2014, 1: Sola, Spiritløpet 10km

I kicked off my new year’s resolution by entering the Spiritløpet in Sola, near Stavanger in Norway. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous- this was my first race since my injury and also the first time I’d travelled somewhere abroad completely alone.

It was late when I arrived and Andreas (my host) had work in the morning, so after helping me translate the Norwegian instructions about where I needed to go in the morning to pick-up my race number, we turned in for the night, with me thinking mostly about how many more layers of clothing I should’ve packed and talking myself out of needing to get up in seven hours time to run around Norway in the cold.

In the morning I got up, hummed and hawed about how what to wear- there’s often a dilemma dressing for runs: do you wear enough to be warm when travelling/standing about but you’ll be too hot when you’re actually running, or too little for the travelling bit but you’ll be fine once you start running? Some people wear old clothes that they don’t mind losing and big races will often collect the discarded clothing to give to local charities, but this wasn’t a big race and I didn’t want to lose any clothing that I might yet need this far north. Eventually I settled on a vest, thermal long sleeved top, running long sleeved top, thin waterproof jacket, thermal leggings with a second pair of metallic leggings on top, a scarf, gloves and hat- and, with the temperature around freezing and a severe minus 6-10 wind-chill, I kept every layer on throughout the run!

Things did not get off to a great start when I arrived at the wrong hotel and tried to register. Well, it was sort of the right and the wrong hotel at the same time. Andreas had advised me to get a bus to the Quality Hotel and then I’d have to walk 1-2km from there to a second hotel, the Sola Strand Hotel. But I forgot the second bit and marched into the lobby of the first hotel asking where to go to register for the race- several minutes and phone calls to senior managers and google searches later, I was marching back out with vague instructions of how to get to the Sola Strand instead.

Eventually I found the Sola Strand, got my race numbers and after asking a few people, found someone who didn’t know anyone else either and was happy to show me where the start line was- enter Stig, a friendly Norwegian from Stavanger, who was running the half marathon distance.

As it turns out, the start line was up beside the first hotel, so we jogged a kilometre back up the road I’d just walked down. At least I had a good warm-up and Stig gave me a rough idea of what to expect on the route.
(The route was taken from a technical drawing of the area by the Sola City Office and isn’t available to view online, sorry there’s no link here).

The half marathon and 10K distances had different starting points, so Stig made his way to his start point as I lined up with the other 10K runners. I made a few smiles at the people around me, who mostly made friendly-sounding quips to me in Norwegian and I smiled a bit more back at them.

This lovely lady talked a bit at me, it sounded like a question, so I explained that I only spoke English and she swapped languages for me. She said she was happy at the back of the group, letting the fast people run ahead and staying out of their way. I agreed I had the same strategy and wished her best of luck for the race as the gun went and we were off!

For the most part the Spiritløpet runs on footpaths, in and around the local airport, past the Aviation Museum, along a bit of trail for a kilometre or so, then joins the Nordsjøvegen as it runs beside the beach and doubles back to finish the the Sola Strand.

The route is predominantly flat and windswept, with some nice views across the plains to the mountains that make Rogaland famous for hiking and fjords. The view across the beach might have been nice but I was too busy paying attention to the aeroplane practically landing on my head and creating a sandstorm to run through!

I quickly lost most of the other runners early on, sticking to my slow speed and running my own race, at my own pace (I say this to myself over and over when I’m running!). I enjoyed running alone, just thinking and breathing and feeling happy that my injured muscle wasn’t giving me any hassle.
Occasionally a runner would come past me, in either directions, as the 21k looped the 10k route at a few points and I would shout something vaguely cheering, with a Nordic lilt, and the race marshals gamely translated their instructions for me as I called out “english, english!”

I finished in fine time for me, at 1.05 and got my precious cup of tea and MEDAL!

        

After the race, (the) Stig kindly gave me lift in his car back to the city, sharing stories of his time doing National Service and plans of travelling to Peru in the coming year.

We even got a write up in the local newspaper, by my new friend Andreas Askildsen and another mention on this Norwegian running blog, words by Thomas Hetland- have a read!