1200 athletes. When they announced in Jun 2017 that Haugesund would be a full for 2018, I signed up the first day registration opened. Since I am turning 61 this year, a black T-shirt at Norseman was not in the cards assuming I could even get into the race. Ironman Haugesund would serve as my Norseman. Fittingly, finishers of the Ironman received a black t-shirt, and finishers of the 70.3 received a white t-shirt. So yes, I got a black finishers T-shirt from Norway!
Getting there: My wife and I flew from Tampa, FL to Bergen, Norway changing planes in Toronto, Canada and Keflavik, Iceland. I chose that route to take advantage of Icelandair’s stopover program on the way back. We spent our first night in Bergen, then took a bus to Haugesund (3 hrs 15 mins including about 40 mins on a ferry). In Haugesund, we stayed at the Scandic Maritim which was the race hotel, just one block from the finish. We arrived on a Thursday and although there were Ironman flags all around town, the atmosphere was subdued compared to your typical large Ironman. As more people came in Friday the race vibe in town started to pick up. I built my bike on Thursday evening, tested it Friday morning, then my wife and I rented a car (10 min walk from the hotel to Hertz) and spent most of the day touring. By now, my shoulder was feeling better and I did a practice swim in the lake. My shoulder hurt on the recovery portion of the stroke, but I knew I was going to make it.
On Saturday I followed my usual pre-race routine and then biked over to transition at about 4pm to turn in my bike, T1 and T2 bags. The lake is about a 30 min easy walk across town from the race hotel. Special needs bags were not offered, but this was the 4th full IM race I’ve done in Europe and none of them had special needs. No big deal but plan accordingly. Transition was in a set of soccer fields with an AstroTurf surface…yes! Ironman bikes were on one set of fields and the 70.3 bikes were on an adjacent set…exceptionally roomy. T1 and T2 bags were on a line of peg boards with chairs and changing rooms on each side. You were responsible for replacing your bags on the peg board after changing.
Race day. The race offered shuttles from all participating hotels to the transition area, but for athletes only. My wife and I took a cab over to the start. Now this is key: once you entered transition you could NOT leave. The transition area is adjacent to the lake you swim in, but there is a small wooded berm separating the two. And there is really no room along the lake for everyone to mill around along with their supporters. So, they kept everyone in the transition area and then started lining up people according to expected swim times.
Swim – Haugesund was having unusually warm weather the week we were there, and the lake was up to 64F on race morning, a few degrees above what I had expected. In transition, I lined up behind the 75-90 min swim sign. As the swim approached, the line proceeded through a gate, where you tossed your morning clothes bag into a van, then proceeded across the berm and onto the trail along the lake moving to the start. After the initial sub 60 crowd, they put 5 people into the water every 5 seconds. I was in the water about 7:08. Very efficient. The swim is unique in that it uses lane lines instead of turn buoys to guide you through a series of nested, inverted “U”s. In theory, it seemed like it would be simple to follow but many people had difficulties. The first problem was the lane lines were dark blue and I noticed that if you were more than 5 yards away you lost sight of them because they are so low in the water. And if you weren’t right on them, you would miss them when they started sweeping away on a curve. Coming around the first inverted ‘U’ I knew to start moving left since the next turn would be sweeping left instead of right. I didn’t see the lane line on my left until I smacked into it, but then stayed close and followed it as it swept around to the left and then straight on into the beach where you do an Aussie exit at 2300m before swinging around some gates then back into the next lane. Coming out of the water and back in gave me a hamstring cramp and I had a series of painful cramps for the last 1500m but swam it in 78 mins which was good in spite of my bum shoulder. They did have wet suit strippers in transition and I took advantage of that. I also put my hernia belt over my kit to make sure I held together on the hills.
Bike – I had watched videos of the 70.3 races in the prior years and it seemed like most years the morning weather was characterized by low clouds and drizzle…hence the #ColdKona logo. I brought HED Jet 6 wheels with aluminum rims for braking in the wet. Turns out I didn’t need them, but I would still recommend you have solid braking for this course due to its technical nature and a number of descents where you have to bleed speed prior to making a sharp turn. My P1 pedals did not lock my Garmin during transition due to all the power meters and I expected it to lock on during the first several miles of the bike course. It never happened, and I went strictly by RPE. The first half of the bike leg was shared with the 70.3 crowd and a lot of them came flying by but the course was never crowded. I had zero preview of the bike course, and while technical, don’t think I lost a lot of time from that. As we came back into Haugesund, the 70.3 course veered off and we started on an entirely different, and much hillier loop. Not only was the second half hillier than the first; the last 25 miles or so were the hardest of the course. I rode a 50-34 compact crank with an 11-28 cassette. That gearing was perfect for the entire course except for one long, steep hill at about 87 miles. Ow. In addition, there were also about a half dozen cattle grates on the second loop…would be scary if the roads had been wet. Most of the roads were closed for traffic except for a couple of the major highways, but even there traffic was well controlled. As you finish, the final 50 yards up to the dismount line were on a dirt/gravel path just outside of the transition field…use caution here. Overall, I felt perfectly safe riding this course. This was by far the slowest bike leg I’ve ever done but it was satisfying because everyone had to do their own work. If you hate drafters, then Haugesund is your race!
Run – after leaving transition, the full distance athletes made a loop around the lake before heading downtown. The principal action occurs along the waterside, aka the ‘quay’, an approximately 300 yard stretch of hard cobblestone that you will pass over 9 times…and the only flat part of the run course. There are a series of restaurants and bars on one side of this stretch which served as the ‘hot corner’ for spectators. This was a typical European 4 loop IM run course where you collect a different color scrunchie on each loop before you are allowed to finish. My Florida legs were fried from the bike even though I did my best not to burn any matches (except for the hill at 87 miles). It wasn’t long before I had to walk anything with a rise and run only the downhill stretches. It was amusing, however, to watch the Nordic athletes stuffing sponges down their kits and taking advantage of the showers that were set up at several points of the course. It couldn’t have been hotter than upper 60s and felt perfectly fine to me although I had hoped for a cooler day. Intermittently through out the marathon, my right foot would feel like it was on fire and I stopped a number of times to remove the shoe and rub it out. Finishing was both a relief and a joy. With sunset at 11pm, but not really dark even then, this is one where everyone finishes in daylight (cutoff is 16.5 hours).
My wife took this photo during the race. You can see the kind of weather we had...cloudless skies all day. The finish was on the red carpet along the quay, then right into the tents where you picked up your medal, shirt, and food if you could eat. Karen was able to walk along the water to the outside as I went through the tent and came out at the end then onto our hotel.
Fellow ENr Yasko Howell took the attached picture at bottom as I came onto the Quay for the last time just a couple hundred yards from the finish. Her husband also finished the full distance and attested to the difficulty of the course.
Since I was only a block from my hotel, my wife helped me back to the room so I could shower and recover some before catching the shuttle back to transition to retrieve my bike and T1/T2 bags (morning bags were waiting for you at the finish). It didn’t feel great, but I rode my TT bike back to the hotel. The morning after I packed my bike and my wife and I returned to Bergen to take in more of the tourist attractions there. Then we headed to Iceland for a few more days to see some more of the geography that we missed on our last trip there. All in all, it was a spectacular race vacation. I hated having such a slow time, but was proud to have completed this inaugural event. Ivar Jacobsen, the race director, was superb. Overall, Ironman Norway is one of the smallest races on the circuit and with a small-town feel. Several Brits told me afterwards the difficulty was on par with IM Wales. I’m not sure about that, but it was easily the hardest of any venues I’ve completed. Neither my wife and I had ever been to Norway and we were so extremely fortunate that we were able to make the trip. If anyone is considering the race and seeing that part of the world, then please don’t hesitate to sign up.
Ironman Haugesund 70.3 had been held 6 times before 2018, but this year a full distance option was added for the first time. The full started at 7AM and the half started at 8AM. Between the two races there were only about 1200 athletes. When they announced in Jun 2017 that Haugesund would be a full for 2018, I signed up the first day registration opened. Since I am turning 61 this year, a black T-shirt at Norseman was not in the cards assuming I could even get into the race. Ironman Haugesund would serve as my Norseman. Fittingly, finishers of the Ironman received a black t-shirt, and finishers of the 70.3 received a white t-shirt. So yes, I got a black finishers T-shirt from Norway!
Getting there: My wife and I flew from Tampa, FL to Bergen, Norway changing planes in Toronto, Canada and Keflavik, Iceland. I chose that route to take advantage of Icelandair’s stopover program on the way back. We spent our first night in Bergen, then took a bus to Haugesund (3 hrs 15 mins including about 40 mins on a ferry). In Haugesund, we stayed at the Scandic Maritim which was the race hotel, just one block from the finish. We arrived on a Thursday and although there were Ironman flags all around town, the atmosphere was subdued compared to your typical large Ironman. As more people came in Friday the race vibe in town started to pick up. I built my bike on Thursday evening, tested it Friday morning, then my wife and I rented a car (10 min walk from the hotel to Hertz) and spent most of the day touring. By now, my shoulder was feeling better and I did a practice swim in the lake. My shoulder hurt on the recovery portion of the stroke, but I knew I was going to make it.
On Saturday I followed my usual pre-race routine and then biked over to transition at about 4pm to turn in my bike, T1 and T2 bags. The lake is about a 30 min easy walk across town from the race hotel. Special needs bags were not offered, but this was the 4th full IM race I’ve done in Europe and none of them had special needs. No big deal but plan accordingly. Transition was in a set of soccer fields with an AstroTurf surface…yes! Ironman bikes were on one set of fields and the 70.3 bikes were on an adjacent set…exceptionally roomy. T1 and T2 bags were on a line of peg boards with chairs and changing rooms on each side. You were responsible for replacing your bags on the peg board after changing.
Race day. The race offered shuttles from all participating hotels to the transition area, but for athletes only. My wife and I took a cab over to the start. Now this is key: once you entered transition you could NOT leave. The transition area is adjacent to the lake you swim in, but there is a small wooded berm separating the two. And there is really no room along the lake for everyone to mill around along with their supporters. So, they kept everyone in the transition area and then started lining up people according to expected swim times.
Swim – Haugesund was having unusually warm weather the week we were there, and the lake was up to 64F on race morning, a few degrees above what I had expected. In transition, I lined up behind the 75-90 min swim sign. As the swim approached, the line proceeded through a gate, where you tossed your morning clothes bag into a van, then proceeded across the berm and onto the trail along the lake moving to the start. After the initial sub 60 crowd, they put 5 people into the water every 5 seconds. I was in the water about 7:08. Very efficient. The swim is unique in that it uses lane lines instead of turn buoys to guide you through a series of nested, inverted “U”s. In theory, it seemed like it would be simple to follow but many people had difficulties. The first problem was the lane lines were dark blue and I noticed that if you were more than 5 yards away you lost sight of them because they are so low in the water. And if you weren’t right on them, you would miss them when they started sweeping away on a curve. Coming around the first inverted ‘U’ I knew to start moving left since the next turn would be sweeping left instead of right. I didn’t see the lane line on my left until I smacked into it, but then stayed close and followed it as it swept around to the left and then straight on into the beach where you do an Aussie exit at 2300m before swinging around some gates then back into the next lane. Coming out of the water and back in gave me a hamstring cramp and I had a series of painful cramps for the last 1500m but swam it in 78 mins which was good in spite of my bum shoulder. They did have wet suit strippers in transition and I took advantage of that. I also put my hernia belt over my kit to make sure I held together on the hills.
Bike – I had watched videos of the 70.3 races in the prior years and it seemed like most years the morning weather was characterized by low clouds and drizzle…hence the #ColdKona logo. I brought HED Jet 6 wheels with aluminum rims for braking in the wet. Turns out I didn’t need them, but I would still recommend you have solid braking for this course due to its technical nature and a number of descents where you have to bleed speed prior to making a sharp turn. My P1 pedals did not lock my Garmin during transition due to all the power meters and I expected it to lock on during the first several miles of the bike course. It never happened, and I went strictly by RPE. The first half of the bike leg was shared with the 70.3 crowd and a lot of them came flying by but the course was never crowded. I had zero preview of the bike course, and while technical, don’t think I lost a lot of time from that. As we came back into Haugesund, the 70.3 course veered off and we started on an entirely different, and much hillier loop. Not only was the second half hillier than the first; the last 25 miles or so were the hardest of the course. I rode a 50-34 compact crank with an 11-28 cassette. That gearing was perfect for the entire course except for one long, steep hill at about 87 miles. Ow. In addition, there were also about a half dozen cattle grates on the second loop…would be scary if the roads had been wet. Most of the roads were closed for traffic except for a couple of the major highways, but even there traffic was well controlled. As you finish, the final 50 yards up to the dismount line were on a dirt/gravel path just outside of the transition field…use caution here. Overall, I felt perfectly safe riding this course. This was by far the slowest bike leg I’ve ever done but it was satisfying because everyone had to do their own work. If you hate drafters, then Haugesund is your race!
Run – after leaving transition, the full distance athletes made a loop around the lake before heading downtown. The principal action occurs along the waterside, aka the ‘quay’, an approximately 300 yard stretch of hard cobblestone that you will pass over 9 times…and the only flat part of the run course. There are a series of restaurants and bars on one side of this stretch which served as the ‘hot corner’ for spectators. This was a typical European 4 loop IM run course where you collect a different color scrunchie on each loop before you are allowed to finish. My Florida legs were fried from the bike even though I did my best not to burn any matches (except for the hill at 87 miles). It wasn’t long before I had to walk anything with a rise and run only the downhill stretches. It was amusing, however, to watch the Nordic athletes stuffing sponges down their kits and taking advantage of the showers that were set up at several points of the course. It couldn’t have been hotter than upper 60s and felt perfectly fine to me although I had hoped for a cooler day. Intermittently through out the marathon, my right foot would feel like it was on fire and I stopped a number of times to remove the shoe and rub it out. Finishing was both a relief and a joy. With sunset at 11pm, but not really dark even then, this is one where everyone finishes in daylight (cutoff is 16.5 hours).
My wife took this photo during the race. You can see the kind of weather we had...cloudless skies all day. The finish was on the red carpet along the quay, then right into the tents where you picked up your medal, shirt, and food if you could eat. Karen was able to walk along the water to the outside as I went through the tent and came out at the end then onto our hotel.
Fellow ENr Yasko Howell took the attached picture at bottom as I came onto the Quay for the last time just a couple hundred yards from the finish. Her husband also finished the full distance and attested to the difficulty of the course.
Since I was only a block from my hotel, my wife helped me back to the room so I could shower and recover some before catching the shuttle back to transition to retrieve my bike and T1/T2 bags (morning bags were waiting for you at the finish). It didn’t feel great, but I rode my TT bike back to the hotel. The morning after I packed my bike and my wife and I returned to Bergen to take in more of the tourist attractions there. Then we headed to Iceland for a few more days to see some more of the geography that we missed on our last trip there. All in all, it was a spectacular race vacation. I hated having such a slow time, but was proud to have completed this inaugural event. Ivar Jacobsen, the race director, was superb. Overall, Ironman Norway is one of the smallest races on the circuit and with a small-town feel. Several Brits told me afterwards the difficulty was on par with IM Wales. I’m not sure about that, but it was easily the hardest of any venues I’ve completed. Neither my wife and I had ever been to Norway and we were so extremely fortunate that we were able to make the trip. If anyone is considering the race and seeing that part of the world, then please don’t hesitate to sign up.
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Comments
An intimate WTC IM - what a concept! After going through mass starts of 3000+ at CdA and AZ years back, this would be a relief.
(BTW, get that hernia fixed...)
I had a hernia on the left side when I was about 10 yrs old. I am now waiting for a referral for a specialist to see if it is indeed a hernia or something else. I am definitely getting an occasional bulge on the right side. Gotta make it through South Africa for sure, then we'll see if I can defer to late Nov or have to end the season early.
Wow, great race and great report. You have me now considering for 2019. Given you live in FL and trained through that heat, I am tempted even more to find a way for this one. Some serious net elevation on the bike.
I'll get more feedback in Oct. when I see you at Waco 70.3.
Congratulations on job well done IM!
SS
I've only seen three complaints about the race. 1) No special needs. I roll my eyes at this one. 2) No SAG. One guy flatted out with a tire cut and complained on FB, but in a discussion with him, he admitted that he brought 18 month old tires to a destination race. I was on brand new Conti 4000sii. The roads were clean and smooth, but there was about 3 miles on a road that had been stripped for repaving. 3) No turn buoys. I spoke to that issue in my RR. You had to keep those lane lines in sight and focus when they started turning.
Re Waco 70.3 - I am on the fence. I have a free entry to IMFL the week after and am not sure whether I will do will both or neither because of the hernia thing. Just got my referral to a surgeon today, so hope to find out this month what is really goi