Tromsų and the Midnight Sun Marathon
- One more marathon
- What do you do in miserable weather? A hillwalk.
- Superb setting of Tromsø
- Three languages and three museums
- The streets - and the Tromsø Palm
- Race day preparations
- Time for the marathon
- Running characters
- Arctic cruise
- Links
Some of those who take part in 10km and half marathon races may be thinking about the possibility of tackling the full marathon distance some day. This article will show that it need not be seen as an intimidating challenge - more as an opportunity for the experience of a lifetime, combined with a visit to somewhere new. There are many marathons run in cities around the world, and there are a few held in remote and far-away places. The most northerly of these is at Tromsø in Norway - the Midnight Sun Marathon.
Tromsø lies 250 miles inside the Arctic Circle, where Norway's coast bends round to face the North Pole. It's on the very edge of Europe. From where we are in Dundee in Scotland, it's 1000 miles (1600 km) further north and as far away as Rome. Even the majority of Norwegians see it as a distant frontier, 640 miles north of Oslo.
Perhaps surprisingly, therefore, Tromsø has grown into a city of over 50,000 people, significantly bigger than the Scottish cities of Perth and Inverness. Benefiting from the Gulf Stream, it has a remarkably mild climate.
I'd decided to try one more marathon after passing the 50th birthday milestone a few months earlier. My best time was a long time ago, in Dundee (finishing in heavy snow) in 1985. The last few have been getting much harder. I reckoned this one could be my last, so I had to make it a memorable occasion. A check on the internet came up with Stockholm and Edmonton around the right time for me to get myself fit, but Edmonton really required more than a long weekend, and Stockholm had reached its limit of 15,000 entries. Fortunately there was one due to be held at just the right time - mid-June - in the much smaller city of Tromsø, away in the Arctic. So I signed up, found a room in a relatively low-cost hotel, and sorted out flights from Aberdeen - all on the internet.
A long weekend would allow time for some gentle exploration of the Arctic countryside before the race. However, after seeing some wonderful views of Stavanger and Oslo from the air, I arrived in Tromsø on the Wednesday evening to find it very cold and wet, shrouded in low cloud. The hill across from the harbour was receiving a covering of fresh snow, offering the prospect of running another marathon in wintry conditions.
So what do you do when you had planned to be exploring outdoors for a few days, and the weather's miserable? Visitors to Scotland must sometimes face the same dilemma! Thursday morning was overcast but dry, so I started with a visit to the Tourist Office and bought an excellent book of Town Walks using 6 themed walks to describe the history and architecture of Tromsø. However, after walking around the streets for a while I decided to risk a longer walk, across the elegant bridge to the suburb of Tromsdalen, and the dramatically shaped "Arctic Cathedral" which has become a symbol of the city. After admiring the colourful timber houses spread out on the hillside amidst birches and rowans, I found the path up the hill which I'd seen from the harbour.
[ Click here for story of the walk ]
Several cities are blessed with hilltop viewpoints that show them off to best advantage. Among those in Scotland, Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh is a stiff climb, whilst Perth's Kinnoull Hill gives splendid views over the Tay river valley. And of course the Law provides an unrivalled view of the whole of Dundee. The hill overlooking Tromso, at just over 400m (1300 ft) is somewhat higher, with easy access by cable car. It was very quiet when I climbed it, with snow patches hinting at an Arctic environment, and the cloud just high enough to allow a view of the low island on which Tromsø lies.
It really is a superb setting. Surrounded by ranges of snow-capped mountains around 3000 to 6000 feet in height, and so far north, it is a key staging post on a major routeway not by land, but by sea. From the hilltop I spotted one of the large cruise ships that call in here on their journey to the North Cape. The local paper reported that it was the Westerdam, flagship of the Holland-America line, carrying 1,848 passengers and 800 crew, and at 85,000 tonnes the largest visitor so far to Tromsø. Several others came and went whilst I was there, bringing hundreds of visitors into the city - as Dundee is now starting to experience. The uniqueness of the region helps to attract over half a million tourists each year. There was plenty of evidence also of freight being brought in and out of the port, carrying on a tradition going back to when Tromsø was founded in 1794.
Although virtually everyone in Tromsø seems to speak good English, there are three official languages - Norwegian, Sami (Lapp) and Finnish. The border with Finland and Sweden runs along mountain peaks not far inland, but the homeland of the nomadic Sami people spreads across these territories and Northern Russia as well. Tromsø Museum at the south end of the island tells the story of the Sami - how they survived in the harsh environment, and their recent struggle for political and cultural recognition. The Vikings, or Norsemen, were a separate people moving up from the south to establish coastal settlements.
[ Click here for the story of the Museums walk ]
Despite the northern location and apparently hostile environment, the inhabitants could make a living from the rich resources of the sea and land. Cod was the mainstay, together with herring, whale and sealmeat. The Sami herded reindeer, and found a use for virtually every part of the animal. The narrow coastal strips are farmed or forested, dotted with colourful timber houses, and even the mountains provide wealth in the form of building stone and minerals. The Polar Museum at the old harbourside explains vividly how early trappers caught foxes, seals and polar bears: all a bit gruesome for lovers of furry animals.
Providing a parallel to Dundee's story of Captain Scott and the RRS Discovery, the museum also tells how Raold Amundsen had beaten Scott to the South Pole, and used Tromso as his base for polar exploration. His statue looks out to sea from the centre of the city.
A third museum, Polaria, is a modern building looking like a series of glacial crevasses situated on the southern edge of the city, and linked to the Polar Environment Resarch Centre next door. It features a magnificent audio-visual presentation on Svalbard (or Spitzbergen), the remote arctic island for which Tromsø is the main supply base. Its aquarium of bearded seals and arctic fish also provides explanations of arctic ecology, with the latest research findings and evidence of the impact of pollution and global warming.
Walking round the streets of Tromsø, I was very impressed by the glowing colours of the timber houses and warehouse buildings providing a cheerful impression even on a grey day.
A quirky aspect of Tromsø is the presence in most streets of the poisonous plant which we know as giant hogweed, but which is affectionately known by locals as "the Tromsø palm" (heracleum laciniatum). After it was imported from the tropics via England in the 19th century and spread out of control, it seems to have been accepted. It is a feature of many gardens and some postcards, and one year it even appeared on the commemorative medals for the marathon! In June the plants were some way short of the average 2-3m height, and there were still daffodils and tulips in flower, yet the rowan were in blossom. At such a northerly latitude, the growing season is all scrunched up.
If museums and plantlife sound a bit too serious for a holiday visit, the shops, restaurants and bars provide more in the way of relaxation. A regular street market dominates the main square, with Sami craft products for sale alongside shrimp stalls stocked by the local boats. Tromsø is the home of the world's most northerly brewery (Mack brewery) , close by my hotel, although unfortunately I didn't manage to fit in a tour. The city is particularly noted for its nightlife, with plenty of busy bars and restaurants and a large student population. One interesting feature was that Norway had recently introduced a ban on smoking in bars, and groups of people were standing outside enjoying their habit. I suspected they wouldn't look so happy about it in the middle of winter!
Of course, with the sun shining through the night in the summer, it's easy to loose track of the time. Apparently the weather had been poor for weeks, but luckily after two grey days the sun re-appeared on the day of the marathon - and kept on shining.
The marathon didn't start until 8.30 p.m. on the Saturday, so race day began with a 1km fun run, led by a couple of fellows dressed in traditional outfits ending with a free breakfast at a harbourside bar. It was a chance to carbo-load, and meet some other competitors, such as Tom from New York and his German partner, who now live in Southern Norway. They seemed to know everything about England's successful campaign in the Rugby World Cup. Another couple came from Copenhagen. Some were running the Half Marathon or 10km race, taking place the same evening, which meant that hundreds of runners descended on the city for the weekend.
At the well-attended pasta party the previous evening I had met Francisco from Santiago in Chile, who has a Finnish wife, and likes to race each year in Scandinavia. There was a bunch of runners from Ireland, who had decided not to take the race too seriously, in contrast to two fast men from Bergen who were guessing about the likely winner of what would be the Norwegian marathon championships.
There was a lot of time to kill before the event, and it was hard to know how much more to eat, or how much rest to take. I spent time in the race information centre at the Culture House in the main square, and then went for another walk climbing through the city streets past more fine old houses and past the meteorological station to a lakeside park in the middle of the island. Up above the city streets there were great views to the snow-capped mountains all around.
[ click here for the story of the Prestvanet lakeside walk ]
Then at last, after the kids' run and the 10km race, it was time for the marathon. Altogether it was an amazingly cosmopolitan event, with 162 of the 232 marathon finishers coming from countries other than Norway, and many others running in the half marathon and 10km races. I found myself running for a large part of the race with a tall guy called Mauro, one of a large group from Italy. As we ran through the city centre at the halfway stage he paused for a kiss from his wife. "It gave me new motivation and inspiration" he said to the local newspaper reporter later. After two hours he was still going steadily, whilst I began to struggle and fall behind.
Most of the route was along coastal roads outside Tromso, the first half out through Tromsdalen on the mainland and back, with the graceful bridge providing the biggest hill in the race (twice). Then it returned through the harbour area past the city centre and headed round the southern tip of the island to the airport, with the last 10km back the same way. The undulations along the road were suddently magnified into major inclines for bodies close to exhausion.
Fortunately there were plenty of people at various points along the route, all shouting "heja" to encourage the runners. The wonderful scenery also helped to take our minds off the effort that was involved, and the emerging pains in legs and feet. Somehow, after a very difficult stretch just after the airport, I managed to summon hidden reserves for a good finish over the last few km but couldn't catch the Spanish guy who had passed me to scoop the prize for 1st man aged 50-54.
It was approaching midnight when I finally reached the finishing line, yet the sun still shone brightly on the mountain tops and the Arctic Cathedral across the sound. I was happy enough with my time, considering my advancing age and aching legs, even though it was over the 3-hour mark that I used to aim to beat. It felt quite chilly, probably around 8 degrees, but there were helpers with warm blankets on hand.
This was a really well organised and enjoyable event, in some of the finest scenery imaginable - highly recommended!
An English runner who did particularly well was Geoff Hardman, who was the first over 70 with a time of 4 hrs 1 min 38 secs. He happened to be sharing the same hotel as me, along with his wife, and reckoned he would have broken 4 hrs if he hadn't stopped several times to take photos!
After the race, a local doctor at a harbourside bar told me that it was the quality of the light that made Tromsø so special. Even in the long winter, when the sun disappeared for two months, each evening was illuminated by the spectacular Northern Lights. I also asked him about the climb of Tromsdalstinden, the shapely 1238m peak (a decent height for a mountain in Scotland) that looked down on the city from the south-east. It had carried fresh snow since my arrival, putting me off the idea of trying to climb it without an ice axe. The doctor said it was an easy enough ascent up a clear ridge.
I bumped into my Italian running companion, Mauro, again the next day. He was walking with his wife when I went back up the hill overlooking Tromsø using the cable car. They were enjoying the glorious weather like hundreds of others, turning the hilltop into a vast park, totally different from the arctic wilderness of my first visit a few days earlier.
It turned out that there was another runner from Dundee - or nearby Auchterhouse village to be precise. I had been told beforehand that Jo Williamson would be running dressed as a penguin, so I was able to identify him up on the start line! (Penguins usually frequent the Antarctic so there weren't any others around).
Next day Jo had changed into a kilt for the prizegiving ceremony, and we both ended up taking an evening trip on a coastal cruise ship - an ideal way to rest those aching legs (tickets from the tourist office). After a lengthy coach trip and a couple of ferry crossings with magnificent coastal scenery, we reached the little harbour of Skjaervoy, even further to the north-east.
The ship Polarlys (Polar Light) brought us back through an Arctic wonderland - range after range of mountains, with glaciers coming down almost to sea level, and little fishing boats heading out from isolated coastal settlements. The Lyngen Alps looked particularly fine, rising to over 1500m (around 5000 ft). We enjoyed food and wine before going up on deck to take in the view, and chatted with a couple of other runners - Gertrud from London and Laura from New York. As the Polarlys docked at Tromsø it was almost midnight, and the sun continued to shine on the snowy peaks. I had a last walk around the sunlit streets, knowing I might never experience this again.
( click here to see the photos from the cruise )
For those interested in the event, there is plenty of information and photos on the Midnight Sun Marathon website.
Tromso has an excellent website with tourist information, including a section with facts about Tromso and Lyngen, and another on the cruise port.
Contributor: Andrew Llanwarne
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