So, the registration for the 2014 NXTRi opened, and then it closed. A short week. And I was there in the midst of those pain-addicts, registering to the lottery already on monday. And of course I couldn't do it the first time. And not the second. Or the third. And then the frustration came and I contacted the NXTri people to find out if the problem was me, or something else. Well, guess what. The problem was... ....me. Or actually my PC, which was not mine, but my employer's. And the Firefox there is, let's say, a bit (old? outdated? obsolete?), erm, limited edition. So it did not function properly with the active sheets in the registration form. Gladly I also have the IE on the same computer, and that worked well. So I'm in. For the lottery I mean.
Ok, in the hind-sight, I might have had a bit of a hidden agenda when contacting the arranging party representatives. I mean, I, almost accidentally, of course, did go through all the previous race results, and did not find any Finnish names there. So, to my knowledge, I would be the first Finn to do the race if I got the slot. Somehow this information also creeped into the mail-exchange I had with the organizers with a question of maybe getting a special treatment because of that fact. I don't know how, but it just sneaked in there. It might be that the people on the other end of that exchange had gotten similar kind of inquiries from some other people also, as the response was really discreet, and with a bit of humour in it also. Something like this: "Don't worry, we provide the same special treatment to everybody, good luck with the lottery!" So that was it. But I had to try!
Another thing related to me possibly being the first Finn there was that I had to keep my mouth pretty much shut from summer to this moment (at least within certain groups of people). I wouldn't have liked competition there wouldn't I. Guess how many times I almost blurped out what I was planning on doing, realising what I was doing, and then rerouting my talk on-the-go to not to let the truth out. Like "Yeah, I'm also going to take part in at least one marathon and a couple of bike-endurance events next summer to prepare for the... ...erm the local open water swim races nearby (what the hell do those have to do with the swim...?).
After realising that I might end up empty handed also with the NXTri participation, as I mentioned already in my earlier blog, I decided to enroll to a local ironman-distance race (sorry, this is in finnish). I have not done that yet, but will if I don't get the slot in Norway. Another REALLY interesting race is something called "Ö till Ö" in the Stockholm archipelago, where they run and swim for 75 kms (10 km swim total, 65 km run). The idea is to run through the islands and swim between them. THIS IS SOMETHING WE'LL DO WITH THE WIFEE AT SOMEPOINT ANYHOW. I got so hyped about this when I got the link from a colleague of mine, and as I showed it to my wife, she got also hyped about it. REALLY hyped. As we are both the type of diesel-engines that can go on and on for no end, but may have some challenge with keeping the speed, having a full day for the 75 kms suites us quite well. At least we think so. But let's see. If I get the slot in the Norway, It'll be too close with the "otillo", as we named it already. And perhaps also the local IM distance race is too close, I don't know...
PResently it looks like I have less than a week to the moment where I either crap my pants as I understand that I really need to start to train to get ready for the Norway (i.e. I get the slot), or I don't, and then I need to replan the 2014 season totally. Which one is more scary??
We'll see that in a week.
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