Hi, greeting from Rapid City. We will like to thank you all for the overwhelming support on our blog. Unfortunately we have not been able to see the blog while on the run, but the race organizers gave us feedbacks on the traffic in the transitions. We also received some greetings and even a letter/email which was put into one of our gear boxes. After finishing it has been a great experience reading through all the posts.
We are healing. Per and Linda is basically ok except for a funny walk. Felix had some really bad blisters which got infected. The worst 2 blisters we have ever seen... The poor guy was pushed through it with a lot of pain. They are all a lot better now an moving in the right direction. Vigleik has felt a bit sick from dehydration after the finish, but feeling better today.
We are extremely happy abut the outcome of the race. As oppose to most of you we never knew we were that close to 5th place towards the end of the race. Therefore 7th was what we were racing for. In the end only 16 minutes separated us from the iMoat team... Well well.
This course has been so rewarding. No boring "transportation" sections. It has been a nonstop joyride through beautiful nature and scenery. Amazing to see all the animals. One afternoon we chased a huge buffalo down a ridge for several kilometers. Another night we had to wait for 10 minutes for more than 200 buffalos crossing the road right in front of us. We almost stepped on rattle snakes and been fighting enormous amounts of grasshoppers. Part of the course went through the areas were Kevin Kostners "Dances with Wolves" was shot. The climbing was spectacular with a 100 meter jumar , 3 very exposed zip lines and 3 80-100 meter rapells. The caving was also excellent. We were crawling through narrow tunnels for almost 2 hours accompanied by bats. n the bikes we have probably been riding some of the best single tracks w have ever seen.
The river paddle with the inflatable duckies really sucked though. The paddel was in a river/creek with very little water. We were in and out of the water several hundred times to haul the boat over rocks and rappids. In the middle of the night we had to stop. We were all wet and cold and it was difficult to find the way in the dark. We tried to make a tent of the two boats. Then it started to rain. We thought we couldn't sleep there for more than an hour, so we didn't bother setting the alarm. Well - we ended up sleeping 6 hours. By sleeping next to each other under 1 sleepingbag we kept warm.
So what happened mid way into the last bike section? Well, we rode the bikes down the rail road to a gravel production site. From there we were supposed to follow two trails over a long mountain range to Way point 2. The two trails were hand drawn on the maps by the PQ team. First trail was a jeep road. The trail did not match the map, but the direction was roughly ok. When the trail ended on top of the ridge, we were supposed to continue on a second trail which simply wasn't there. From the ridge we had a great overview, it was day light and there was no trees as long as we could see. But...no trail to continue on. No team found this trail, so they all had different solutions for how to proceed. While searching we wanted to have a look at the roadbook/passport again. Thats when we realized we had lost the roadbook. This is automatically a disqualification. We turned around and went all the way back to the rail road. We found not far from where we had a flat on one of the tires. Roadbook is secured by a dual security system. First failed, and later the second (which includes a 5mmrope) snapped too. It has probably been snagged into a tree or something. From here we went up in the mountains again. Team Nuun was still there, and we still couldn't find the trail. Our frist solution then was to just gun it through the mountains by use of the compass. It would have taken several hours to complete because of high gras and bumpy/hilly terrain. We were out of food and water and couldn't risk it. Therefore we ended up going down to the valley to a gas station to refill and to get out of the heat (it was very hot at this point in time). From there we climed back up to the wey point and continued to the last CP and finishline. We got a 1 hour penalty for this which we think is ok.
We will try to post a more detailed race report when we are back in Norway again. Now we are trying to get control of all the gear and try to figure out how to get it back home..
Thanks again for all your support! Great inspiration:-) Felix, Linda, Per Christian and Vigleik
After more than seven days of hard racing, the teams finished at a strong 7th place in South Dakota this weekend. We are all in good shape despite blisters nad sorenes. More information later
The team is ready for this years edition of Primal Quest in Badlands, South Dakota USA. Race start is August 14th and the team can be followed via the tracking system of the teams web pagewww.ecoprimalquest.com
Unfortunately the team had to withdraw 24 hours into the Explore Sweden race last weekend. We managed to finish the two first Monster bike legs of 121 and 254 km and were ready for a 20 hour hard mountain trek when we figurred out one of the team members had a leg injury which had not healed 100% from the Nordic Championships in May. We decided to withdraw not to risk Primal Quest in USA in August. Quitting is no fun so we are a bit bummed out. Photo: Siri Hagman. More photos in the Gallery www.exploresweden.se
Per finished the Trondheim - Oslo road cycling race in new corse record of 13 hours, 17 minutes and 46 seconds last weekend. THe race is 540km long, and again he was joining up the Rye cycling team. The record was kept for only a few minutes when the new cycling team Zoncolan finished in 12:51. Photo: Rye. www.sportsklubbenrye.no
Per won the hard road race Mjøsa Rundt last weekend. The race is a 235km race in Norway, and Per broke the new record of 5:14:25 together with the Oslo based cycling team Rye. Photo: Ida Reinton. www.eub.no
Multimania pulled in a strong second place in last weekends Nordic Championships in adventure racing in Sweden. The team came from a 6th place midway into the race, but finished strong the last 24 hours. Only beaten by the swedish team Herkules from Gothenburg. Finishing time 2 days, 4 hours and 4 minutes. Photo: Erling Katla. More pictures in the Gallery. www.karlstadmultisport.com
We are excited to post a new aggreement with the swedish kayak producers "World of Multisport". The team has just received our new XOR kayaks which will hopefully make us better and faster paddlers for the next season. More pictures will follow later www.worldofmultisport.com
Linda finished 5th overall in the womens division during this years edition of Oslo Half Marathon. Very impressive. Finishing time 1:19. www.oslomarathon.no
Erling and Per finished this years edition of the mountainbiking race Birken this weekend. Both were quite happy with the results altough some technical problems slowed them down a bit. www.birkebeiner.no
Primal Quest is still in our leggs, and this weekends sprint race Oslo City Challenge proved that the speed is still not back. It was a hard struggle, and the result was not too good. For more info: www.citychallenge.no
After a tactical failure in the beginning of the race we didn't manage to copy last years win in Hemsedal Challenge. We started up with some hard climbs which gave us very few points the first two hours of the race. After that we never managed to catch up. But it was a great day and a great race. www.hemsedalchallenge.com
What a rush.... After 7 days and 14 hours of non-stop racing we finished 7th in the worlds hardes expedition race Primal Quest. After a slow start the first 3-4 days we managed to climb up the result list and with a strong finish we ended up 7th. Race report and pictures will be posted later.
The team is very excited and ready for Primal Quest. We are off from Norway today, and race start is Monday June 23rd. Please follow our web page under Team 6 at www.ecoprimalquest.com
The team finished 6th in last weekends Nordic Championship, Tieto Enator Adventure in Sweden. Although some issues we are happy to be able to finish a long race like this. Two new team members on board this year: Linda and Are. www.karlstadmultisport.com
Vigleik and Per finished strong in the expedition race Terra Incognita in Croatia last week. Finishing time was 70 hours. Tough terrain and rocky surfaces made the race a challenging experience. A full race report can be found here (Norwegian):Terra Incognita
The team is very excited to announse that we qualified for the 2008 edition of Primal Quest. The race will be in USA June 21st to July 2nd 2008. Seventy-five co-ed teams of racers will take part in the World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition.
Per won the road cycling race Jotunheimen rundt last weekend. The race was a 430km race surrounding the beutiful mountain range "Jotunheimen". About 350 riders were in the starting field Friday evening. The rest of Multimania was on the course cheering for Per. About half way into the race, Per started a break together with about eight other riders. Some kilometers later the field was reduced from eight to four. Per was riding together with these three guys all the way to the finishline. A huge achievement for Per. On the picture you can see Per heading the winning group of four.
Vigleik was well prepared for last weekends Ironman Germany in Frankfurt. This was his second attempt in the race since he failed last year due to two flats on the bike. This year everything worked perfect and he nailed a 9:58 finish. 1:06 on the swim, 5:05 on the bike and 3:41 on the run. He experienced some problems with his left knee in the end of the run, but despite that, he had a perfect day.
Trine nailed a great 3rd place and bronze medal in last weekends Norwegian Championship in triathlon. The distance was a half Ironman distance. Trine was very happy with the race, and finished in 5:06:28. Picture: Trine enjoys a well deserved hotdog which she claims she doesn't like:-)
Per won the road cycling race Lillehammer - Oslo last weekend. He was racing together with the road team Bærum og Omegn Cycling Club (BOC). Despite a terrible weather with tons of rain, they nailed a 4:20:45 finish.
Halti Multimania was the race organizer for the DobbelX adventure race last week. Picture: Winners of Dobbel X: Espen Lunøe and Charles Halaas. For more pictures, please see the following link: Dobbel X
Photo: Edge Magazine - Sweden. Per Christian and Vigleik had a strong race in Sweden last weekend. 20 male two person teams competed on the challenging an fun 200km course in Karlstad Sweden. Following the first half of the race the team had a close to two hour lead on the second team, but lost the lead due to a navigation misstake during the night. Suddenly four top teams were all together during the coasteering part of the race. 20 baths later (in 12C temperature water) Halti Multimania was again in the lead. From here a high focus took the guys all the way to the finishline. A great day for the team. For more information, please visit the race's website: Tieto Enator Adventure
Halti Multimania split the team into two teams for the Oslo City Challenge Sprint. The race was a two person per team race at Skullerud in Oslo. Team 1 in the mixed division was Erling and Trine. They had a great race, and were in the lead till the rear wheel on one of the bikes got broken. They couldn't ride anymore, but still manage to finish the race in a strong 3rd place. Per and Vigleik finished first overall and first male team. Both guys had a perfect day, and manage to cooperate smart to increase the speed. All together a great day, dispite the rainy weather. Multitude had done a great wrok putting this race on. Thanks! For more information, please visit the race's website: Oslo City Challenge
Photo: Bjørnar Bakken. Following Bimbache Extrem in Spain, Trine and Vigleik went to Hemsedal to do the winter adventure race Hemsedal Classic March 31st. Beautiful weather and perfect conditions made a nice frame for the traditional event. The course takes the two person teams to five peaks in Hemsedal. Skiing, climbing and running. Following some days of rest, both Trine and Vigleik felt strong this weekend, and managed to do a good focused race. We finished the race as team number three overall, beaten by two male teams by 8 minutes. We won the mix division, and set a new course record: 3 hours and 17 minutes. For more information, please visit the race's website: Hemsedal Classic
March 18th we finally left Norway to go to Spain to do the first race of the 2007 Adventure Racing World Series – Bimbache Extreme. The race was supposed to be a 3-4 days race in Andalucia in southern Spain. The last couple of weeks we had been working hard with training and preparations, and even managed to get some new partners onboard. Unfortunately we had to leave the course after 24 hours due to a twisted ancle. We ended up placing 16 out of 30 team. Needless to say we were very dissapointed not to finish the course. For full race report, please follow this link: Bimbache Race report
The team signs sponsorship with the sportsnutrition supplier Maxim. The first race with the nutrition will be Bimbache Extreme in Spain next week.
The team consisting of Erling, Trine and Vigleik finished as the first coed team in what might be the last adventure race of the year. The race started off with a nasty rainy weather, but the temperature was not bad, so it turned out to be a fun race with many great activities. Reto from Multitude had put together a four hour race consisting of Mountainbiking, orienteering, padling and a breathtaking flying fox. Team worked very good, and it was a nice test of what we can expect for the next season. Please see the following link for more information on the race: Nordmarka adventure
Vigleik went to US to do his fifth Ironman last week. Ironman Florida was in Panama City. With a goal of 9:45 and a Hawaii spot, the start went off in choppy sea Saturday morning. Vigleik finished the swim in 1:10, 10 minutes slower than expected. Out on the bike the athletes experienced pretty strong head wind the first 50 miles. The course was totally flat, and one big loop. Bike time 5:16. Run was a two lap course which also was flat. Vigleik started off in a 3:25 marathon speed to try to make a sub 10 hour finish. First half marathon was 1:43. The speed turned out to be a bit too fast, so the second half was a bit slower. Total marathon time ended up 3:37. Vigleik placed number 29 out of 450 in the Male 35-39 age group, and 143 out of 2200 total. Please see the following link for more information on the race: Ironman
Per did a strong race in this years Ironman World Championships in Kona Hawaii. The swim was challenging, but the bike and run went really smooth. Best Norwegian time in Kona this year. This certainly adds to Per's impressive season with the best Norwegian Ironman time for 2006, 9:34, in Ironman Germany earlier on. Please see the following link for more information on the race: Ironman
Vester-Gyllen Multisport is a solo adventure race with biking and running in the woods of the west side of Oslo, Vestmarka. This years event was a tough and wet experience to the highest peaks of Vestmarka, including a lot of excellent offroad biking. It was up to the athletes to choose if he/she wanted to ride or run to the check points. The race directors had made a fun and challenging course with many difficult decisions to make. The winner was Tommy Olsen, Erling in third with the finisher time of 4 hours and 23 min. Total distance, 40 km. For more information and pictures from the race, please follow this link: Vester-Gyllen Multisport
Halti Multimania with Vigleik, Celeste and Arild finished strong in the Terra Firma Adventure Race last weekend. The third place made them qualify for the US Nationals in adventure Racing in California in November. Terra Firma Adventure is a 12 hour nonstop race in Texas. Race included mountainbiking, running, navigation, padling and some mystery events. Race was good, but we had problems on the nav due to totally outdated maps. For more information and pictures from the race, please follow this link: Terra Firma Adventure
Halti Multimania with Per and Vigleik did the ACG Challenge last weekend. 60 teams on the start line. It was a great race with tons of fun. 6 hours, 60 Check Points. The team performed well for most of the race, but missed out on the strategy in the end. We are very happy with the 4th place overall, and the distance to the three best teams is not far. We would definately have benefit from having two orienteerers in stead of one.
Trine, Per and Erling competed in last weekends mountainbikerace, Birken in Norway. Birken is the largest mountainbike race in the world. Appr. 10.000 athletes went through the 80 km course from Rena to Lillehammer. All three finished strong, although Per had some technical problems with his chain. Trine finished in 3:32 which gave her a strong 5th place in the K30 age group. Per finished in 3:11 and got 90th place in the M35 age group. Erling 3:31 and number 319 in M35.
Trine did a strong race last weekend, and pulled off a bronze medal in the Norwegian Championship in triathlon. The course was olympic distance. Vigleik competed as well, but got stomach problems in the beginning of the run, and ended up a bit down the list.
We are proud to announce that Per Christian did an absolutly amazing race in Ironman European Championship in Germany Sunday. He finished the Ironman race in 9 hours and 34 minutes, including a no wetsuit swim which usually results in a 10 minutes longer swim time. Everything worked perfect for Per this day, and he finished 11th in his age group (out of 500) and 59th overall (out of 2400). This means he got his qualification spot for the World Championships in Kona, Hawaii in October this year. A great achievement very fiew Norwegians have done before him. Arild finished the race in 10:40 which means he reached his sub 11 hour goal. Unfortunately Vigleik didn't finish due to problems with flats. After his second flat at 80 km into the bike course he had no more spare tires. Therefore he had to leave the race course half way into the race.
Per, Arild and Vigleik er doing the last preparations for this years Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt, Germany the coming weekend. All three are feeling strong, and ready to start the race. The race will be covered at www.ironmanlive.com and the teams newly established blog spot. The link to this blog spot is on the frontpage (click home).
Trine Kirkhus did a great job in Stavern last weekend, and finished second in the Stavern triathlon. The race was a sprint, and she finished in 1 hour, 2 minutes behind the winner.
Team Halti Multimania won the mix division of the multisport competition during the Extreme sports week in Voss, Norway June 25th. Trine and Vigleik did a good race and had only two male teams in front of them when they crossed the finishline after almost 6 hours of racing.
Team Halti Multimania will compete in the adventure race during the Extreme sports week at Voss the coming weekend. We will be back with more info after the race.
Team Halti Multimania finished 4th in the adventure race "Oslo City Challenge Adventure" in Norway, last weekend. It was a close race, and only 15 minutes separated the 5 best teams after 15 hours of hard racing. For more information and pictures from the race, please follow this link: Oslo City Challenge
10th of June, team Halti Multimania signed a sponsorship contract with the shoe manufacturer Merrell. The team and Merrell are very excited about this new cooperation. The team is using Overdrive and Waterpro Ultra for racing, and some of Merrells ultra cool shoes for everyday use. To view the great Merrell shoes, please visit: www.merrell.com
10th of June, team Halti Multimania signed a sponsorship contract with Lazer helmets who provides the team with all sorts of great racing helmets. To view the great Lazer helmets, please visit: www.lazerhelmets.com
Rudy Project and Halti Multimania has signed a sponsorship agreement for the season. Rudy project will provide the team with great eyewear. We are all looking forward to a great race season. To view the great eyewear, please visit: www.rudyproject.com
Team Halti Multimania pulled off a great 4th place in the adventure race "Tieto Enator Nordic Championship" in Karlstad, Sweden last week. For more information and pictures from the race, please follow this link: Tieto Enator
20th of May, team Multimania signed a sponsorship contract with the outdoor equipment brand Halti from Finland. The team and Halti are very excited about this new cooperation, and we are all looking forward to a great race season. To view the great Halti products, please visit: www.halti.com