Last year's race

Alexandra Cremona (centre) with her support team leader Alan Kennedy, his wife Linda and the Maltese flag at the finishing line.

A Maltese flag has made it to the finish line of the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon, an annual race in Norway that is classified as the most brutal worldwide.

Although not branded as such, the race is considered the hardest Ironman race on earth and most participants are professional athletes but this did not put off Alexandra Cremona, who trains in her free time.

Ms Cremona is a research assistant in performance nutrition and exercise physiologist at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

“I wanted to try my hand at a long distance triathlon and I guess I picked the one that really excited me.

“Norseman has a few additional aspects to Ironman-branded events and these were very big motivators for me,” the 26-year-old told this newspaper.

The biggest motivator on the day was to be able to hold the Maltese flag at the finish line

The “intimidating” elevation profile and a jump into a fjord were just two of the reasons why she signed up.

Although she has done long-distance cycling and swimming before – including Life Cycle events – she has never run a marathon or a long-distance triathlon, so this would be the longest one-day event she has done so far.

Over the weekend, she was one of the couple of hundred athletes who finished the triathlon: the 22nd woman out of the 28 female competitors that completed it.

There were 44 women in all that started the race.

All the time, energy and money she invested over the past year helped get her through: “The biggest motivator on the day was to be able to hold the Maltese flag at the finish line as the event is such an iconic one and Norseman pride themselves on the amount of nationalities that complete it.”

Before enrolling for the race, organisers warn participants: “During the Norseman, you will probably be cold, you will hate the hills, sometimes you will feel lonely and you will probably experience being unusually emotional during the weekend.”

Participants jump into the fjord for the swimming section.

But it never crossed Ms Cremona’s mind to give up.

“I put a lot of effort into mental toughness; your mind will take you where your body won’t. Your body is going to hurt during an event like this. Your mind needs to supersede any feelings your body has. During the preparation you train your mind as well as your body to cope with anything you might be faced with.”

The race kicks off with a four-metre drop off a ferry into a fjord, continues with a cycle across a mountain plateau and a run up to the rocky peak of Gaustatoppen at 1,850 metres above sea level and 220 kilometres away.

For safety reasons it is limited to some 250 athletes and only 160 are allowed to finish at the top of the mountain. These get a black T-shirt while the others can complete the distance at the mountain plateau below the peak and get a white shirt.

It took Ms Cremona a little over 17 hours to complete the race and she got a white T-shirt. Although she would give it another go for a black T-shirt finish, there are many other challenges out there she wants to experience.