An extremely good time in Sweden! By Nathan Holden

Ever since being the support crew on Swissman last year, I had a desire to push myself on an extreme triathlon event.  Knowing I don’t like riding mountains it ruled out some of the more established races such as Icon, and with Norseman becoming ever more popular and still a distant dream Swedeman caught my eye as something that ticked all the boxes -> remote location, a race nobody I know has done, smaller numbers and sufficient amount of crazyness!

Are, Sweden is literally in the middle of nowhere in Northern Sweden with no international airport close by we had to settle by flying into Trondheim, Norway and then driving a few hours across to Are.  After the usual jitters about flying with your bike, especially with a connecting flight, arrived late Wednesday evening and settled into the hotel that also doubled up as the base for the race briefing, social swim, T-shirt ceremony, post race food.

Spent Thursday/Friday doing the usual pre race faff but also becoming worried about the weather given Friday it was biblical (think Lakesman this year!) and digesting the race briefing.  It is the first ever race where they point out the potential wildlife issues being bears, moose and reindeer.  With my support crew we went through the race plan and tried to get an early night Friday as it was a 2:45am start on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning 4am I was on the coach to the swim start..this was weird as it meant I had to leave setting up in T1 to my support crew.  I love the guy, been friends since school but I still couldn’t feel comfortable that T1 would be set up as I like!  

Anyway the swim was definitely one of two halves.  You start in a crystal clear still lake with a tropical 14 degrees before swimming across and down the river to the largest waterfall in Sweden, I started well, the running start got the heart rate up but did impact my breathing, I settled into my rhythm and started to tick off the metres.  Reaching the river at half way I saw I was up on my predicted time and started to dream of a large PB.. reality started to hit though as the swimming against the current started to take it toll but somehow managed to finish with a 90 second PB which I was over the moon about.  At the waterfall the water was down to 11 degrees and you could certainly tell.

Exiting the swim it was then a 600m run up a 10% hill to T1 which got the heart rate up and meant I could leave T1 with a bit of warmth in my body for the 206km bike leg.  It’s strange with no aid stations but your support crew stopping as frequently as you like, it meant I packed the kitchen sink into the car but essentially didn’t use any of it.  We’d agreed every 30km or so which felt about right.  The bike leg was isolated yet stunning.. this area of Sweden is the size of Belgium but only has the population of York so there were large stretches where I didn’t see another competitor or even another car.  Apart from the occasional shower, the bike leg was relatively incident free.  

The only incident was my GPS tracker breaking leading to panic for supporters following my progress (which I was blissfully unaware of).  The bike covered about 2000m ascent in the 206km, no major hills but was rolling so always kept you honest until the last 2km which were uphill to the ski resort.

At this point I was over 30 minutes up on my targeted time and feeling good.  Got my mandatory rucksack on and set off for the mountain trail marathon with over 1800m of ascent.  First 4km was challenging as you climbed the lower slopes of the mountain but things then started to get interesting as you turned right and dropped back down into the valley and then proceeded to struggle through 7km of bog which slowed progress as after trying to run through a couple realizing sinking to your knees was not a good look.  Once the bog gave way I could pick the pace up in the forest as I was now concerned on missing T2A which was the checkpoint for taking the high route up the mountain and getting the yellow t shirt.  

Thankfully, I made it to T2A with 26 minutes to spare, collected my support crew and we set off up the mountain.. Passing through more bogs (I said out aloud a few times “oh, f#ck off mud”), steep climbs, scrambling over rocks, climbing small rock faces and finally snow and ice patches I made it to the summit.  The joy was short-lived though as I had a 6km descent back down the mountain to the finish..  75 minutes later I was at the finish overjoyed to have completed what is possibly the hardest thing I have ever done.  I am not an emotional person, heart of stone, some say but I must admit there must have been some dust in my eye seeing my eldest son text “well done, really proud of what you have achieved” when I was descending the mountain.

Sunday was the t-shirt ceremony which again was indoors due to the weather, but getting the yellow T-shirt was really special.  The look of dejection by the people with the white t-shirt showed how much it meant to people.

Overall I loved the race and would recommend to anyone, though I feel this is a one and done race for me.  With how lucky we got with the weather I’m not sure we’d be this lucky next time.  There are always other ones that seem appealing for in a few years..  Starvation in Utah is one that has already started forming in the back of my mind..

Onwards to Outlaw in 3 weeks which should be a walk in the park in comparison!