3rd - 7th of November - Seoul pt. 2

Having completed the marathon Monday started off sore and slow. Generally, with nothing really planned other than wanting to go out and have a walk around, my morning were generally quite slow and I would rarely leave the hotel until after 11. 

The daily schedule was basically to leave the hotel, find a place for lunch, have a walk around until dinner time where I'd find something to eat, and then gradually return to the hotel. 

On the Monday I aimed for the Gwangjang Market - a large market with lots of shops and not lacking a large number of food stalls, too. Having had a bowl of noodle soup I aimed for Changdeokgung, a castle nearby, but finding the area closed I decided to walk around the walled area. It turned out that in doing so I found myself going through the huge campus of Sungkyunkwan University, the oldest university in South Korea. Apparently they have also preserved a 700 year old building which I didn't see on my way through, though. Leaving on the other side I passed through Bukchon Hanok Village, a small area where the old buildings have been preserved and are in use today, whether for small shops or residential houses. The place is intensely visited by tourists so there are signs everywhere indicating that they are only welcome 1000-1700; clearly in an attempt to let the people living there have some privacy in the evenings. 

 

 Gwangjang Market.

 

 

Tuesday I left for Gangnam - the district made known to the entire world by Psy's megahit Gangnam Style back in 2012 (which also forced YouTube to change how they showed number of views as it passed the limit of integers). Coex Mall was more than just that; among other things it also had Starfield library with plenty of natural light and shelving from floor to (almost) ceiling. I can understand why it is so photographed but overall it seemed quite impractical as a library as many of the shelves were just for looks and it didn't seem particularly big from what I could see. One would suspect it was built for views, not for actual library-ism. After having a walk around - including lunch - I spent most of the afternoon walking the area. It is pretty clear that Gangnam is a nicer (i.e.: more expensive) part of Seoul; buildings are generally bigger, newer and nicer looking, but I also realized that I during those few hours saw more golf stores than I had during the rest of my stay. I also managed to get a quick look of the Bongeunsa Temple near by with the many small Buddha statues. 

 

 

Starfield library. 

 

Gangnam Style statue.

 

 Bongeunsa Temple.

Wednesday I had to move hotel to the one where I'll be staying at for the start of my tour in Myeongdong. So I checked out, got the train to Seoul station and another to my destination. While I was mid-day and therefore not during rush hour there were still plenty of people on the second train. I did feel quite a bit in the way with my bag, but luckily they - and I - didn't have to suffer for long. Checking in I was happy to find out that my room was already ready for me, despite showing up more than 2 hours before the official check-in time. Entering the room I was faced with the reality of a... different hotel. Overall it was fine (twin narrow beds instead of a large double is manageable) but I went from a nice view from 24th floor to a 7th floor view into the wall of the neighboring building less than 2 meters away. The horror!

Cheonggyecheon.

 

From there I had a short walk along the western end of Cheonggyecheon, a small 7-8km long stream going through parts of Seoul before running out in the Han River. It was actually really nice as you were fairly shielded from the city around you (the stream is 5-10m below street level) and it is - everything considered - quite nice and quiet. From here I did a bit of roaming before heading south towards the river when it started getting a bit dark. My goal was to try to get to the other side, follow the river and get some nighttime skyline shots of the city. While I did get across and followed the river, there was not much of a skyline to speak of. There is not one central place where all the tall buildings are centered around, and it seems like buildings are rarely much taller than 25-30 stories, which means you never really get that impressive light show that you'd otherwise get in similar large cities. But I went along, ending up in Yeouido Hangang Park which apparently is a destination for quite a few people to go picnicking in the evening. The area seemed very casual despite being in Yeouido, the main financial district in Seoul. 

 

 

Thursday I decided to walk the rest of Cheonggyecheon, so start around the same place as yesterday but instead go east and end up at the river. I never made it that far, though, as the longer you got the less calm it was as the isolation from the surrounding traffic was lessened and it opened more up. So at one point I veered off and found a market where I got a bit of snacks before slowly heading in a loose western direction through the streets. Walking around - especially in the market - it's clear that this is definitely not a place where tourists usually show up. Barely any signs in English and the market felt VERY local. I reached a bridge that crossed one of the side streams to Cheonggyecheon so I went down and followed it to the end before once again returning to the streets and past Changdeokgung, aiming for the N Tower. 

The tower resides on top of a hill overlooking most of the city, and you can get there either by walking or taking a cable car. Because I have no sense I obviously took the path way that was mostly stairs. A 20 minute hike later, with a few breaks along the way at view points, I made it to the top where I got a ticket and took the elevator to the top. It wasn't perfectly dark yet so I wandered a bit around in the circular building among the crowds. I realized it may not have been the perfect evening as visibility wasn't perfect; it was misty in the distance. I did notice when staying at my first hotel a certain mist in the distance when looking out all days, so I wonder if it would have made a difference what day I came up here. In any case it got dark and I got to see the progress the city change it's looks going from dusk to dark with lights coming on - or at least getting more clear - throughout, on both buildings, vehicles and billboards. Coming down again the start of the walk up was only maybe 100m from my hotel so getting back was easy. 

 

 

 

An advantage this hotel has over the first one is the fact there is a huge night market with loads of shops, restaurants and stalls on the other side of the street that really comes to life in the evening. There are plenty of food options throughout and lots to look at. Plenty of people know of this, which means it's borderline chaos at times tying to navigate. 

 

On the Friday I ended up on Seoul's (old) city wall cutting through central parts of the city. From here, after starting with a fairly sharp ascent, it was possible to get a decent view oft the in a mainly east and northern direction. The weather was nice so the walk ended up similar. Unfortunately at one point you were diverted off the wall and supposed to follow it before getting on it again, but due to bad signage (or my lack of orientation) I didn't manage to find the point where I could continue my walk on it. I had planned to try and do the entire walk before getting back to the hotel but clearly that wasn't to be. Instead I ended up at Cheonggyecheon and walked to the western end before returning to the hotel. Trying to get some shots of the roaming herons and egrets I didn't return to the hotel until around 1745, 15 minutes before the meeting with the tour group. 

 

View from the wall.

 

The meeting was as they usually are; we get to see each other, the tour leader introduces himself and the itinerary for the trip and we are all happy (and I don't remember a single name). For dinner he took us to a restaurant near the night market, and from there he introduced us to Cheonggyecheon and how to get there from the hotel. For most people it was new knowledge; I was just happy to get to see it in the dark when they had light shows going on in the tunnels/under the bridges. 

 

2nd of November - Seoul JTBC marathon

With the race starting at 0800 and the bag drops closing at 0730 today was going to be an early start. I had set the alarm for 0530 (yes, surprisingly I do this voluntarily) but woke up around 0500 and didn't have the guts to go back to sleep worrying I would miss the alarm. I used the opportunity to make it a slow start of the day and left around 0615 out into the still dark city to take the subway 15 minutes to the World Cup Stadium. Along the way runners piled into the train and reaching the destination we were certainly stuffed together. 

Getting to the right place proved a bit challenging as there was a different area for the 10k runners and the few signs that were present were all in Korean. But with a bit of asking around and following the correct flow of people I ended up in the marathon area and the bag drop off. You just chose one of the 40 vehicles to drop off the bag and you got a sticker on your bib with the corresponding number given to your bag. 

I had dragged the drop-off as long as possible, but a bit past 0700 I was on my way to the starting area. The morning was cold - 5-6 degrees with a breeze so handing in my bag also meant I had to say goodbye to my warm shirt and jacket. I had intentionally dressed in a long-sleeved shirt due to the forecast temps but after some time my built-up warmth had gone and it got chilly standing around and waiting. At least the starting area was not directly affected by the wind which helped keeping the comfort level relatively acceptable despite the low temps. 

I ha been put in starting group B - with G being the last. Despite registering my expected finish time as 03:50 I got put in the group with 3:00-3:30 pacers, whereas group C would consist of the 3:40-4:10 pacers, seemingly more suitable for me. I ended up moving into group C instead, but even then it seemed chaotic; the pacers seemingly placed themselves where ever they wanted so the were no rhyme or reason in which one was in front or the rear, despite it should have been logical based on their finish times. One of the 3:40s even jumped into group B. 

But after all that we started off as scheduled and around 8:10 I crossed the starting line with the rest of group C. Heading east we soon turned south and crossed the Han river for the first time across Yanghwa Bridge before going back north across the Mapo Bridge. Here we went north past Gongdeok (and therefore straight past my hotel) and simply stayed on Saemunan-ro street turning us straight east onto Jong-ro and kept going until reaching Sinseol-dong station. Here we headed south-east along Cheonho-daero all the way across Gunjagyo bridge, making a turn at Gunja station down Neungdong-ro, down Achasan-ro and finally down Jayang-ro before crossing Jamsil bridge, our third and last crossing of the Han river. Here we practically circled the area surrounding Seogchon station before turning down Wiryeseong-daero and crossing the finish line, alongside the Olympic Park.

Especially in the beginning it felt very crowded despite running on broad streets, and it also took longer than usual to loosen things up - my heel still got stepped on around 5km. Passing 10km things were getting easier but even then you still have to pay close attention to those around you for a while. With that said it was quickly evident that Korean runners seem to have no qualms to shoulder check you if they want to pass you and they deem you're in the way. It got pretty frustrating at times, but as things eased up it also helped giving room for the more aggressive runners. The water stations, though quite long, were not announced in advance on the course so if you didn't pay attention (or remember that the information given in the race pack said there would be one every 5km (which wasn't super accurate either)) you would have to make desperate move to get in before it was too late - I almost missed the first one because of this, and I believe it was only one place where they had water on both sides of the streets. At 7,5km and every 5km after that there would be sponge stations - slightly less necessary when the weather wasn't warmer than it was, but it was a nice relief the few times I utilized the offer. There were also barely any toilets along the way - I saw people using toilets at gas stations we passed by; I think I saw 4-5 groups of 3 portapotties along the way, and also barely any in the finish area. And peeing in bushes didn't seem to be a thing. Luckily I was sufficiently dehydrated I didn't need to pee until almost an hour after returning to the hotel (which, I know, is not necessarily a good thing, but from a practical viewpoint it was pretty nice). 

The course wasn't flat - app. 250m up and down - but while the inclines weren't particular steep they kept going for a while, effectively draining the energy, though it was probably also due to me starting too fast (despite moving myself into a slower group) that my pace started plummeting after the mid-way point, and the last 10-ish km I was running around 6min/km, struggling hard. In spite of this I still managed to get in at 3:58:45, just below my 4 hour goal, though it didn't feel particularly elegant. 

The official time and placement is at the time of writing unknown as no data can be found. I suspect it's hiding somewhere on a Korean website but due to a lot of the text is posted as pictures instead of text the browser can't translate it, so I'm waiting for a more internationally inclined website to post the results. It is clear that they are capable of communicating in English, but you sometimes get he feeling they just can't be bothered with anything but the most important. The info magazine that was included in the race pack had the most important information also in English (though much of it seemed either shoddily translated or just put through Google translate). But the rest of the magazine was in Korean only, though some headlines were also in English - but how does that help? 

Crossing the finish line I walked what felt like an eternity to get to my bag, and then all the way back to get to the exit where we passed through the snack area (as they called it) where we were handed a bag with snacks. You have to give them credit of handing out the equivalent of 2½-3 liters of liquids, bananas, a bread (which was a dull disappointment) and a snickers (whoever decided to do this has my undying love). I honestly wouldn't have minded saving a bit on the liquids if it meant more to eat instead. It took an hour of constant movement from the finish line to end up at the nearby subway station, then a 45 minute standing ride before being able to return to my hotel. 

Added the 8th of February 2026

I spent a long time trying to find more information on the results online. I also tried mailing the coordinators but it was 50/50 if they bothered responding to my mails. I also asked on reddit, and while that was probably the most fruitful attempt it was still quite limited what I gained from it. My official time ended up being 3:57:39. My overall place was 8500, 2958 in my age group and 2644 among 40's men. Oh, and also 2259th overall in my starting group and 2073th among men in my starting group, but those two numbers aren't really helpful as I was put in the wrong starting group from the beginning. And while all these numbers are fine and good, it doesn't do much good if you don't know out of how many. And... Well, the best I could find was a google translated article estimating 34.000 participants, split evenly between the 10k and marathon. That's it. How useful is that?!

 

Apparently there was (is) a Korean app that had all the results, and assuming I would be able to get some more information there I signed up for an account. Getting through the trouble of guessing based on the UI and back and forth between the app and google translate I got most of the way through until I hit a wall that required me to identify myself with a Korean ID (similar to the Danish MitID). 

 

Also, with regards to photos, a user on reddit referred me to a well hidden page that had the photos. The selection was limited and quality seemed to be so-so (none from the finishing line), and if you wanted to buy any you needed a Korean address, even if you just wanted to download them.

 

I was surprised to find out how Korean-centric this run was. To be honest I got the impression that they didn't really care at all about international participants considering the absolute lack of communication in English. Why do they even let internationals sign up if they don't give a shit?

29th of October - 1st of November - Seoul pt. 1

The direct flight to Seoul went without any issues; meals, movie and naps are always a good combo. We arrived 20 minutes before plan but as our gate was still occupied we ended up being parked on the tarmac for almost half an hour. 

Immigration and picking up my bag went smooth and less than an hour after getting off the plane I was standing in the arrival hall. I picked up my SIM- and transport card and took a 1-hour ride with the subway to my hotel. Leaving the station I had found the exit that on the map looked like the closest one to the hotel but I was still preparing to have to walk around for a bit to find it. No worries, though, leaving the station the entrance to the hotel was literally less than 10 meters ahead from where I stepped off the escalator. As it at that point nearing 2200 there was nothing left to do than check in and pass out. 

View from my hotel room.

My first course of action the following day was to go to the Olympic Park 45 minutes (by subway) away to pick up my race pack for the run on Sunday. I found the conference room at the hotel as instructed which turned out to be a table outside said room with a couple of people taking runners' ID and then finding their pack in the room. It was very easy for the runners; quick in and out, no expo or fancy sponsor booths. The pack was a first: a box that you would usually see being used to ship stuff in, packed with things, most of what seemed very unnecessary (to a tourist, at least). Outside of the expected bib, bag drop bag and the included singlet (which I will not be wearing, and considering it's XXL it isn't very XXL) the pack included various energy gels, soft skittles, a skittles tote bag, laundry detergent, sport tape, soap/shampoo, ads (among other a voucher for car rental) and other - I assume sponsor - stuff that made you scratch your head. 

The Olympic Park. 

After taking what I wanted and leaving the rest in a bin I had a walk in the park which most of the time was more park and less Olympic. The stadiums lined the park's east side so unless you were there it was just like any other park. I'll admit that the stadiums didn't look as imposing as I had expected, but considering they had hosted the Olympics back in the 80s I guess things just weren't as big back then. Took the subway back to Seoul central and had a walk to Myeongdong where I spent a few hours walking around exploring and seeing all the food stalls getting set up for the night, had dinner and ended up back at the hotel at around 1900, calling it an early night. 

Sungnyemun Gate.

The following days I spent walking around my hotel's location and Seoul main train station to get my bearings and get a feel of the city. The public transport, the subway in particular, is extensive and when getting used to it easy to use to get almost anywhere in the city. It's fast and efficient, but I'm also starting to get the impression it's the only practical way of getting around. I like to just walk the streets with little plan, but while there are sidewalks in most places there doesn't seem to be much going on between areas around the subway stations. You go to a station to do something there, you don't really just wander around. Of course, my experience with Seoul is still quite limited and it likely just depends on gong the right places, but in that case I am still looking for those. As I currently don't have any activities specifically planned I will likely still have my walks around town, but I'll find out in the coming days if that is a useful tactic. 

 

Hallway at the War Memorial of Korea.

 

Keeping south of the north

There are plenty of places I haven’t been to yet it sometimes seems difficult to find somewhere to go on a vacation. The last year to Japan exceeded my expectation so feeling inspired I started looking for similar destinations. I my eyes fell on Korea. The southern variant, not the northern.

I had initially planned a trip but afterwards I realized that the weekend before arrival there would be a marathon in Seoul. I looked into it and suddenly I was the owner of a spot in the JTBC Seoul Marathon. Woops. I had my arrival flight moved and booked an extra hotel in the city.

28th of October – 6th of November

I’m flying out late on the 28th and arriving in the evening the next day, so I felt it would be important to find a hotel that was easily accessible from the airport. But due to the marathon going from west to east of the city I also wanted to find a hotel that had direct connections to both start and finish. To my relief it was actually possible to find such a hotel, sitting at a station near the central station. This means I will have more than 8 full days in Seoul by myself, exploring (eating), running and recovering and basically just relaxing and taking it all in.

 

7th – 10th of November

I’ll be joining the travel group in the afternoon and we’ll spend the first day in Seoul before travelling to Gyeongju by train, a city on the east coast. The city is the old capital of South Korea and we will be introduced to, among plenty other things, Bulguksa Temple, a UNESCO site.

 

11th – 13th of November

We will continue further south along the coast to Busan, passing though several small villages along the way. We will then return to Seoul to spend a day visiting the DMZ.

 

14th – 18th of November

From Seoul we will drive down though the western part of the country that apparently the greener part. We will spend nights in Jeonju and Yeosu before ending up on Jeju, a small island south of the mainland.

 

19th – 22nd of November

Final goodbye with the group before flying back to Seoul and spending 2 nights in the central part of the city to take in the last impressions before I head home after another – hopefully – lovely trip.

With Japan still in recent memory I am looking forward to see the similarities and differences compared to this trip. Looking at the itinerary it’s clear I will definitely have enough time in Seoul when there, but with all the spare time I have in the beginning I will have plenty of opportunity to do other stuff if I already start tiring of the city. I doubt, it though. We will see.

10th – 13th of October – Eindhoven

There were no flights directly to Eindhoven so instead I flew into Amsterdam and then took the train 1½ hours to Eindhoven with a change in Rotterdam. It made getting back and forth a bit more complicated but the trains were on time and it was a comfortable ride, so there was no issue. Arriving in Eindhoven it took less than 10 minutes to locate my hotel where I checked in and claiming my room that turned out to overlook the finishing area of the race, and soon after I left to go to the Technical University where I picked up my bib and shirt. As it was getting late and dark I wandered about for a bit and realized that the city seemed to enjoy Italian and Japanese food, so I ended up in a ramen place where I started off with some Takoyaki before having a delicious bowl of ramen. Not having any desserts (what?!) I left and had a quick visit to a kiosk to bring some back home to the hotel. You can’t have dinner without dessert when you’re on vacation!

 

A striking photo.

The next day I had a walk outside the center of the city and realized how correct it was when reading on travelling sites saying that Eindhoven isn’t really a tourist destination. I therefore returned to the center where I spent time visiting the DAF and Philips museum. The former had a bunch of vehicles presented from throughout the history of the company and while there was no real walkthrough of the history of the company itself the descriptive plaques for the vehicles combined gave a fairly good overview of the company, too. The Philips museum focused on the company’s foundation, the light bulb, the later years’ development of hospital technology and more recently the implementation of AI. The average consumer only see a fraction of what Philips do – and the home appliance divisions have mostly been sold off or split into other companies; focus now is health technology (ultrasound, respiratory care, radiography and lots of other fancy stuff). They have also helped found – among other things – ASML which is one of the world’s main suppliers to semiconductor industries around the world, supplying equipment for chip production. It’s some serious high-tech stuff, and together with numerous other high tech industries in the city it has made Eindhoven a major tech hubs in Europe.

One of the vehicles that participated in the Paris-Dakar rally. 

 

Derp. 

The starting area was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel, on the opposite side of the station, on Montgomerylaan. While the street was wide they only used on side for the runners which meant that the starting area was stretched quite a bit. But all was good and we were off on time – just before the starting line we were squeezed together to half width and while annoying and stopping the flow it meant that it helped spreading the runners over a larger distance, loosening up the group and not having a too crowded start. 

The course generally consisted of long stretches with not too many turns which meant it was easy to get into a zen mood without having to focus on constant making turns and positioning yourself optimally. It wasn’t until around 30km we started making more regular turns. Going north on Montgomerylaan we made our first turn down Winston Churchilllaan, circling around Luytelaer before returning west and going up along Henri Dunantpark. From here we headed west until we ran south down along the airport until reaching the High Tech Campus which we circled (the place seemed huge!) before taking a quick nip down into Voldijn before returning north and finishing in the city center, almost right outside my hotel.

The cheering was limited along the course, you met them in groups near stations and intersections, but getting back into the city the energy was high. Also, the last couple of hundred meters we merged with the half-marathon course which suddenly made otherwise nice conditions very cramped. It was manageable considering the relative short distance and you could distract yourself with the onlookers. Unfortunately I didn’t quite avoid the hand-on-shoulder push-you-aside runner a few meters before the finish line – hurray for you, you gained 3 seconds! (he turned out to be a double-dick as he was also the type that just completely stopped the second he crossed the line).

I managed to finish in 3:53:43, a very respectable time, my 4^th fastest marathon time. I came in 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%). A surprisingly fast group of runners I would have thought my relative result would have been better. I was a very flat course, though, with 48m up and a little less down over the entire course.

Getting back to the hotel was a completely different challenge, though. I could look right up at it but we got channeled past, split up in half and full runners, and we, the full marathoners had out exit in front of the station. Getting back to the hotel was wild. It was crowded getting out because of all the +1s waiting for runners, and then getting across 18 Septemberplein was nearly impossible as that was where the half marathoners exited, and that was a significantly bigger group of people with their +1s waiting. The down Hermanus Boexstraat which turned out to be the last stretch of the half marathon meaning the sidewalks were packed. It took me close to an hour walking the 1km back to the hotel. It was absolutely maddening.

Had a shower (it was a bathtub with a shower – it’s never fun getting into one of them after a run) before going out and had a pile of fries before settling in in my room and only moving again to go out for dinner.

The following day was spent in the hotel before leaving for the station and taking the trains back to Amsterdam and flying home.

Full album can be seen here.

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.