I’m a lucky man. From the Olympics to soccer’s World Cups, from Madison Square Garden to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, I get to travel the world covering sports, but for all these headline-grabbing events there is one event that still remains true and pure, and that is the Norseman.

The race itself takes up a whole day, but that is nothing compared to the wait to find out if you’ve got lucky and drawn a spot for next year’s race.

When registration closed on November 4th, 4354 athletes representing 84 nations had applied to the Isklar Norseman 2019 edition.