31st of August – Stavanger marathon

The run started at 0830 and with 5 minute walk from the hotel I set the alarm at 0700 to have plenty of time. And good I did: I woke up when the alarm went off and then apparently fell asleep again after turning off the alarm instead of snoozing it. I woke up half an hour later, so due to the good time I have given myself there wasn’t any worry about it, but there was a smidgen of panic there for a moment, realizing how bad it could have gone.

I showed up at the start around 0815 where people were getting ready. With the size of the run it all seemed very informal; a starting portal with a few fences leading into it and then just the open plaza in front of the cathedral where people were hanging out – both runners and onlookers – waiting for the start. A few minutes before the start the pacers (3:30, 3:45, 4:00 and 4:15 positioned themselves and pretty much immediately people gathered around and behind their chosen pacer. It felt surprisingly calm and orderly. I positioned myself with the 3:45 – my goal was the usual sub-4 hours despite the hilly course, but I wanted to stay ahead of the 4:00 pacers as long as possible and my plan was to have the 3:45 pacer to pull me for as long as possible, maybe 10ish km, so I could start the run with a bit of a margin to my goal.

And then – without too much fanfare – we were off on time at 0830.

And we were off!

The past days it had been overcast, chilly, windy and with regular showers and drizzles. Today the sky was clear, cool wind and temps around 13-17 degrees, so almost perfect running weather. Such a relief as I was worried the weather would have stayed lousy making the run a completely different experience.

Being in the center of Stavanger the first part of the run took us zig-zagging through residential areas (and up!) before reaching a forest path which we followed for maybe 15ish km circling the major lakes of the course (Store Stokkavatnet and Hålandsvatnet). There were definitely several ups and downs along the way, and seeing how people just seemed to race downhill was intimidating Despite being forest it was mostly open out towards the lake, resulting in some beautiful views, helped along by the weather.

To my big surprise I managed to keep up with the pacer – even easily so, it felt like. I realized at one point that in the beginning she was setting a relatively aggressive pace that would be more fitting for the 3:30 pacer, and yet I had no problems keeping up. She did though settle at a more appropriate pace at around 10ish km.

Reaching the half-way point we had returned into residential areas and the pacer for the group was replaced by a fresh runner. I was starting to fall a bit behind at this point and could see the group ahead of me, and in the few minutes it took them to swap equipment (flag and small backpack with snacks for desperate runners) the group that had followed the pacer so far seemed to completely fall apart now that they were left on their own. The new pacer caught up with the remainder of the group and things got relatively settled again, but it never got back to its former self again. It was a but funny to see, when you got a glimpse of the other pacers; people stuck to them like glue and especially during the first half there were very few people on their own so it just looked like a couple of groups of runners out and about, and not a full-fledged marathon.

Staring to fall behind of the pacer didn’t bother me too much, as this was something I had been planning on happening for quite a while. The biggest surprise was that it had taken this long before it happening, and in spite of falling behind I was still running faster (20-30sec/km) than I had expected to do at this point. So I kept pushing on and looking ahead I noticed the pace groups slowly getting smaller, slowly falling apart as runners no longer could keep up with their pacers. At least I wasn’t the only one – which shouldn’t have been surprising at all.

The conditions were excellent!

Most of the second half of the course overlapped with the half marathon course, and those runners were started 40-55 minutes after us. This meant that we wouldn’t risk getting passed by fast fresh half marathoners when we were struggling towards the end (like what happened in Tromsø), but on the other hand it was a huge morale boost when I at one point with app. 8km left started catching up with the slowest half marathoners. That felt really good!

Running along the water’s edge, and passing the 3 swords, in what turned out to be in amazing weather, was simply a great experience. Even if I was gradually getting slower it just felt good. It’s rare that I past 30km feel this optimistic despite my legs were getting predictably heavy at this point. Around the same time I realized my projected finish time would be around 3:48 and while I didn’t expect it to hold until the finish line I did let myself be carefully optimistic due to how I was feeling. The prediction actually didn’t change much to my surprise until I passed the 35km mark and even then it didn’t drop more than a few minutes. At this point I realized that unless something unexpected happened I would be finishing in less than 4 hours, and maybe, maybe I would be able to get close to my PR from Loch Ness of 3:52:52.

With 4km to go we were back in Stavanger and going along streets, and keeping half an eye on my time things were looking positive. Fighting the last few hills (not nearly as tall as those in the forests but they felt much worse) we soon arrived at the lake at the bottom of the hill where the cathedral was located. Getting to the far end all you had to do was circle the cathedral and cross the finish line on the other side – and ascend the hill at the same time. One last push. The last 300m was a rough ascent (looking back it wasn’t nearly as bad as I make it sound) before taking a sharp right turn and 100m straight across the finish line.

Realizing there was a hill to conquer before getting to the finish line.

The finish line was as informal as the starting line. Someone handed you your medal, a table with drinks, one with bananas and one with chocolate buns. There were barely any people otherwise, due to the limited number of participants there wasn’t really a crowd, and I waddled about, grabbed my stuff, left and carefully got myself back to the hotel which somehow had moved so it now took more than double the time to cover the distance than this morning. Weird.

 

The altitude not being super reliable as the start and finish was the same place.

I ended up crossing the finish line in 3:52:33, a 20 second improvement from Loch Ness – and that PR was from a course where the first half was downhill. This course was 352-375m up and down so far from flat, so while I was hoping for a sub-4 hour result I was not expecting a result like this. This was definitely a very nice surprise! I came in as 141 out of 393 overall (top 35,88%), 124 of 314 men (top 39,49%) and 15 out of 29 among M40-44 (top 51,72%). A much better result than expected and unnecessary to say I am very happy about it all! The first crossing the finish line did so at 2:33:03, the last at 5:59:40. The latter makes me believe they took the 6-hour limit seriously, whereas other runs let you finish but after the time limit they open up the streets again and you’re pretty much on your own until you reach the finish line. 

Full album can be seen here.

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. 

Gothenburg half marathon

Apparently there is a rumor going around that I enjoy running and I have no idea how it has started. I have some family in Gothenbrug and at one point he contacted me and pointed out that they have an annual half marathon, and not only that it's among the largest in the world with between 50.000 and 70.000 registered runners every year.

Not much else was necessary for me to be convinced it would be a good idea to go. I'm apparenly easy like that.

17th of May
It's a late start - the first at let go at 1300 and with the high number of runners the last group is sent off at 1600. With my estimated start time around 1:45 I'm assuming I'll in a group starting some time between 1400 and 1500, but only time will tell. The race starts near Slottskogsvallen stadium and finishes inside it. The course takes the runners across the river on Ävlsborgbron followed largely by running along the water northbound before reaching Hisingbron and crossing the river again back to the southern side. Here we will pass Linnéplatsen before skirting along Slottsskogen before finishing in the stadium. With the (potential) number of runners I expect the support to be great for the entire run, but never having run in Sweden before I don't know how they are cheering-wise so that'll be interesting to see.

So another run, but at least I have found one that doesn't require a lot of travel coordination and long travel times. 

Running and kitties

I have a colleague who is/was an ultrarunner but focuses on marathons these days ("you get on the world ranking list after 300 marathons!") who mentioned in passing that he every year runs the Malaga marathon in December. Guess who didn't need much more convincing than that to join a run?

The Iberian lynx is a species of lynx which is - surprise, surprise - only present on the Iberian peninsula so I have recently tried to look up photo tours that would hunt for these. Unfortunately all tours are focused around the winter which has never really suited my schedule when looking at it, but with this run in December it was an almost perfect setup to add a bit of safari'ing to my run.

12th-14th of December
Flying to Malaga early morning (via Stockholm as my flight from Copenhagen was cancelled) means I have plenty of time on arrival - on the other hand it means a very early morning at the airport. I expect to be sleeping most of the flight - after being fed, obviously. Malaga is apparently quite impressive during Christmas with all the lights so that will be an adventure, but otherwise I suspect I will spending most of the time wandering as I usually do. There is a breakfast run on the Saturday, or rather a brunch run; starting at 1100 they have figured out how to be nice and not starting horribly early for a simple 5km run.

15th of December
The day of the marathon. The start and finish is in Parque de Malaga 5 minutes from the hotel (one might suspect that was intentionally booked!). From there you run app. 3km west along Av. de Andalucia before turning towards the water and following it back and going out and back at the ferry terminal. From there we continue east to Arroyo Jaboneras where we more or less do a 180 and return the same way from where we came. Follow the coast all the way to Guadalhorce where we turn inland, cross Av. de Andalucia, follow Guadalmedina north until the distance fits and we do another 180 and return to the finish area. I've been informed that 20ish degrees is fairly common this time of year so it'll be quite warm for a run, but I'm hoping the time along the water will result in a breeze that can help us cool down a bit.

16th - 20th of December
The following morning I'll be picked up at the hotel by the gudie at we will drive a few hours north through Cordoba to just outside Sierra de Andujar national park. Here we'll be staying until Thursday and in the mean time we'll be going on drives trying to find the elusive lynx. There are obviously many other animals and birds to look at but the lynx is the main event of the tour. Coming back to Malaga thursday afternoon I'll spend an extra night in the city before flying out on the 15th before lunch.

Focusing on running trips wildlife trips have unfortunately been down prioritized a bit in recent years, so with a trip like this I get to combine both hobbies into one trip. It's a win/win! 

26th – 30th – Tokyo pt. 2 and return home

On the Tuesday – the 26^th – I woke up to pouring rain and no matter how much I willed it to not rain it just kept coming down. As it seemed to become a wet full day I decided to spend as much time as possible indoors. So I took the train back to Ueno park where I headed towards the National Museum. Seeing the queue outside I gave up on that idea and instead went to the National History Museum just next door which had no outdoor queue.

The museum was similar to any other national history museum you’d visit – going through history, evolution and everything in between. The museum was spread out on multiple floors so the exhibition was quite large. There was even a floor where they presented Japanese Nobel winners, scientific techniques and similar. It was all very interesting , and it would have been even more so if they had translated more than 5% of all the texts (and that’s a very generous 5%) describing what was shown or exhibited. That fact was unfortunately a bit disappointing.

Following this I returned outside into the still pouring rain and headed towards the National Museum where the queue had shortened somewhat. Getting inside I deposited my wet jacket and bag into a coin locker (which were common to see almost everywhere in museums) before starting my walk around. It went through art and culture for the last 40.000 years – basically from when the first people arrived in Japan (based on archeological finds). They also had a nice small collection of samurai swords – design and workmanship of most of them was beautiful. There was a lot of care put into design. Funnily they didn’t mention anywhere that the reason why the folded the iron so many times (resulting in the beautiful layered patterns) was to build strength into the weapon when using Japanese iron which is generally of very poor quality. Getting halfway through the top floor the time turned 1700 and they informed the guests that they were closing. Woops. So I rushed through the rest, but seeing that most of it looked like mostly clothes and dying of these so I don’t think I missed much relative to my own interests. The overall experience was so-so; at least they had translated all texts to English but it felt very dry throughout the exhibition. It was borderline boring at times, also compared to other similar museums – I didn’t feel it was the content itself that was uninteresting.

I left the building – and it was still pouring down – and took the train to Shibuya where I after a wet search finally managed to find a place for dinner before returning to the hotel.

The following day the weather was the complete opposite; sun, warm and barely a cloud. I left the hotel with a bit more optimism than yesterday and started off on a roof terrace on 3^rd floor putting me at eyelevel of the shinkansen trains going by nearby, just south of Tokyo station. Unfortunately only the white ones came by this way as the more colorful ones primarily go north. Apart from me there were 3 local elderly men, all with their own cameras who looked like they took it very seriously – trainspotting is apparently quite popular in Japan. The roof – 9^th floor – of a mall next to Tokyo station was the next stop. Great view of the station building with its 20+ tracks and the plaza in front facing the imperial palace. Unfortunately the shinkansen were on the far tracks so despite getting to see a larger variety of trains – including the northbound more colorful ones – the position for actually seeing anything was less advantageous. 

 

Tokyo station.

With the cherry blossom season being postponed with 1-1½ weeks compared to just a few weeks ago I decided that even a little would also be fine. So I headed towards Shinjuku park where a few trees were already blooming. If you were colorblind you’d still know exactly what trees were in bloom as they attracted hordes of people surrounding them gave it away. Only a handful of the hundreds of trees were blooming, but they showed colors from light pink to a very intense dark pink – almost red. Those that were blooming were beautiful and several of them were occupied by birds jumping around in them and feeding on the flowers. 

 

Japanese white-eye.

 

 

Brown-eared bulbul.

 

 

If you can't make up your mind whether you want red or white, get both!

From there I went to have lunch before visiting the Meiji shrine in the middle of a forest in Tokyo and because of the surrounding trees it felt calm walking around here despite having a sprawling metropolis just outside. It was built to commemorate (and hold the souls of) Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken who are considered being those who took the initiative to found what we consider modern Japan.

 

Offerings of sake.

 

 

Offerings of Bourgogne wine.

 

The shrine.

From there the walk took me to the moat around the imperial castle, which, if everything had gone according to plan, would have been lined by blooming cherry trees on both sides. Instead there were bare trees illuminated by colored lights. It looked nice but it wasn’t quite the same. 6 people had found 2 small clusters of flowers on a branch, though, which probably made it the most photographed flower cluster in town. 

It looks nice, but not nearly as nice as it could have!

From there I hurried back to the hotel, left my bag and hurried back out to get to my table reservation for sushi omakase at Sushi-ya. 1 chef behind the counter, 3-4 helpers and 8 customers (5 Brazilians, 2 Indonesians and me). It was quite an adventurous 2 hours. I stopped counting at around the 8^th dish but we must have been served around 20 pieces of nigiri, salad, soup, omelet, etc. The chef expertly cut and arranged everything in front of us as we went along, with the occasional shout at the kitchen getting a loud “Hai!” back and moments later someone came out with whatever he had requested, whether it was more rice, fried vegetables, lightly cooked fatty tuna, more drinks or what may have been needed in that certain situation. The helpers were very observant if you needed a water refill or running out of drinks. At one point I accidentally dropped a piece of sushi on the table between the serving plate and myself; I quickly got it back up and wiped the table with my napkin, trying to remove any evidence of my clumsiness. Putting my napkin back where it had been placed I noticed that the chef was halfway with his own napkin but realizing I had been faster than him he instead shouted an order and seconds later a waiter’s hand snuck up next to me from behind, grabbed my napkin and left a new fresh one instead. 

 

The chef presenting fatty, medium and lean bluefin tuna.

We were 8 happy and full customers who left the restaurant 2 hours later. Too bad this will forever shrew my view of what good sushi is (not to mention that the sushi here is so much better and not least significantly cheaper than it is at home!). Absolutely amazing and delicious. Worth the price despite being able to buy many meals at a random running sushi place for the price of this.

The last few days I started seeing what people meant that you could spend a week in Tokyo before you'd feel the need to do something else, and I felt at times I was just walking around trying to kill time and find somewhere that had more blooming cherry trees. I found myself spending time in well known areas like Shibuya and Shinjuku with the constant activity without the (unhinged) chaos, returning to Shinjuku park on the last day to realize that just those few days since last visit was enough to notice many more trees blooming (but still a fraction of what was to come) and taking in the mood there. Something I hadn't done yet was trying to get some skyline photos of the city which was hard to find as there weren't many good places with enough space that you were able to take in the entire view without getting obstructed by buildings. During the day walking around near where my first hotel was located I realized a pedestrian path had been constructed along the water which gave the exact view I had been hoping for. On that last night in Japan I got myself out there, enjoyed the silence of being almost alone and took in the views - and there being barely a cloud on the sky improved the experience. It was probably one of the few nights here in Tokyo where the sky was clear. Great timing.

This is how nigiri is supposed to be: plenty of fish, a little rice. Not the other way round!

 

 

Coming back into the center after getting my shots I was looking for a place with pork katsu. Unfortunately, getting there close to 2200 most restaurants were closing and I saw my chance of getting my last portion of pork katsu slipping through my fingers. I ended up having to settle for ramen - and using the word "settling" about ramen is an hyperbole; while it wasn't pork katsu it was still pretty damn tasty.

The following early morning I checked out from my hotel, grabbed the train to the airport, checked in and flew home without a hitch. Big thanks to The Equalizer 3, J Edgar Hoover, The Marvels, Barbie and Ferrari for entertaining me along the way when I wasn't sleeping.

What a trip this was! I didn't quite know what to expect other than the marathon and food, but I was blown away by the entire thing. I came home after 4½ weeks with amazing memories which I hope I one day get to experience once again - maybe go for a trekking trip which there are plenty of possibilities to do in the wilder areas of the country. Or, if for nothing else, then for the ramen, pork katsu and sushi.

Full album can be seen here.

25th – Nagano

I had signed up for a day tour in Nagano starting at 0930 which meant I had to depart Tokyo two hours before. That meant an alarm at 0600. And I apparently do this voluntarily.

 But everything went as scheduled (of course) and I arrived on time with the other 46 people who had signed up for the tour. While it’s far from every day the group is as large as it was today it apparently isn’t unheard of, either, but due to the group size the two guides (German & American) decided to split us up in two. I ended up in the American’s group, and during roll call I was asked what I preferred to be called after struggling with pronouncing my name. My answer – as usual in these cases – was jokingly “God Emperor”. But in this case it was taken to heart so throughout the day I was referred to as God Emperor. I guess I could have been called (much) worse.

Our half started the day with going to a sake tasting where we went through app. 10 small cups of different varieties – including some non-alcoholic which were milky-white with a creamy consistency. That was a weird experience. Also, with the stronger tasting sakes I confirmed that I very likely will never be good friends with them. Just not really to my taste.

After that joyous start of the day we headed out to the Zenkoji Temple. Apparently it’s a nondenominational temple so people of all faiths are allowed to pray inside. It was built in the 7^th century and the city was built up around it. The temple’s main Buddha statue is allegedly the first statue that came to Japan, and the temple commands total secrecy so no one are allowed to see the statue, not even the high priests. You can pray to it; you are let into a completely darkened room where it is located at the end of a long hallway and you must feel your way to the prayer spot and back. A replica is taken out for people to see every 6 years or so, and during those 1½-2 months literally millions come to Nagano to see it.

 

Zenkoji Temple.

Also; something a bit more down to earth the bell that was rung to initiate the winter Olympics in 1998 is located just outside the temple.

 

Not quite Big Ben but they did seem a bit proud of it.

At noon we walked over to the restaurant where we had lunch (a bit of shabu-shabu) before getting back into our bus and driving to the monkey national park. The 45 minute drive felt much shorter than that, probably because I managed to nod off half way there.

Form the parking lot we had a 2km walk ahead of us where 1½ of them was on a 1-1½m wide dirt path in the forest with a drop on one side and steep hill on the other. Being in a cold area there was still patches of compressed snow lying around so at times you had to be very careful where you put your feet. Luckily the majority of the path was flat and any incline had steps put into the ground. But with the narrow path and people returning down it did get frustrating at times getting stuck behind people who clearly were in no hurry to see the monkeys and walking as if they were just learning how to walk.

But finally I made it to the end; seeing the macaques in the pool was enormously soothing. Sitting there they all just seemed so relaxed. I must admit, though, that the pool was significantly smaller than I had expected, and I had always assumed there would be more than one. You ended up focusing so much on them that you completely forgot about all the others on the cliffs and hills around you, and also running on railings and on the ground just past your feet. Overall it was just a joy to see all the monkeys relaxing and seemingly having a good time despite our close presence. And sitting there with their eyes half closed zen-like in the steam they were just so photogenic.

It was pretty cold on the day – no wonder the monkeys preferred soaking in the pool – but I was stubborn and insisted on staying as long as possible. And I’m glad I did; right before close, around 1545, the rangers came out with buckets of feed which was something that immediately got everyone out of the pool. With all of them moving around near the rangers you suddenly realized how many were actually present and how many were hidden in the surrounding landscape. And yet, despite the numbers, it was all happening in a calm manner; there was barely any fighting and none of them went for the buckets but instead waited patiently for the feed to be thrown out to them. While the staff does feed them it is not enough for them to survive, only just enough to keep them interested and keep them coming to the pool for the enjoyment of the tourists.

 

Based on all the photos I had seen of the monkeys before seeing them myself 

I assumed the pool was much larger than it was, but it turned out to be quite small.

From our group we were 2 left plus the German guide, and when the feeding was done we went back down to the bus where we arrived as the last a few minutes before the 1630 deadline. The rest had arrived some time ago and had just been waiting – a waste of time in my eyes with all those monkeys on display. We returned to the station (with another nap along the way) where I got onto the train back to Tokyo before heading to the hotel and going to bed.