A midsummer night's dream: Tromsø midnight sun marathon

I had to cross the arctic circle to achieve a new half marathon PB.

An impulsive story with a happy ending:

June 3: One of my running buddies, Ina, tells me that she is going to Tromsø to participate in the half marathon course of the Midnight Sun Marathon on June 17, combining it with a few days' vacation. This is a race I always thought would be cool to participate in, and I immediately want to join her. Later that evening, I check flights and I check with Ina whether she would like company. She is so enthusiastic that I now want to go even more, but I still cannot make up my mind.

June 4: Frank says I should go. I check flights once more. There was only one reasonably priced ticket left for the return. I say that if that ticket is still there, I will take it as a sign and go. It is still there! I buy the tickets and text Ina. Ina is so happy that I get even happier. She says I can stay in her room. I sign up for the race.

June 12: Ina and I have both been very busy, so this is the first time we get to meet before the race. During the weekly Melkesyre run in Hordnesskogen we make plans for the coming weekend. For the past week we were both in recovery after participating in the Bergen Fjellmarathon (mountain half marathon) rail race on June 1. We both had new PBs at that race, by several minutes each, so we both feel that we are on a good trend. On the other hand, we are both worried that we had almost no asphalt running since the end of April. After participating in the Bergen City Marathon, the half marathon course, we have both been preparing for the mountain half marathon so almost all our running has been in terrain and uphill. After the mountain half marathon, we have mainly been taking it easy, so it suddenly hits us that we are not at all prepared for a long distance street race! On the other hand, although the Hordnesskogen run is quite a bit faster than normal, we are able to keep chatting all the way, and we feel strong, so we think we will be fine. The plan is to simply rest until the race after today's run.

June 17: I leave Bergen at 10 am on a small Widerøe propeller plane going directly to Tromsø. Ina arrived in Tromsø already the day before, and she is at the airport to meet me. She is so nice! In fact, we do not at all know each other that well, so this is an interesting experiment in several ways. The weather is cloudy and chilly as we approach the city center. Will there actually be a midnight sun? As we promenade downtown Tromsø looking for a place to have lunch, the sun comes out! And we are the first ones to take an outdoor table in front of a cafe by the harbour. The sun becomes stronger and stronger and in a short while the whole place is full of people and no more tables are available! We sit there enjoying the sun, and looking at the local mountain top Fløya. We both want to go there, but we don't want to tire our legs unnecessarily, and anyway there is not enough time before the race. Being equally impulsive, we suddenly decide to go there and take the cable car up. Up we go with the one car, enjoy the views as the weather is at its most beautiful, and down with the next car. Then we go to her room to rest a little bit. It feels very calming that we seem to agree on everything and decisions are taken so smoothly and easily.

The race is to start at 10:30 pm, so we go to bed at 7 pm and try to sleep for about 1 hour. It is not so easy to fall asleep but at least it feels very good to rest. We are both a bit worried about how our bodies will react to running so late, especially when we both have had pretty little sleep during the last days. Around 8:30 pm we eat a little bit. In fact I end up eating a little too much. I have been carb loading for the last few days, so I really feel heavy and I am worried that I won't be able to run fast at all. We go to the start area at 9:30 pm, leave our bags and start warming up a little. We both feel terrible at the warm up. So high heart rate at so low speed! How are we at all going to run 21 km?? My stomach feels like a balloon, but I keep moving, and I am praying that keeping warmed up  until the race will get as much air as possible out of my body.

At 10:15 pm we both feel much better, while we are participating in the organized warm up. I still don't feel like racing. A few days ago I was even playing with the idea that I could perhaps get a new PB at this race, but just before start I am thinking that I will be happy if I simply manage to finish in less than two hours. At 10:30 pm the gun shot starts the race and there we go! We end up running side by side for the first 3 km, and I feel good, so I keep running with Ina although  I see that our pace is worryingly fast. After the first 3 km, though, I don't dare to keep that pace anymore, although I still feel good. I see that my HR is way above where it should be, so I slow down to something that is closer to what I had planned as my average pace for this race.

The course is pretty flat, with slight downhills immediately following the slight uphills, so it is very easy to keep the pace. The weather is not as nice as earlier in the day, but it is even more spectacular in a way. At around 7 km, we have the sun shining right on our faces, we have a little bit drizzle on our backs, and we have a huge rainbow to our left. Everything feels good, and I am still very surprised that I am able to keep this pace with so little effort.  The course goes to Tromsø airport and then turns back. I always find these turning points troublesome. I get so impatient towards the turning point: are we not there yet? where is it? where IS it????? The whole island where the inner city of Tromsø is placed is 23 km in circumference. So it would be pretty easy to make a full round instead of back on forth on the one side. Perhaps something for the organizers to consider for the future?

June 17: As we pass midnight, I start looking more and more forward to the end. The fast start has started to punish me, and I have to really concentrate to keep the pace. For every km that passes, I am really happy to see the pace of the past km and pretty surprised that also this one went well. Then I quickly recalculate what my finish time will be in the worst case, if I have to drop all the way closer to 6 min / km. And then I manage every km way better than that. I start wondering how my body works. Perhaps a lot of eating before a race is the key? And little sleep?

I arrive at the finish at 00:23, completing the race in 1 hour and 53 minutes. It is 2 minutes faster than my previous best time, which was all the way back in Oslo in 2014. Ina is already at the finish and greets me as I arrive. It turns out that she also had a new PB by more than 2 minutes, and she is 5 minutes faster than me. It is so nice that this turned out so well for both of us! Having the same kind of experience before, during, and after the race, makes the whole thing even more enjoyable for both of us.

After changing into dry and warm clothes, we want to have a glass of wine. As we were enjoying the sun the day before, we were really craving for wine, but we did not want to risk our race performance, so we said we would do it afterwards. But there is no wine to be had.... All restaurants are closed, and there are long queues in front of the bars and the pubs. The few places without queues will not let us in due to our outfit. We regret that we did not think of buying a bottle of wine during the day and placing it in the fridge in the room. Despite the fact that it starts raining and there is no wine, we are in incredibly good mood, and we think that the walking around is good cool down for our achy legs. We get hungry, we buy huge döner kebabs, and stroll back to Ina's room eating those.

We go to bed at 3:30 am, and we set the alarm to 9 am. Ina is so incredibly sweet and kind, she gives me her bed while she takes the sleeping bag on the floor. At 6:30 am we are both wide awake and start chatting. No point in trying to sleep more. We get up, have waffles for breakfast, Ina drives me to the airport, before she continues her vacation in Kvaløya and Senja.

Snipp snapp snute and then we all live happily ever after :-)

PS. Pictures not taken by Ina or me are from Kristina Schröder Photography, and the Facebook or Instagram pages of Midnight Sun Marathon.

I take it all back: fast bikers, you rule!

Last night I witnessed one of the nicest, most inspiring, and incredibly touching pieces of sportsmanship. And it is all about biking!

Mind you, I am not in these pictures. This time it is not about me, but about my friends in the extended group of Fjellgeitene (mountain goats) who biked the Bergen-Voss race as a group, and finished the 165 km course just below 5 hours, exactly as planned.

So what is the big deal about this, you might ask. And I must admit that, although I have been following their training with great interest, I hadn't realized the big deal. Last night, as announced, I was at the after-race party with them, and as the evening progressed it became clear to me what a wonderful story the whole project had been. It needs to be told!

A few months ago, Lars the chief goat put out an opinion poll asking who would like to try to bike the Bergen-Voss race within 4 hours and 59 minutes. Many people immediately signed up, and they ended with a big group who would go for this goal altogether. Now this might insult some of my friends, but I thought in my naiveness that this was an attempt for a new record for all the people in the group.  Only yesterday I realized that about half of the around 45 bikers in the group had already biked Bergen-Voss with finish times in the rage of 4h:15 and 4h:30!

So the whole project has been about 18 faster bikers helping 25 friends to make it below 5 hours! Wow, I was so moved this became clear to me. It is difficult to reproduce how the whole story slowly was revealed during the party last night, but it can be compared to watching a movie when you suddenly realize at some point that the story is something quite different than what you thought it was from the beginning. Like The Truman Show, or The Matrix, or Vanilla Sky, if you're interested in movies. If you haven't watched those movies, do it without reading the plot first. Then you will know exactly what I mean.

While we were eating, I had the pleasure of listening to Emil, who turned out to be one of the "locks". At that point I had no idea what a lock was, but it was extremely entertaining to listen to him, and I understood at least that he had a key role in the group, a kind of a connection between a front troop and the rest, shouting to people at the back when they should speed up not to loose contact with the front, what is coming ahead, when they should drink, when they can take it easy, etc etc. Already at that point I was moved by this wonderful caring for the rest of the group.

Later in the evening, Lars explained to me how the group worked during the race. First of all, they bike in a long line with two and two bikers side by side. In the front of the group are 16 fast bikers. Just behind those 16 are the two "locks", and then behind them come the rest of the group, called the "bus". The 16 fast bikers in the front take turns to go in the front and pull the rest. They do this in a natural rolling cycle, where some slow down slightly to fall behind and others take the lead. The locks (Emil and Bjarne) are the connection between the front and the bus. They constantly communicate with the back to tell them what is coming ahead, so that people are prepared and do not fall behind. At the same time, they also communicate to the front when difficult situations arise so that they should stay in their positions and stop rolling to take the lead.

Later during the night I learned how the project started. Last year, when Lars and several of the faster bikers in the front group achieved wonderful finish times at the Bergen-Voss race, they decided that next time they would help others to make it below 5 hours rather than chase their own personal records. So when he opened the opinion poll, people were already prepared and signed up immediately. This motivated many others, who were perhaps just at the border of being able to make it below 5 hours, to sign up as well, and in this was they created the biggest group of mountain goats ever to do the Bergen-Voss together.

Of course I should have known. Had I been more interested in bike racing, I could have checked the finish times from previous years, and I would have known that many of these people can do it much faster than 5 hours. I would then understand how so many people dared to join the group, and following the big "mountain goat express" project would have been more enlightening. But then I wouldn't have had the OMG experience of last night, which is comparable to any Oscar winning movie. And the beauty of it: not once during this spring did any of these guys ever post anything that could indicate that they are actually faster than the group goal of 4:59.... In light of how competitive these guys are usually, this is an unbelievably lovely example of kindness and sportsmanship. And maybe it is not that uncommon among bikers to do this, what do I know? In any case, my complaining about fast bikers: I take it all back!

I could write a whole book about Lars :-) (Maybe I will one day ;-) ) He is one of the most motivating and caring people I know, and I am so grateful to him in so many ways. Just as an illustration, here is a picture he posted when I was complaining about my slow progress in feeling safe on a bike.

Here is how he looks now (definitely ready for the Tour):

Here is a much shorter and slower version of the mountain goat express:

I do not promise anything, but I can tell you: there is hope!