Winter roads

Having been on my bucket list for half a decade, the Tromsø Polar Night Half Marathon has proven particularly elusive. After signing up in July, both Anna and I have been looking forward to finally go racing under the northern lights and checking out Tromsø with the kids now in January. However, when double-checking the last details, I discovered that there was no longer any morning bus from Narvik to Tromsø on the 4th of January, meaning that the whole trip with our pre-paid accommodation in Narvik would fall apart.

After evaluating our options and having a bad feeling about spending four hours on winding roads with two kids suffering from motion sickness, we decided to cancel our SAS flight from Tromsø as well as our Airbnb booking. Instead, Anna and I will rent a car in Narvik, drive back and forth to Tromsø on our own, and then pick up the kids in Kiruna on our way back with the night train to Gothenburg. Trading our three-night Airbnb for one night at the new Moxy Hotel (which at 19,000 Bonvoy points compared to a paid rate of 4,800 NOK must be one of the best value redemptions out there), we still get to run, hang out with our friend Clare, and experience the northernmost part of Europe in winter.

Hobbyists

Having lived for half a year in New Jersey, the recent mysterious drone sightings across the state has had me curious as I can relate to many of the places mentioned. While Swedish media coverage has been limited, the short story is that many people, including law enforcement and local government officials, have seen multiple strange unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs) in the skies over the Eastern seaboard basically every night for weeks now while the White House has been sending conflicted messages, saying that what appears to be drones are, on one hand, “entirely legal and lawful” and, on the other hand, yet to be fully identified. Suggesting that many observations may in fact be commercial airplanes or drones belonging to “hobbyist”, this media strategy has left local politicians frustrated and sparked a new wave of speculation on the Internet about possible non-human intelligence. While I prefer not to jump to any conclusions, I am still open to the possibility that there is more to this story than the official line suggests, so it will be interesting to follow this going forward.

Thrilled to have reached my annual goal of running 3,660 kilometres two days ago, I am otherwise spending this week grading and writing feedback to students. On Monday in Halmstad, Eddie and I made it back to the train with one minute to spare but with all the quantitative methodology exams marked (sadly, more than half of the students failed this first attempt so there will be plenty of exams to mark again in January). Today, the rain has been pouring down all morning but, eventually, I plucked up the courage to challenge the weather and went down to the gym for 30 hobby minutes on the elliptical. 

Ticking off

Marking expedition

This Monday, Eddie and I are on the high-speed train to Halmstad where 57 exams await me. In order to ensure a bit of drama, I need to finish marking these before taking the train back to Gothenburg at 15.24. Luckily, Eddie has Elite Dangerous on his laptop, so he gets to explore a bit of the galaxy while I dive into quantitative methodology.

Waking up to stormy skies and a bright full moon, Anna and I ran 8.5 kilometres in the hills of Skatås before I took the train, leaving me with only ten more kilometres to run until I reach my annual goal of 3,660 kilometres. As such, I might just go for a headlamp run tonight to ensure that I do not repeat what happened last year when I fell annoyingly short of my annual goal because I thought I had some winter running shoes stored in Kiruna when I did in fact not.

Time does not fly

Inspired by Petter Lindqvist’s marathon rowing in Umeå, I decided to once again row 10,000 meters in one go at Nordic Wellness in Mölndal this morning. Like last time around, it felt like the perfect antidote to those complaining that “time flies”. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to continuing rowing for another 32,000 meters. Instead, I jumped on the treadmill for ten faster kilometres followed by 30 minutes of weight training for a total of 2+ hours of exercise and now I cannot help wondering what gains I would see if I were to start repeating this trifecta three or four times a week?

Walking to the tram, Eddie and I were treated to a beautiful sunrise which has now turned into strong winds and rain, enough to end the latest spell of “Dunkelflaute” which once again has reminded Europeans of how vulnerable their energy system has become. Yet, the biggest problem with intermittent renewable energy is not the occasional price spike (although wholesale prices did climb up to 1,000 EUR per megawatt hour on the continent), but their inability to actually displace fossil fuels, especially in industry-heavy countries such as China (where all those solar panels are produced). Instead of an abundant energy future for everyone, the news is once again filled with stories of energy poverty.

Turning ten

Last Tuesday, William turned ten and today he celebrated with all his friends by playing Laserdome on Hisingen. A bit to my surprise, the kids were really well-behaved, and it all ended on a very happy note. With both kids making lots of new friends at the moment, I can already tell that they will miss Gothenburg during the sixteen days that we will be away in Kiruna and Tromsø. On the other hand, I know how much they love winter weather, so it feels good to be able to promise them a white Christmas (with the temperature expected to be around -10 once we get up to Kiruna).

Small Wonder

After sharing a bottle of Pinot Noir from the Central Coast with Johanna last weekend, I was intrigued when I saw the same grape from 41 degrees South or the Tamar Valley in Tasmania to be exact. Making Manchego toasts in the oven to my Spanish stew, I read about the neologism “anemoia”, as in nostalgia for times and places that you have never known, a concept that I experienced first-hand in Buenos Aires when thinking about Evert Taube and the 1910’s. Similarly, when living in Melbourne in 2008, I often saw the night ferries leave for Davenport, yet Tasmania has remained solely in my dreams.

Nexus

Last weekend in Kalmar, a friend of my parents recommended the book Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari. Having read Sapiens when the English translation came out around 2016, I have been told to expect plenty of repetition but, with the courses I currently teach on organizational communication, it feels like all inspiration is deeply appreciated.

Otherwise, I have a few days in between everything, as I prepare the final exams for the semester and plan what races to do next year. First out, I have the 60k Sandsjöbacka Trail on 18 January which I had to withdraw from this year as it was just a week after I had finished Ringkøbing Fjord 100k. In March, it is time for my key race, the 80k Bandolerita in the mountains of Andalusia. Then, in late April, Anna and I are heading over to Wales for her first trail race, the 55k Pembrokeshire Ultra. The big question now is if I should give Halland Ultra-Beach a new shot in August and, if so, if I should attempt the 100k distance again or level up to 100 miles?

Bagels and poached eggs

Today, the grey clouds finally blew away, leaving behind forest sunshine as Anna and I went for a lunch run up to Västra Långevattnet. After my threshold run around Stensö the other day, it felt good to start the week with some easy miles and now I only have 80 kilometres left to run this year.

Once back home, I made poached eggs and toasted bagels for lunch while drooling over Jon’s turtle swimming updates from the Gili Islands. With that, it is back to sorting out the spring semester scheduling chaos.

Gone with the wind

Thirteen years ago in Shenzhen, Anna and I would be watching CNN when the programme was repeatedly interrupted by an image of a satellite dish and a sign saying “Connection lost” as the Chinese censorship desperately tried to prevent its population from learning about the Arab Spring that was unfolding in Syria and elsewhere. Little did we know that those days in March 2011 would mark the beginning of all the horrors of the Syrian Civil War and that it would take until December 2024 before Bashar al-Assad would finally lose his dictatorial grip. While Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (or the Al-Nusra Front as it was known as back in 2011), certainly has a lot to prove when it comes to making Syria a free county for “Syrians of all sects” as they now claim, getting rid of Assad was always going to be a necessary first step.

For my own part, I left Kalmar about an hour ago, and I am now on the train back to Gothenburg. At Pressbyrån, I was thrilled to see that the December issue of Condé Nast featured the Lamu Archipelago which for so long has been on my list of dream destinations. Though the security situation remains complicated, it is one trip that I very much hope to make in the years to come.