Nordic marathons

My runs have brought me to places far away from home, and while it has resulted in amazing trips it sometimes also makes it quite the undertaking outside of the run itself. It would be nice that I at least once in a while managed to plan a bit more convenient trip to find a run instead of having to fly half way around the world.

So a new project has seen the light of day; running marathons in the capitals of the 5 Nordic countries - Copenhagen (Denmark), Stockholm (Sweden), Oslo (Norway), Helsinki (Finland) and Reykjavik (Iceland). I am considering also including the 3 autonomous territories Faroe Islands (Denmark), Greenland (Denmark) and Åland (Finland).

The 3 latter are a bit harder to do; while the Faroe Islands have an annual half and full marathon, Åland sometimes cancel their run due to lack of interest and Greenland, well - there is an annual marathon which I would consider an extreme run which I'm not to keen on, so I may have to try and find a half marathon instead if there is one (which I believe Nuuk has annually).

Some have already been run, some have recently been planned and others are still up in the air. The schedule is currently as follows:

Copenhagen - May 2019
Stockholm - May 2025
Oslo - September 2025
Helsinki - TBA
Reykjavik - TBA

Faroe Islands - June 2019
Greenland - TBA
Åland - TBA

A small project compared to my other runs (past and likely future), but sometimes you just need to scale down and relax. Which I know is a bit of a contradiction when talking about running marathons. Oh, well. 

2nd of June – On the run

The run didn’t start until 1300 (I am assuming that it’s because the morning weather here tends to be questionable) so I decided to sleep in and relax until leaving the hotel to go to the starting area. I had a few short walks around to keep an eye on the weather, but the forecast seemed more and more clear: 6-8°C, 6-10 m/s winds and constant light rain. So quite dull weather with clouds at 200-300 meters wouldn’t give great views one could have hoped for in such a beautiful place. 

In total 600 people had signed up for the event, but that was in total for all the 5,5km, 10km, half-marathon and marathon distances. Only 121 people joined the marathon run so it would be a small nice run. We got sent off on time, and after circling the town once we took the main road out northbound, following the coast around into an inlet before continuing back out on the other side reaching Kaldbak where the turnaround point was, and then the same way back to Torshavn again, though just the direct way and no circling around.

I was a bit worried about how things would go as I had just run my first marathon ever two weeks previously, so I expected my legs to still be slightly wobbly. Luckily I felt none of that, and I could instead spend my energy overcoming the resistance of running into the wind and rain for most of the run. There was 538m of total altitude gain along the way, so that went straight to my legs, too. And to add to the challenge the highest hills to conquer were on the last 7km coming back into Torshavn – against the wind. But to my surprise I ended up completing in 4:12:54, a fair bit faster than expected, so I was very happy when I crossed the finish line.

This meant that I was 17/32 in my class (men 18-39), 56/89 among men and 70/121 overall. The winner came in at 2:36:30 (a small improvement from last year and a new track record), the second came in 20 minutes later. First woman across the finish line was at 3:18:8. And the last runner came in at 5:36:03, a big improvement from last year's 6:59:07.

And we are off! And it is as wet as it looks.

Photo taken by faroephoto.com.

A gentle wet hill on the way out of Tórshavn. Coming back it felt less gentle.

Photo taken by faroephoto.com.

Feeling better than expected when crossing the line!

Photo taken by Jens Kristian Vang.

On completion you got served fish soup with chunks of delicious salmon and plenty of home-made cake to grab. It was a great end to a fun run. Hobbling back to the hotel which luckily was only a few hundred meters away, had a nice long warm shower before getting dressed and went out to have a quick and easy dinner. Staying on second floor I definitely used the elevator up and down.

Going back north - but not so far

I have for a while wanted to go to the Faroe Islands, mostly because it looks like a beautiful place but also due to it being a great location for birding. Of course, the weather is... variable. "There is a lot of it", as a Faroese friend says. So that will be an interesting aspect of the trip.

It will just be a short trip this time - and extended weekend over the Ascension Day holiday. But a short trip is better than no trip, so there is no reason to not go when you have the chance.

30^th of May – 1^st of June

Flying up directly from Copenhagen puts my in Torshavn midday, giving me plenty of time of getting to know the ups and downs of the town before I the following day (Friday) plan to take a bus to Mykines island for birding. There is apparently a lot going on around the time I’m there so I am looking forward to it. The following day I might do something similar, or just relax and hanging about near Torshavn.

2^nd of June

The main reason I’ve come here: Torshavn marathon. Yes. No, I don’t know what is wrong with me, either. I have been running regularly for years, now, and up to November last year I considered 13km as a long run. Then one day, close to finishing, I felt good so I continued, and before I knew it I had run near 22km. Not long after I ran comfortably 22-25km 3 times a week, so I realized I had to put that into good use. Hence – a marathon. It wasn’t until I had booked tickets and hotel it sunk in that this is only 2 weeks after the Copenhagen marathon – my first run of the kind. I might not be a clever man.

3^rd of June

Flight home, hopefully not too sore.

I’m looking forward to this – primarily due to the wildlife watching I am planning to do, but also to find out how I’ll do with only 2 weeks since the last run. This is also not an as easy track as the one in Copenhagen; there it’s flat with wide turns, here it’s undulating and exposed. In any case it’ll be interesting!