After a series of problems which had me ready to just cancel the whole crap (knee pain, bike problems, etc etc) I just decided to go to Larvik anyway since I had already paid for everything. Whatever happens is fine. Of course I was not expecting such a rough boat trip across Oslofjorden but I did manage to keep my buffet inside rather than all over the taxfree shop. Good thing.

The weather was supposed to be just fine and when I woke up to see pouring rain on Saturday morning I decided to just roll around and go for pure cykelglädje. The weather got a bit better but it was actually worse than the last time I did this race. Hard to believe that was possible. Once I got into my Göteborgs CK uniform and started to hear how happy people were to see someone come from 'so far away' I felt like it was time to be mascot for Sweden. Good thing the GCK uniform has a big lion on the front.

The masterstart was with an actual Farrisrunden car and things were absolutely insane for the first couple km. People were flying along and I was just trying to keep upright. Funny enough my bike made no noises at all because it was so freakin' wet. Luckily a bit farther along people just sort of started to relax when it switched to the first grusväg and started going slowly uphill. But this was far too relaxed for me so suddenly the good old racing instinct kicked in and I started to pass people. Those in my startgroup were crap uphill but superb downhill so whatever time I lost down I could catch up easily.

The first trail comes after around 15km and there people slowed down to basically nothing. But I did not remember any major problems in these 3 sections in the first half of the race and I also did not see the electric fence this time. So by staying on the bike through most this part I managed to save a massive amount of time and was starting to see people from startgroup 10 which was the one that started 5 min ahead of mine. Good good.

At Kvelde it was Squeezy gel time plus a refill of sportdrykke before the 10km road section of which the first half was a massive display of speed from my side. Then starts the 200m vertical climb and the toughest hill of the day which I just flew up without even switching to the small front gear. This was not bad at all. At the top of that hill is another rest place which I just went passed since there was another shortly after at the bottom of the most psychotic part of the day...the downhill singletrack of Skolapperåsen. It was so wet that I didn't even try to ride down. Taking from my cross experience I just ran and in a lot of cases I was not losing any time at all. Running downhill is not a big deal and I think this little change of motion prevented me from leg cramps. Brilliant tip.


So then it was time for another short road section before the next food and gel stop. It felt like things were going much faster so I decided that, fine, maybe I should try for a good time afterall. That was naturally when the next nasty uphill started at Oklungen and people were seriously dropping off all over. Most races get easier towards the end but not Farrisrunden. But, to the joy of the people watching, my legs were superb and I was again floating up the hill although this time granny gear was used just to prevent cramps. I only had a very slight feeling of cramp a bit after this but I solved it quick on the lovely serpentine road downhill section.

And then from Kjose, just like last time, I got very frustrated at the Kringlemyr singletrack section which was purely unrideable and just a solid mess of mud that was about 10cm deep. I had to stop several times because my wheels would not turn due to the massive piles of mud stuck in them. It was absolutely horrible. And it is this section that sort of kills the whole race for me because it is just pointless. Finally, on the bike again, I managed to get it moving to tackle the last massive uphill of the day although now I was having pedal trouble so I had to actually run down the last little trail hill because I had zero control of the bike or my shoes.

All that remained now was the road section along Farris and since I had been walking I was full of energy and passed many here while I cruised along on the hardest gear. There was still another hill but when you are 5km from the finish these things don't matter anymore. Max speed. Pass everyone. And then came the very last hill up to the sports field and this is nasty. But this is where everyone is watching and they have a camera so I granny geared it and had to tell people to get out of the way since they were walking up. All the way up on the bike, beautiful feeling. Of course that meant I could only manage a rather feeble little finish line sprint but I had actually managed 20 seconds lead on those I was riding up the hill with. And we all know from cross how easy it is to lose 20 seconds and how hard it is to make it up again.

Yes...3:59:47 was my total time. My hill sprint gave me the time under 4 hours. And how long did it take last time? 4:27. Crushing my former time by almost 30 minutes is massive in every way... This was good for 210th out of 294 in the Men 35-39 class and 1172th out of 1700 overall.

My goal is complete now with Farrisrunden because I was just so disappointed last time. There were also some lows this time but I proved that I can, in fact, get a good time in Larvik. And a little international premier in Göteborgs CK clothes doesn't hurt either...