David Currie

553This morning I lined up with 400+ other runners at Sognsvann for the Nordmarka Skogsmaraton (forest marathon). The rain had stopped and it was a pleasant temperature for running. The cheerleaders had gone on ahead to get a good spot. With next to no training under my belt I really had no idea how I was going to fare.

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550Off to Sognsvann again tonight for another race round the lake. As you can see, this time Christine was just holding the camera (and Emma) although she did get to run home the long way whilst I put Emma to bed. Knowing about the waves at the start still didn’t help me work out the logic as to how went in each one. I suspect it’s just up to the individual. I ran two laps again but had to stop on both of them to retie one shoelace. With a time just five seconds slower than the previous week I think that probably means I was running faster…

544On Friday I finally completed my entry for the Nordmarka Skogsmaraton. As with most sporting events, you enter online and then pay via bank transfer. It took me a few attempts to realise that, despite the field being exactly the right length, I shouldn’t include the periods in the account number that was quoted. Anyway, with the entry submitted it was time to put in a bit of training, particularly as the sun was out.

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With Christine’s parents here to babysit, both Christine and I could run at Sognsvann tonight and both decided to run two laps. Having emerged from the toilets just before the off it had completely passed me by that there were a number of start waves and I just joined in at the front. With most competitors racing round just the one lap it was quite difficult pacing myself and, with no-one around me for most of the second lap, I was definitely slowing. When two guys did eventually come past me, there was no chance that I could keep up. I’m assuming in hindsight, that they started in a later wave but rather embarrassingly they did also continue on to do a third lap. The eventual time on the clock was 24:35 which doesn’t sound so bad.

While hunting around for events to enter we came across Sportsklubben Rye’s Ryeløpet. This is a 5k race around Kongeskogen, Bygdøy. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I arrived yesterday evening, half an hour before the appointed time. The online details were a bit scant. I’d made a bank transfer but wasn’t totally convinced I’d even managed to enter successfully.

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