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Helen Webster:
Hey, welcome Nadya to Norseman Media Studio, our window on Norseman. We are so privileged and pleased to have you here. Nadya, you are an athlete representing Ukraine this year, and we know that Ukraine has been in the global headlines. We’ve been thinking of people in Ukraine. So, we are pleased and honoured to have you with us. Tell us a little about what your journey has been like to reach us here this year.
Nadya:
Hi. Thank you for this opportunity to be here. It was a long way for me. As I told you before, it took three years before the war; of course, when I won a slot, I was not a triathlete, and Norseman changed my life. Okay, I changed my life for the race. However, COVID happened in 2020 and 2021. So I was ready for 2022, but on February 24, my birthday, the war just started, and when the war started, I was in Siberia. I prepared for the Extreme Marathon in Baikal. After this, I left Russia and joined my friend who lived in Germany. And I lived with them for one and a half months. But I can’t stay in Europe when my country is in a terrible situation. I want to help my country, my father, my sister, and my boyfriend, who are in Ukraine.
And you can’t leave. You can go and drink a coffee and have cheesecake, but inside of me, you can’t do it because I know my boyfriend can’t even eat bread. After all, he helped old people. And I lived an everyday life in Germany. I can’t live like this. I left Germany and went back to Ukraine, and I lost my job because of the war, too. But my friend told me, “You should stay here and find a job in Berlin.” I told her, “I can’t because I need to pay taxes.” If you pay taxes in Ukraine, you help your country. And even if you live in Ukraine and spend your money going to cafes and other places, you help a business and many people. So that’s why I decided to go back and support my country.
Helen:
That is such a lot already to take in from your story. So, you qualified for Norseman before the pandemic. The pandemic hit. You were training in Siberia for a race, and the war started in Ukraine. You were in Germany and returned to Ukraine to support your country, yet you’ve made it here to Norseman. That is such a huge story already. Well done. I’m so pleased to see you here. Let’s go back. So, what made you decide to try and qualify for Norman? You said you weren’t a triathlete before.
Nadya:
Yeah, I was not a triathlete, but I don’t know; five years ago, I saw one of the most beautiful videos from 2016, this video for 10 minutes. And it was so beautiful and many people, at least they, cried in the end. And I cried, too. And what happened here? Why are they crying? I decided if I was going to do a triathlon, it would be Norseman.
Helen:
Wow.
Nadya:
Yeah. But after this, five years ago, I decided, “Okay, I’m so young, I’m not ready for this. I know you should put a lot of power, energy, and money into this, and I’m not ready.” My friend and I have a sports environment of triathletes, and in 2019, they told me, “Nadya, we want to go to Norseman. How do you feel about this?” “Okay, why not?” It’s so hard to get a slot. I may have three years of not getting a slot in the ballot. But no, I won for the first time. And so, believe me, in Ukraine, it was such kind of news and hate from some triathletes. They wrote to me, “Nadya runs marathons. It’s okay. It’s not as complicated as triathlon. It’s Norseman; it’s not for you, Nadya.”
Helen:
Wow.
Nadya:
Yeah, they told me this.
Helen:
Have a journey to prove them wrong. It is for you. It’s incredible, isn’t it? It’s so powerful. And we love being at the finish of Norseman on Mount Gaustatoppen and seeing the athletes and the raw emotion you experience at the end of that race. And it’s fantastic that you saw that and just saw something in yourself that this was the race for you.
Nadya:
And even after this, my friend told me they named me Nadya Saus. And because I was in Siberia three times for the Siberia Extreme Triathlon; this was my first full-distance extreme triathlon. I ran a half-marathon and a marathon in Siberia. But I’m finished with this after the war.
Helen:
Tell us a little bit about your training in Ukraine. How easy has it been to get the training done to find the suitable kit for this race?
Nadya:
When the war started, as you know, I was in Russia. I didn’t have clothes for triathlon training, just for winter running. And of course, without cycling, without a bike or any swimming stuff. So, for two months, I did nothing. I ran sometimes, three times a week. And so I left all my training. But when I got back to Ukraine, my boyfriend, an ex-pro cyclist, helped me with this. And for this, we left Kyiv and went to, we have mountain, but not so high as in Norseman. They’re just small hills, but it’s better for my training. So we chose this area for my training and for running too. It’s better for trail runners because in Kyiv, it’s primarily flat roads.
So, I have a triathlon trainer, and I tried to find a swimming pool. And it’s complicated because, in this region where I live now, it’s small towns, unlike Kyiv. But I found a great swimming coach. But they closed the swimming pool because of the war. They have problems. And I thought, “Oh my, again, something closed.” Then I will find another pool. I found another swimming pool 40 kilometres away.
Helen:
Wow.
Nadya:
Yeah. Four times in a week. But I found a closer swimming pool. And they close him too.
Helen:
No. Well, yeah. So access to facilities has been really challenging for you.
Nadya:
Yeah. But I ran and cycled a lot. I was stretching in the gym. It’s been helping me with this whole stuff. And I’m a new one in triathlon; I saw these guys, they’re so athletic. I mean in a body. I even lost seven kilograms for this competition. So now I can run more efficiently, but for swimming, it’s colder.
Helen:
This is it.
Nadya:
I lost fat.
Helen:
I saw you at the social swim yesterday morning. You were swimming. How did you find the water here in Eidfjord and Norway?
Nadya:
It was not so cold. I mean, the fjord is cold. But the feeling was not so cold. But after the swim, it was like-
Helen:
Shivering?
Nadya:
Yeah, for one hour. “Oh my God, what happened to me? Come back my extra weight.”
Helen:
It’s a balance, isn’t it? Between having the lightness for the bike and run, but enough.
Nadya:
Yeah. And this is hard, especially when a new one. When I was a runner, my weight was 52 kilograms. It’s okay for marathon runners. But when I started doing triathlons, I gained an extra 10 kilograms. I eat a lot. Even at night, I woke up, and my sister saw one time when I went to the kitchen and ate cold spaghetti in the middle of the night. She said, “Oh my god, you’re a monster.” And I want to lose weight ’cause it’s so hard to run for me with this extra. But for Norseman, I do it.
Helen:
And how has the journey to get here for Norseman been, to actually leave Ukraine and come here to Norway and get everything in place? Because you mentioned it also took a lot of work for you to get someone to come and support you at the race.
Nadya:
Yeah, I’m a woman, and it’s pretty easy to leave Ukraine. You need to drive a car out of Ukraine. And it’s a big country, so you must cover many miles in Ukraine alone. And we have a problem with the men. They can’t leave the country because they should be ready to join the army and fight for Ukraine.
But one in my support team lives in Spain; he’s my boyfriend’s friend. They were in Spain when the war started, so that’s why they went back to Ukraine. And we asked him. He’s a trail runner and told me, “Okay, but I have some problems with documents because Ukrainian people can’t travel in Europe because of visas.” We don’t have a visa, but we have 90 days per year, and you need to apply and register in Spain in his situation. And he did it. His passport was expired, and he couldn’t get a new one. And because of this, he had problems. So, for him, it was like five flights getting here.
Helen:
Wow. Five flights to get him to support you. That’s a good supporter right there.
Nadya:
And 21 hours of travelling.
Helen:
Wow. Gosh. Do you think he’ll have the energy to run a mountain?
Nadya:
I don’t know. We told him, “You need to eat. You need to sleep any time.” We’ll bring him, we’ll go to meet him in Bergen at the airport, and we will get him to eat because I don’t want to support him because I’m-
Helen:
No, he`s to support you.
Nadya:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know of some situations in Siberia when support was less robust than the athlete. It was not good. Even my support in Siberia in the first 20 kilometres, he spoke a lot: “Nadya, blah, blah, blah.” I said, “Tasha, no, no, I can’t. I’m not good.” But after 20 kilometres, when I started to run, he was behind me and did not speak much.
Helen:
Oh, yeah. You need someone who can lift your spirits when it gets tough. So which parts of the race are you most looking forward to? I know this race captured your heart, so what are you looking forward to seeing?
