Trondheim Half Marathon

So I should really follow up on my most recent post now that the Trondheim half marathon was a full week ago and I don't want anybody thinking it did me in. Needless to say, I survived the race. At the start of the race we had some of the warmest weather I've experience here in Trondheim, which was admittedly still cool enough to be awesome running weather. But of course we needed to have a little rain during the race in order to be sure we were still in Trondheim, where weather is predictably unpredictable. The course was two laps of the same loop that started in the city center and wound around along the river and through the city.  Somebody clearly put a lot of effort into designing the course so that would remain fairly flat despite the city being pretty hilly in general. Thank you mystery person: I am grateful. Also, you know a race is too legit to quit when they organize pop-rock aerobics for warming up.

During this race I learned that the Norwegian expression for encouraging runners is "hei ja" or something like that. I started laughing when first I heard this because it sounded a lot like the Chinese expression "aiya!" which roughly translates to "doh!" and is used to convey frustration. Funny? You don't even know. This kept my simple mind amused for much of the race.

I finished in a time of 1:36:34 which I'm certainly satisfied with considering how little training I did beforehand. I ran slightly positive splits from the first lap to the second, and by the end I was really starting to feel tired. I'm not exactly sure what kind of fatigue, but you can probably find the answer at my friend's running blog. After the race I got some pictures, including the one shown here with Hilde, one of the other members of NTNUI Friidrett. She was really fast. When I got back to my housing village one of the people I live with pointed out that my finisher medal looked cheap. He's right. But considering the median result of my previous races has been obtaining nothing but my own sense of accomplishment, I think I'll gladly accept a cheap medal as an added bonus.

So, yeah. I successfully ran my first official half marathon coming off of a month of near-inactivity. I wouldn't recommend it, but I definitely don't regret it.

Three fingers

I've arrived at a new low point in my life: I can count on the number of runs I have done in the past month on one hand. Well, on three fingers actually. Yet my calves are presumably still too large to allow me to wear hipster jeans (probably a good thing). My mileage dipped in June, then went back up in early July before flat-lining shortly before coming to Norway in August. Now that I'm (almost) settled in Norway, it's time to resuscitate! I am officially announcing to you, my loyal blog readers who totally exist, that I am running the Trondheim half marathon two days from today.

Too drastic? Definitely, but that's the only way I work. As far as I know, this is the first time that I have been living in a city while it is hosting a half marathon. Having run only three times in the past month, I realize this is quite likely going to be a terrible way to start (but hopefully not end) my half marathon running career, but I'm not going to let this convenient opportunity pass me by. Even if I'm not fit right now, it will still be an awesome experience. And if I'm kidding myself, there's no going back because I already paid the registration fee and picked up my number and timing chip. So... meh.

Luckily I won't be running alone the whole time. I recently joined the athletics club (friidrett) here at NTNU, and a few other members of the team are going to be running the half marathon. Of the teams I've been on before, I'd say the NTNU friidrett club is most similar to my middle school cross country team, as hilarious as that sounds. We're just a group of around 15 guys and gals who enjoy training together but don't take ourselves too seriously. They are the perfect group for me to train with while I rebuild my base. The team was kind of shy at first, but they are starting to open up. I'm just glad I'll have some familiar faces.