Romerikes Råeste 2024 (OCR Norwegian Championships) - 5th place.
Short version:
An honest race for my part, which I'm quite happy with. Few small mistakes (several shown in video) but race plan was generally executed nicely. In the mix early, taking time on obstacles and flat running. The usual weakness reared its head - running in terrain. Achilles issues have limited preparation, making me unsure about the possibilities, so good to come away better than last year's 7th place 🙂
Long version:
History:
Standard procedure in Norwegian races is that some crap happens early in the race, putting me way behind the leaders and having to run myself back into the picture. This never works because I don't have enough distance to fix the early mistake/misfortune and they are stronger than me in the rough terrain. I lose the whole advantage my own strengths would have given me, putting me equally far behind the leaders as I was after said crap happened.
Preparations:
I've been keeping my inflamed achilles at bay all season, which affected the preparation for this race. I planned to have an extra harder session per week through the summer, focusing on the speed in terrain, but have had to manage symptoms by reducing the volume and doing rehab. That said, I've got away with a lot more than expected, with the last 4 weeks being 117km, 76km, 100km and 85km. I did get extra obstacle sessions in during these weeks, but not extra terrain.
Race strategy and execution:
Plan was to go out hard and stay in the mix. The pace early on felt comfortable and I used the obstacles to my advantage, even taking the lead at some points. Was still in the mix coming in to the event area for the second time, and on the way out for loop 2 in the ravine landscape. Here the strong mountain runners gained a lead on me and I ended up chasing in 5th place. I maintained this coming into the event area again, constantly reminding myself NOT to switch off because this gap could be closed later. Out for the third loop, I started getting glimpses of Jørgen, the previous Norwegian Champion whose back I've been hoping to see during races in Norway sometime soon. Here I hoped I would be able to make moves towards the end of the race using the flat running and obstacles to my advantage. This worked a treat and coming from a distance of probably a minute behind him, I gained and gained on him towards the final obstacle gauntlet. Meanwhile, looking behind me, I also saw Kristoffer gaining on me, but feeling confident I could keep him behind until the end.
On the final rig, I came up right beside him. He managed to dismount the rig slightly before me and turned on the sprint finish, getting under the spectator bridge obstacle before me and onto the final obstacle (RR container) just in front, making it hard to pass. I could probably have used my Parkour skills to get past him here, but didn't feel that was possible in the moment. On his Strava, he reported having been sick for the last two weeks. He did seem "weaker" than usual, even reverting to hiking up hills early in the race where I was running up them.
Comments on video:
The family were not familiar with the layout of the race and didn't know where to go half the time, so there's more film of the others we cheer for than myself. In the video you see the start of the race with foam canon and container climbing, the Adrenalin Low Rings (where I ran the wrong way coming out of it!) and Low Rig between loop 1 and 2. Next scene is after loop 2 and into the Irish Table, Traverse Wall (where I also fumbled stupidly), Crazy Race slide, tire press, over the spectator bridge, Stairway to Heaven and Atlas Lift, then out into loop 3.
Next up is Toughest Oslo in 3 weeks.
