Gro and her husband had been participating since several years, and Gro kept asking me to join and I kept refusing, until one day, 13 years ago, I finally accepted. This was not long after I had started running, and I felt in better shape than ever before. Gro, the kindest sister-in-law on earth, immediately took me on my first Stoltzen walk and assisted me all the way up. She was walking just a meter in front of me and explaining to me all the way how much was left and what was to come next, as well as encouraging and exclaiming how well I was doing. We completed this first walk up in 22 minutes, and Gro was ecstatic about how good this was for a first time. I participated in the race that year and made it in 19:35.
After that I kept participating every year unless there was something in the way, and my finishing times slowly improved. For several years I was around 17 something, and then, when I had been a regular at Barry’s for about a year, in the fall of 2013, I made a real jump. I felt really in good shape that year, and during training I made it to around 16:50 a couple of times. I was simply hoping to repeat this at the race... You can imagine how shocked I was when I actually ended up at 15:58! This was so much better than I was expecting, and I seriously thought that this was the best I could ever do. So I decided at that moment to never do Stoltzekleiven again. Just resign while at the top!
During the Christmas break 2013/2014, when some friends asked us to join them on a trip to Italy exactly the weekend of Stoltzen 2014 race, my husband Frank and I accepted gladly, since we were anyway not going to do the race. However, this was before I had set my goal of Oslo half marathon and started my PT sessions with Ketil… During the spring of 2014 my form very quickly and very surprisingly improved a lot, and I started to regret that I would not participate at Stoltzen 2014. By then I knew that I could beat my record from last year, and Ketil even predicted that I could come down to 14 something. So there I was, feeling sad that I would not do the race, and Ketil who has a solution to everything, suggested that I join the Stoltzekarusellen.
Stoltzekarusellen is a kind of trial Stoltzen race repeated four times, with two weeks’ intervals, starting a couple of months before the actual race. The really really cool part about it is that, if you are not registered for the real race, the last Stoltzekarusell race counts as having participated in the real race! The not so cool part was that the last karusell race was just two days after Oslo half marathon… would it be possible to make a good time with so tired legs? Still I found the whole idea really motivating, and I started participating in the Stoltzekarusell races. My finishing times for the first three were: 16:13, 15.23, and 15:08. It was incredibly motivating to keep improving and having these records registered, and I am extremely grateful to Ketil for having suggested this.
Then came the day of the last karusell race. As you might remember, I had serious pain behind my knees after the half marathon in Oslo, and I was really not sure whether I should participate in the last Stoltzekarusell. What if I made a really really bad time, perhaps even worse than last year? But I really really wanted to try, too… The two people I trust the most in these matters, Frank and Ketil, both said “Go for it!” (Ketil with lots of precise instructions about how to treat my legs before and after), so I went. And I managed 15:10!!! Oh how happy I was! I am pretty certain that if I could participate in the real race, which was five days later, I would easily make it to 14 something, exactly as Ketil had predicted several months ago.
I cannot describe how wonderful it feels to think that I can improve even further in the future. My Team Melkesyre has a training up Stoltzekleiven every Thursday, and this year almost everybody in the team achieved a new PR at the race. These people are all amazing and a great inspiration to me!
Next year, my goal is… (I don’t want to jinx it so I won’t write the number)… let’s say a substantial improvement!
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