Stephen Williams

Stephen Williams, 58 år og mest kjent som Mr Nisseman himself

Hva passer vel bedre i desember enn og avslutte året med å presentere Stephen, 🙂 mannen, legenden og Mr Nissemann 🙂 Han har fullført samtlige Axtri som har vært arrangert, men er nok mest kjent for sine rockete spillelister og sitt gode humør i spinningsalen på Studentsenteret under vinterens Nisseman økter 🙂 Vi er så glad for jobben Stephen legger ned i Nisseman, noe av det medlemmene i klubben setter mest pris på med å være med i klubben. Bli litt bedre kjent med Stephen 🙂 God jul 🙂

1. Hvor lenge har du vært med i BTC?

I was one of the first group of members when the club started back in 2007. Bergen Voss Ironman known as BV3 was the first race the club set up in June 2008 and my first ironman distance race. It was long and I made a lot of mistakes, but I managed to finish placing 30^th out of 33 ! This wasn’t my first triathlon though as I had done a few short distance races when I lived in the US in 1995. Since I’ve always enjoyed doing lots of different sports I was drawn to triathlon.

2. Hva er favoritt grenen din i triathlon og hvor mye trener du i løpet av en uke?

I don’t have a favorite tri discipline. I am equally slow at all 3, but can sometimes do a good transition!

I love to be active and train 12 hours or more per week in the summer. This includes long Sunday bike rides in the beautiful sunny Bergen weather, plus a mix of hiking, running, orienteering, swimming, kayaking, swim-run etc . In the winter I train less, but keep it going with zwifting, running, swimming, weight training, hiking and skiing.

3. Hvorfor ble du med i BTC, og hva synes du er det kjekkeste med å være med i BTC?

As a triathlete BTC is the club to join in Bergen. The wonderful people, the way the club makes non-Norwegians feel at home and the many events and training sessions motivate me to get out and enjoy the rich experiences triathlon offers.

It’s very empowering that club trusts me to lead Nisseman. Here I can set up my own hard core training session in the middle of winter, play my own music and get 50 club members to join me! To experience 50 triathletes giving their all to the sounds of Metallica or ACDC is truly inspiring.

4. Ditt beste triathlonminne?

My first triathlon was in 1995 in Louisiana USA. It was a short local distance event somewhere between sprint and olympic distance. At the time I was playing rugby regularly. Several players including me signed up for the this event. I remember being seriously impressed by the top guys with their “Softride” TT bikes and 4 bladed Spinergy carbon wheel sets. I remember thinking that this is a sport I needed to do more of. I went out hard from the start, but couldn’t hang with the “Softride” group. In the end I placed quite well, but it was the commentators announcement that I was the fastest rugby player they ever had that really made my day!

There have been many other races and memories over the years but competing in all those AXTRI’s is the memory I cherish most. Here I must give a big thanks to the race crew who, year after year, continue to put on a super event. Each race had its own special flavour due to the challenges of variable weather, changing competition, race route, conditions as well as my own prep and fitness. None were easy, some were a lot tougher than others, but all allowed me to experience nature at its most grand and raw out on that course. Enjoying the first post-race beer in Aurland was damn good too!

5. Hvorfor passer triathlon for alle?

Quite simply because it’s a rewarding mental and physical multi-sport challenge. People are very motivated by such achievements. Doing so makes us better people and brings pleasure. Triathlon has a reputation of being terribly tough and difficult. Non-athletes are very impressed, which is maybe no bad thing. The truth of course, as we all know, is that many are capable of achieving a good result with enough determination.