Filipina finishes tough Norway race

Photo from Herbalife website.

One year after her husband became the first Filipino to join and finish the Isklar Norseman Extreme Triathlon, Laarni Paredes followed suit and finished the punishing course in Eidjford, Norway, on Aug. 6.

The 38-year-old Paredes, a member of the Herbalife triathlon team, finished one of the most extreme endurance events in the world in 17 hours, 34 minutes and 57 seconds.

She placed 19th out of 20 white shirt finishers.

The black survivor shirt is given to the first 160 that reach the mountaintop while the 161st and the succeeding participants completed the distance on a lower alternative route and received white tops.

Paredes completed the four-kilometer swim leg in 1:39:42, the 180K bike race in 9:16:04 and ran the 42K course in 6:18:56

The Norseman Triathlon, first held in 2003, kicks off

5 a.m. with the participants jumping off a car ferry.

According to an account of American triathlete Ed Crossman, who finished the 2014 edition in 14:53:00, good for 122nd place in the men’s black list, they swam to remote Eidfjord, cycled over five mountain passes with a total of 4.1K vertical ascent and ran to the top of the 1.9K-high Mount Gaustatoppen.”

The water in Eidfjord is almost never more than 17 degrees Celsius and is surrounded by snow-clad mountains.

Event website nxtri.com listed a total of 246 starters, with 13 failing to make the finishers’ list. For safety reasons, the event is limited to 250 athletes.

Winners Lars Christian Vold and Anne Nevin of Norway submitted record times of 9:52:03 and 12:04:18, respectively.

Last year, John Omar, Paredes’ husband, clocked 16:09:12 to end up 138th out of 142 black shirt finishers in the men’s division. —ROMINA S. AUSTRIA