Wednesday, April 4, 2012

A morning run and chewing the fat

Because I don't race now until Friday afternoon and I decided to try and run parts of the half marathon course this morning, I made my way down to the lake from the hotel (less than a K away), i can remember seeing the brochures about these champs showing the beautiful lake that we will run the half past, except at the moment, it is completely frozen over, covered in snow and ice, people are actually walking across it. I did about 10ks along the path, I had to be really careful with the ice on the paths, I didn't want to fall arse over t.., I wore a beany, gloves, long tights and 2 shirts (short over long), it was probably around -8, the coldest run I have ever done, my chin was numb for the first 2ks, I didn't really warm up at all, I ran in my older marathon shoes but the tread is wearing out, for the half on Sunday I am hoping that the tracks will be more worn down then and a lot less ice, it is being run at 12.30, so if the Sun is out the conditions should be ok, but I still might have to wear my track shoes which have more grip on them.

Yesterday on the way back to the Hotel, I stopped at the sports store and bought a new Gortex Jacket for 99 Euro (about $125) which was reduced down from 350 Euro (about $450), it feels really nice, I also bought a pair of walking shoes that are Gortex for 60 Euro, that I will use to walk around town and to the Track, I have been worried about slipping on the icy paths and falling over, these shoes have great tread and should be great to wear out and about.

The Scandic Hotel I am staying at, is fantastic, there would be people from about 20 odd countries staying here, the Russians, Germans, Spanish, Americans, British, French, better than the UN, the breakfast in the morning is recommended, after my run this morning I am now well stocked up.

Also I do find it amusing that people are cycling around on really basic bikes in the snow, the Scandic actually has bikes you can borrow, you couldn't pay me to ride one at the moment.

2 comments:

Carolyne said...

Great story Roger - I have been passing on the information to Rad and Bob and they are really interested.

Whatever you do, keep warm and make sure that you come back healthy and in one piece without having slipped on the ice.

Keep blogging!

Flabmeister said...

You are turning into a proper Scandinavian!