Iceland

June saw me taking my longest journey so far, flying three hours north and west to Iceland and the Midnight Sun Run.

I went to Iceland with my friend Matt, whom I met at a Halloween party last year, when he was dressed as Shaun (from Shaun of the Dead) and I wasn’t in fancy dress at all. He’d always had a hankering for the northernmost capital city in the world, and decided to tag along when I was travelling to Reykjavik.

“Working” predominantly as my support driver, Matt helped us get all over the city and around the much famed Golden Circle. He was also chief beer carrier, instructed to be at the race finish line with a cold can for me- an instruction which he carried out with great commitment and aplomb.

We arrived on Friday evening, loaded up on cheap duty-free alcohol before we left the airport- a top tip we’d been given, as alcohol, along with most things, is pretty expensive to buy in Iceland. We made our way out in the most flat and empty landscape I’ve ever seen and made our way through a cold drizzle to the transfer bus that would take us the hour’s journey into Reykjavik. If I’m painting a bleak picture that’s because it was. On first impressions, Iceland was strange, damp and bleak, and I got nervous giggles thinking I might have made a horrific mistake in dragging someone along with me on this adventure.

For our accommodation we’d booked an apartment through airbnb – which is a bit like Couchsurfing, but not. We had a great stay in Bjarni’s sweet loft apartment. He had left some wardrobe space empty so we could hang some clothes and have space for our luggage and the apartment was tidy, with clean sheets, towels and toiletries readily available. Not to mention, he had an extensive CD collection to listen to!

Falling asleep in the twilight of not-dark night-time was weird, and I found the whole thing a bit disorientating, never really sure if it was bedtime, morning, or any other time of day. However, we got up when it felt like daytime and made our way round the sights of Reykjavik.

We started with Hallgrímskirkja, an enormous church built on a hill, from the top of which you can see the whole city and further besides. Needless to say, the whole place looked rather less bleak than my first airport impressions, and we were keen to get back down and start exploring the streets below.

The day involved wandering around, eating and drinking whatever we felt like (lobster, whale, puffin, horse..), and watching a skateboarding competition we came across by accident in the main square. The other thing we watched a lot of was football, it being the World Cup whilst we were away. Happily Matt and I were both supporting Germany, so there wasn’t too much friction on that front.

Matt had a friend who’d lived in Iceland and he’d strongly recommended us hiring a car to get out around the Golden Circle sights. We enjoyed lots of sun that day and had a great time driving through the stunning scenery, from sight to sight. On further recommendation, we made our final stop at the luxurious Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa– the perfect way to ease our muscles after a day in the car.

Monday was race day, or night. Starting at 2200 in the evening, with the sun still in the sky as we were so far north, it was tricky to get pre-race prep right. It mostly involved an enormous eggy breakfast cooked by Matt, hot dogs for lunch and a big blue cheeseburger for dinner; then an impromptu nap and a long wait in the queue to get my race number, munching a banana for a last minute energy boost.

In the Suzuki Midnight Sun Run you can choose between three distances; half marathon, 10 km race and 5 km race. The 10k route starts in the streets and then follows a lovely track, mostly through the Laugardalur Valley, which is a park area, and has great views like the salmon river Ellidaa, Lake Raudavatn, and a golf course. I didn’t see any golfers, or any salmon, but I did see a lot of other runners stopping to take photos of the scenery.

 

During the race there wasn’t much chat, something I’ve found on lots of my races abroad. British runners tend to be up for a chat, especially those of us at the back of the field that will do anything to distract from the pain. Reykjavik was a fairly quiet affair. In fact, the only people I could hear talking were some American women. Truth be told, I found them a bit irritating at first, then I decided to chat to them and found their story pretty inspiring: They were old friends, having met at university and joined a running club together. Now living in the USA and the UK respectively, they meet in different cities to run races together and talk pretty much constantly the whole way round…!The race was mostly lightly undulating, with a few hills up and down to bridge crossings. One took us across a sort of fortified wooden suspension bridge over the River Ellidaa.

All in all, it was a beautiful race through the valley in full bloom, and one I’d definitely strongly recommend. Reykjavik is worth a visit in itself, and the race was a great way to see another part of this small city. I even got a PB 10k race time of 1.02 -having Matt waiting for me at the finish with a beer, might have given me the edge..

  

 

 

An Icelandic slideshow, if you fancy a closer look at what we saw and ate:

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