Morning mist hides the gray granite mountains outside the window of my Bed & Breakfast. Its whitish backdrop draws my eye to bright lavender wildflowers that litter the landscape.
So long as the rugged mountains transfixed my eyes, these delicate blossoms almost escaped my notice. But now, it is as if God’s own hand were pointing me to the beauty reflected in the windowpane.
I am writing from an obscure settlement east of Eidfjord, Norway. This tiny tourist town, previously unknown to me, clings to a tiny shelf of land between the tip of the Hardangerfjord and Vøringsfossen.
Hardangerfjord is a 111-mile gash in Norway’s granite mountains - the fifth longest fjord in the world. Its imposing cliffs part to let the North Sea lap at Norway’s west highlands.
Vøringsfossen (Esteemed Fall) is a waterfall on the Bjoreio River that plunges 600 feet into the rocky mists at the bottom of Måbødalen Valley.
I came neither seeking nor suspecting such majesty. I came, rather, to support my wife through the granddaddy of extreme triathlons. As far as I can tell, we’re the only ones from Wyoming who are here.
They call it “Norseman.” It’s an odyssey that begins nearly 2.5 miles out to sea and ends at the top of Mount Gaustatoppen, more than a mile high and 140.6 miles away. Between these two points, 250 athletes will swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles, gaining and losing 18,000 feet of elevation along the way.
Getting here requires more than mere transportation. It requires surviving a harsh vetting process that whittles down 6,304 applicants from 96 different countries to a field of about 200 men and 50 women.
Of those 50 women, 30 are selected by lottery and 20 win their spot in qualifying races held around the world. April, my wife, was one of the 20. She qualified at the only extreme triathlon race offered in America— Park City, Utah’s Starvation Xtri, practically in our backyard.
The first time April heard of the Norseman, she breathed its slogan with resignation and conviction: “This race is not for me.” Ten years later, God decided that it is, indeed, for her.
In between, she trained. When you ask, “Why did you train?” it gets complicated.
Primarily, she trains because a day with extensive training is better than a day without it. She has one of those constitutions that cannot sit still.
Training is a necessity, not a choice. God made her in such a way that the mental pain of not training is far more than the physical pain of training.
But April also trains because of the satisfaction she finds in setting and achieving goals.
In a way, our trip to Norway began over a decade ago, when she set a goal to compete in Evanston’s annual July 4th 5K fun run. Little did I realize, she hoped to win - and did.
In another way, her trip to Eidfjord began when she decided to teach herself to swim so that she could do her first small triathlon outside of Evanston. Again, she met her goal. And, again, she won.
Sometimes April cannot admit the goals that she sets, not even to herself. The Norseman happened that way.
As she prepared for her first extreme triathlon in Utah, completing the race was her one and only goal. But, the day before that race, a sudden, weird feeling compelled me to ask her: “What will you do if you qualify for the Norseman?”
She turned and looked at me.
After a thoughtful pause, all she could say was, “I don’t know.” That’s when I knew. Neither broken bones nor wild buffalo could keep her from jumping into the frigid waters of Hardangerfjord. So here we are, in Norway.
April’s only stated goal is to complete the race. But this much I know: Today’s goal is not the end.
Eidfjord, Norway seems, today like the end of the world—the culmination of a dream. But when the sun sets tomorrow, it will take its place among 20,000 other days.
Every goal is only a point along the path. That doesn’t diminish the enjoyment of each one.
But, like a wildflower in the windowpane, God puts it in view to draw you into the great and wondrous universe that makes up your life.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com
