Midnight Sun Marathon, Tromsø, Norway

Picture from Wiki, scroll right to see it all!

Hamming it up for Race4ACure

                 The Midnight Sun marathon in Tromsø, Norway caught my eye as soon as I knew we were moving to Europe. A full marathon, inside the Arctic Circle, during the Summer Solstice, how cool is that!

             

Cadets that had fun the 10K earlier in the day

   It was every bit as spectacular as I had hoped! Tromsø is a darling town with a rich history and thriving present. Fishing, fur trading, ship building, down collecting, and Arctic Exploration got this town off to a booming start. Now tourism, university, and other industries keep it going strong. Thanks to The Gulf Stream, Tromsø is much warmer than you expect with average summer highs in the 50’s (F) and average winter lows in the 20’s (F), quite temperate for being almost 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle!

There were lots of cute traditional houses lining the course

Love the sod roofs!

His parents were so tickled I stopped for a picture :-) 

Sadly, blurry, but it gives a good idea of what most of the course looked like with the green grass and snowy mountains.

In the second half I spotted the lad on the right, his companion had dropped out, but Jakob finished with a few minutes to spare :-) 

I can't imagine those slate steps covered in ice!

Even the manhole covers are cute

The water was crystal clear everywhere!

 

             To experience the Midnight Sun, the full marathon starts at 8:30 pm and immediately heads over a huge bridge to the Arctic Cathedral for an out-and-back before going back over the bridge and passing through Main Street. The second half is around the edge of the island for a second out-and-back, with the half marathoners that were started off 2 hours after the full start. The course was beautiful and there were a surprising number of spectators for so late at night, but then time seems to be irrelevant when the sun is up around the clock. Thankfully, I had managed to take an afternoon nap so between it staying bright out and being rested, running until just after 1 am did not bother me like it has during past night runs.

The view from the southern edge of the island

       After the race I hung out, chatting with other runners and sipping at a beer before heading back to my room for a quick 3 hour nap before my shuttle pick up for the airport. (I’ll leave out the debacle of being bumped from my flight and adding an 8 hour bus ride that made a 7 hour journey into a 16 hour journey.)

     It was a wonderfully operated race with a beautiful course, in an unforgettable place. This should be a bucket list race for everyone!

The Arctic Cathedral, inspired by ice flows

So many charming boats in the harbor

Aboard a (now retired) seal hunting ship