18th – 21st of September – Oslo

Flying into Oslo it was easy to grab the express train into the center and from there it was a short walk to my hotel. The hotel was intentionally chosen as it was less than 5 minutes from the city hall in front of which the marathon would start and finish. It turned out the hotel entrance was facing the warm-up area which was an extension of the starting pens. I could barely be any closer.

Checking in I left and went to the expo – located in the starting area – and picked up my shirt and bib. Here I also met with my sister and her husband where we had a short talk and planned for meeting for dinner the evening before and after the run. She would be running the half marathon, starting 4 hours after the marathoners would be sent off.

Floating saunas. 

 

Art installation called "Eyes". I respectfully disagree. Those are not eyes.

On the Friday – the day before the run – I went for a walk in The Vigeland Park – a park filled with sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures were weird, funny, a lot going on, but what they all had in common were fantastically expressive faces. You could spend hours looking at the individual statues, the fountain and the monolith just to be sure you got all the details. 

 

Haven't we all at some point been tempted to do this?

 

Standing in the car shop Carl realized he had misunderstood his friend 

when he said that he had gotten a new car for his two kids.

 

Having the marathon starting at 0900 the following morning I strolled out of the hotel around 0830 and walked maybe 100 meters and found my spot in the starting area. I had registered my finishing time around 3:50 and my start group covered 3:45-4:15. Standing maybe ¼ from the front I was therefore surprised seeing both the 4:00 and 4:15 pacers set up in front of me. Oh, well, I would just spend the first few km to pass them and put some distance to them.

The first groups were sent off on time and a few minutes later I also crossed the starting line. I started aiming for passing the pacers and the groups that were amassing around them, but I realized that the course was surprisingly narrow – especially in the beginning. We started west from the city hall with an early turn to the left and zigzag through a quiet residential area before coming out on Munkedamsveien followed by Drammensveien and after a bit turning right onto Halvdan Svartes Gate. From here we circled almost the entire Vigeland Park before coming back the same way and reaching Drammensveien we turned right and turned towards the water, turned east and ran along the E18 until we could turn onto Tjuvholmen, through Aker Brygge, pass the city hall and the start/finish area, past Akershus Fortress before turning up trough the central part of the city with quite a few sharp turns, reaching Pilestredet, Holbergs Gate and Sofies Gate before doing a u-turn on Martinus Lørdahls plass and taking the same way back (with the exception of circling inside Bislett Stadium) until past Pilestredet where we did a different zigzag and ending up in front of the town hall. And then doing it all once more as that was only a half marathon.

The course was generally narrow; most of the time we had half a street while we parallel with E18 stayed on the side walk and bike path. It also meant that it could be difficult at times to pass other runners, especially in the beginning when we were all crammed together. Also, the course was not flat and consisted mainly of two hills; the first from about 3km up to halfway around the Vigeland Park from 5 to 60m and down again towards the water, and then again from Akershus Fortress at 5m to when we did the u-turn before entering the stadium at 45m. Due to the layout and the visibility of the road ahead the second hill fell significantly worse than the first, even if it was smaller. But it helped knowing that you would be running down again the same way so you had something to look forward to. 

Despite the hills and narrowness I still ended up finishing in 3:55:21. That put me as 2340 out of 4356 overall (top 53,72%), 2065 out of 3635 men (top 56,81%) and 331 out of 501 M40 (top 66,07%). I’ll admit I was surprised how slow I was compared to the rest of the runners, but I assume it’s because Norwegians are outdoorsy people and therefore generally not in bad shape. And regardless, I’m still happy with my result, getting (another) sub-4 hours run.

Instead of the more common procedure of entering your race number and then getting your photos in return I had to upload a selfie. I didn’t have high hopes for the success of finding that many, but within seconds it came back with almost 200 (198 to be exact) photos, all with me in varying degree of in focus. I’ll admit: I was pretty impressed with both the response time and quality of some of the shots.

I made it just in time to see my sister off and give her a bit of heads up on the course before walking the long 200m back to my hotel and had a much needed shower. One of the last zigs (or was it one of the zags?) on the course passed by 50 meters from the hotel entrance, at the end of the street opposite of the starting area, so I managed to get out and cheer my sister along when she passed by, and then wobbled my way down to the finishing area and saw her finish, too.

Before meeting my sister and her husband for dinner I managed to meet with a friend I met on my trip to Madagascar and hadn’t seen since. We met at a wine bar (where she was already meeting with other friends) where we had a glass of wine and had a quick catch up before I continued to the Japanese and Chinese restaurant which turned out to be just around the corner. I am pretty sure my slow walk afterwards wasn’t due to the marathon but rather due to the amount of food eaten. It was a delicious izakaya-style restaurant. 

 

View of the waterfront from the Akershus Fortress.

My flight the following day wasn’t until the afternoon so I had a slow walk around town and checked out the Akershus Fortress before heading back to the airport.

Full album can be seen here.

21st – 24th of August – Helsinki

Getting to Helsinki was just as unproblematic as last time and the train connections from the airport to the center was equally easy. The airport and city center are on a circular route approximately same distance regardless of direction so it’s easy to just get on to the first train at the airport because you will end up in the center in the end.

Having been doing a more focused sightseeing the last time I visited I chose to take things a bit more relaxed on arrival. I checked into my hotel a few minutes from the main station and having settled in I decided to go to the runners expo at Merisatama to pick up my pack. A 1-2km walk from my hotel to get to the expo was absolutely fine, and downhill for the majority part, something I was trying to ignore as the start and finish of the marathon was located in the same area. 

Walking along Töölö bay.

The following day, the Friday, the day before the marathon, I had a walk around the waterfront, starting from Merisatama and walking counter-clockwise, passing by the Russian orthodox cathedral, had a short walk around Tervasaari, circled Töölö bay before reaching Helsinki Central Library Oodi which was quite the construction in and of itself. A large building that seemed to have been twisted a bit before being placed. I was impressed by what the place had to offer outside the usual reading materials; board games, instruments, music studios, gaming rooms (large TV and 3-5 gaming consoles almost completely sound proof), multiple 3d printers of various sizes, workshops and so on. Walking around I didn’t even realize it was almost up against the main train station, so leaving again it turned out it was just a short walk back to the hotel and getting ready for dinner.

On the terrace of the Helsinki Central Library Oodi.

 

The Helsinki Central Library Oodi.

On the day of the race the halfmarathoners were sent off at 0810 while the marathoners would have to wait until 0845. Not really an issue – it meant that arriving in good time I got to see the halfmarathoners leave and making room for us and our start. And on time we crossed the starting line, following the same route as I yesterday following the waterfront counter counter-clockwise, past the ferry terminals, the Russian orthodox cathedral and continuing north crossing the bridge to Merihaka leaving the city center. Here the half- and full marathon courses split; while the half marathoners turned left we continued north/east. 

Running along the waterfront with the Russian orthodox cathedral in the background. 

Here we did a 21km long circle, passing past and/or through Sompasaari, Kalasatama, Kulosaari, Fastholma, Roihupelto, Viikki Campus (Helsinki university), Viikinmäki, Oulunkylä, between Metsälä and Käpylä, past Alppila before reaching Siltasaari and crossing the bridge back to towards the city center. This bridge was a few 100 meters west of the beforementioned bridge where we left the halfmarathoners, and crossing this bridge we joined them again on the rest of the course. From here we passed by the central station, up along Töölö bay before returning back south and passing Leppäsuo, circled Jätkäsaari, went through Hietalahti, ran out on Munkkisaari and did a u-turn to get the correct final distance (the halfmarathoners had an extra 100m before they could do their u-turn) before coming back to Merisatama and crossing the finish line (one may even say the Finnish finish line).

The course itself was… ok. It was plenty interesting when running around in the city, but as soon we left the more densely built areas it got pretty dull, especially when we were brought through the more industrial areas. We did come through some more green spaces but you would usually have train tracks right next to you. There wasn’t much cheering along the course outside the center unless you were passing by a station or going through an intersection. There were very few sharp corners outside the city, though, which made things a bit more enjoyable. Overall it did feel very much like a Norse god [1]; the street at the starting/finishing area was blocked off for us runners, but it didn’t take long before we were stuck to sidewalks and pedestrian paths shared with normal people. It ended up not being as big an issue as I had expected – particularly at the start where it seemed that everybody agreed on the pace and barely anyone either much faster or much slower, so the running traffic flowed quite nicely. But still... I guess I expected something bigger after having experienced Copenhagen’s and Stockholm’s setup. Also, after the race, instead of getting a mail from a third-party race photography company that linked to photo packages, prices, and previews of photos, we just got a link to all the albums the day’s photographers had filled with photos and then it was up to ourselves to go through the thousands of photos to see if you had been captured. Seemed very low tech and it took a while to find myself (but it also gave me the chance of seeing that I was by far not the most tired-looking person that day!).

Being a marathon in the capital I was surprised to see how small the run was, with only 2315 people running the full distance. With a finishing time of 3:56:31 I came in as no. 877 (top 37,88%), 726 out of 1648 men (top 44,05%) and 163 out of 324 M40 (top 50,31). With nice cool dry weather and app. 220m up and down the weather and road conditions were nice, and overall, despite my reservations, it was a good run.

I made it back to the hotel in one piece and kicked back until it was time to get dinner, where I ended up at a German restaurant and devoured a winer schnitzel and a generously sized waffle. All in all, a good day.

Full album can be seen here.

[1] Loki… Low-key. Get it? Because they sound the same… It was low-key but it also sounds like the name of the Norse God Loki… Get it? Get it….? … Sigh… Never mind.

29th of May – 1st of June – Stockholm

Flying to Stockholm mid-day allowed me to check in to my hotel a bit past 1400, before the notified check-in time, but fortunately they still let me check in. Moments later, after spending a few moments to enjoy my magnificently limited view out of the window, I walked the 10 minutes to the Olympic stadium, the location of the marathon starting area and the Expo was located where I picked up my kit.

 

What a view!

From here I had a walk down towards the harbor area where I passed by the city hall and the royal castle. I wandered Gamla Stan (Old Town) a bit before heading south and going through Södermalm reaching Hammerbyslussen before heading back to the center grabbing dinner on the way. Coming back to the harbor I walked out to Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen, two small islands where you had a nice view of the Gamla Stan. It was a very nice walk in the warm evening and with very few people walking around out here it was surprisingly quiet considering how close it was to the center. 

 

Harbor front.

 

  

In the court yard of the city hall.  

 

The royal castle. 

 

 Stockholm Kastel on Kastellholmen.

The following day I planned to visit the Vasa ship museum, a large building containing the warship launched in 1627 and sinking on its maiden voyage, still within view of Gamla Stan. Being salvaged in 1961 it was a huge challenge for archeologists as they had to invent numerous new techniques to conserve the wreck, preventing it deteriorating even further and stabilizing the wood. The current status is that it is starting to tilt a few degrees to one side so they are working on better support and pushing it back, and the loadbearing beams are starting to bulk under the weight which is also being looking into. All that aside it is quite magnificent walking around it and looking into it. While it isn’t large compared to modern ships it was definitely on that would turn heads back in the day. If you are in Stockholm it is definitely worth a few hours’ visit.

A smaller 1:10 model showing how the ship would look in its original colors.

 

Dinner was had at the pasta party at the Olympic stadium, a surprisingly tasty pasta and pesto dish. The portions were unimpressive but you were free to multiple portions, so that helped. Coming back to the hotel I passed by a 7-11 to get some dessert and noticed they had a salad bar. There was plenty in all the containers, with the exception of the two that contained pasta; they were completely cleaned out – not a single crumb left. And the queue to pay was mostly people buying bananas. And then me getting cake. Priorities!

As I was staying close to the starting area I left a bit less than an hour before start. Getting close to the entrance to the runner’s area I got almost stuck in traffic because of the hoards of supporters just hanging out not understanding someone was trying to get to the starting area. Getting into the runner’s area there was plenty of room to move around, so getting to my starting box was easy enough. Having reported a expected finish time of 3:50 I was surprised to see the 3:30 pacers were standing near and the 3:45 was far behind. Oh, well – I decided to just try and keep in front of the 3:45’s as long as possible. And we were off!

Leaving the stadium we soon turned right and came through Vasastan before crossing into Stadshagen and Kungsholmen. From here we went by the city hall, circled Gamla Stan and passing the royal castle, running along the harbor across the castle, through Östermalm before reaching the point where we turned right when starting but now turning in the opposite direction towards Djurgården. Making a big circle through here, we retuned to the harbor across from the castle, went down the east side of Gamla Stan before zig-zagging our way through Södermalm. 

 Passing the city hall.

Leaving Södermalm northbound back towards Kungsholmen we crossed Västerbron – a tall bridge that I was a bit worried about as it was just before the 30km mark. But it turned out that it didn’t feel nearly as bad as I had feared (I guess routine has a say in this, seeing plenty of others slow down significantly going up), and the two ends not being identical it was luckily the steep end we ran down and the gentler end we ascended. Running the same route through Kungsholmen and Stadshagen (but opposite direction) entering Vasastan, but then veering off and returning to Gamla Stan one last time, only following the north part, back to the harbor across from the castle before following the route as before, but instead of turning right towards Djurgården we turned left for a few 100m before turning in down along the stadium, entering in the far corner and ran the last few meters around on the running track before crossing the finish line.

The weather was beautiful; a bit over 20 degrees, plenty of sun and only a breeze. While it meant that it was a fair bit warmer than what I prefer when running, it also brought plenty of people out to cheer us along which really set a high mood for the day. It was only when we were passing through Djurgården that there were only a few onlookers which didn’t matter much; you got to rest your ears for a bit and you could enjoy the greenery without much interruptions (ignoring the surrounding moaning and panting runners). 

Despite it being warm it went surprisingly well; my finishing time was 3:49:08 which was a new PR, and not only that – it was an improvement of 3:25 which feels significant. Came in as 5273 out of 18863 overall (top 27,95%), 4491 out of 13456 men (top 33,38%) and 629 out of 1485 M40 (top 42,36%). With that new PR I was very happy with the result and the course isn’t even particularly flat. I guess the 19 water stations along the way also helped.

In the evening I left the city center and visited a cousin and his family for dinner before returning to the hotel for some much needed sleep. The following day I had a short walk around Skeppsholmen to kill time before leaving for the airport and returning home.

Full album can be seen here.