Chasing the light

For the first time in months (at least it felt that way), the sky was all clear when I met up with Elin for an enchanting run along the frozen Ume River. As before, running together pushed up the pace considerably but at least Strava stayed short of labelling the relative effort “historic” like last time (instead it simply went with “massive”).

After showering and a brief visit to the sauna at USM, I picked up the December issue of Condé Nast which apparently is also about chasing the light. On clear days, the light up here has a very special quality this time of the year, especially just after sunset. Hopefully, we will get a few more clear winter days before the world turns grey again.

Black Friday

As this most commercial of traditions has taken hold in Sweden, it is difficult not to get drawn into the hysteria. With my beloved VJ Sarve Xante already at 640 km with ten more kilometres being added basically every day, I simply could not resist a pair of Icebug “Newrun GTX” shoes which, in addition to carbide steel studs have a Goretex upper, something that I think will make all the difference as I continue running through the winter. Completely unrelated, but as for running in Umeå, I also have to share the startling discovery that I made earlier today, namely that Sage Canaday was here in 2015 and ran some of my favourite trails (click here for the Youtube video).

Otherwise, and contrary to my fears, it was possible to bike out to Innertavle as the municipality has done a really good job clearing the roads overnight. However, when the sky cleared up, the quicksilver dropped and right now the “real feel” temperature is -18 degrees. In light of this, I may be excused for some more Italian escapism, in this case topped up with A month in Siena by Hisham Matar which I am very much looking forward to reading once I finished Find me. Finally, for those who are curious, the Beirut bowl today comes with crayfish, avocado, caramelized onions and lots of chili.

Sardinia

From Arkona on Rügen to the southern tip of Zanzibar, I share what I take to be a fairly common affinity for islands. After struggling on the bike with the trailer for two good hours in the snow today, I felt that a virtual island escape was long overdue, in this case to Sardinia with some vermentino grapes. Together with a bit of Halloumi pasta with fresh oregano, I was even able to escape the embarrassment of not knowing that “county council” has been the widely used English translation for the term “landsting” at today’s higher seminar (luckily, from the 1st of January this year, this middle-level in the Swedish political system is simply known as “regions”).

With another decimetre of snow in the forecast, I might have to walk out to Innertavle with Eddie tomorrow morning so I guess I have to worry even less about getting enough aerobic stimulus in time for South Devon Ultra :-)

2020 Racing Schedule

As I bike further into the cold icy Umeå winter, I have been busy registering for some spring races and reading up on others. After chickening out last year, I am now officially signed up to run Göteborgsvarvet, which by the way is the world’s largest half marathon, on 16 May. One week later, I will take the train down to Poland to run the Warsaw Half Marathon together with my childhood friend Gabriel. While a week between two races is a bit short, and probably part of the reason why I struggled so much in Kalmar (which was exactly a week after Angel Island), I think this will be less of a concern now given how much my overall training volume has increased. Since I am taking Eddie to Hamburg and Miniatur Wunderland during that week in May, I will also have something that stops me from running too much between the two races.

Much later, on 1 November, I am registered to run Kullamannen 12 km on Kullaberg in Skåne which is a race that tends to sell out quickly. While still almost a year away, it is also a race that I am very much looking forward to since it is quite different from the kind of races that I have been doing so far. Hopefully, South Devon Ultra will give me some much-needed practice of running more technical trails.

As for full marathons, I am still undecided following the cancellation of Beirut Marathon. Malta, Barcelona and Cyprus all seem very appealing but, realistically, I may have to settle for something closer to home. As always, any input is much appreciated.

Narwalig

As the day was ending, I went across the white bridge on a tempo run to the airport, listening to another one of those classical music podcasts, this time about the American composer and pianist Amy Beach. I have written before about the escapist qualities of these airport runs, but crossing the illuminated bridge at nightfall, just made it even more obvious as I was reminded of that favourite German word of mine, “Fernweh”.

Nostalgic as I may be about Buffy speak, German has a certain wistfulness but also capacity to surprise, as in the new instant scrabble favourite “Narwalig” (the quality of being like that toothed whale).

Aïlo’s Journey

This morning, I went to the movies with the kids to see the French-Finnish movie “Aïlo: Une odyssée en Laponie” about the new-born reindeer Aïlo. Featuring stunning panoramas of the High North, it was an incredibly beautiful but still intimate film about Aïlo’s first year in life. While highly anthropomorphic with a very human narrative imposed on nature, it was nevertheless a powerful reminder of the world that is now being pushed to its limits by industrial forestry, mining and energy extraction. As an ecomodernist, I of course had to object slightly to the narrator’s suggestion that leaving nature will ultimately “extinguish” humanity. I would rather say that the opposite is true, that we need to further liberate nature, both for our own sake and to make deep rewilding possible.

Winter Weekly

With enough mist to satisfy a generation of impressionists, I went for 8.5 easy kilometres around the lake while listening to a podcast about Claude Debussy. It was one of those mornings when you are suddenly reminded of the outside world, of all the crazy adventures that could still be awaiting, and how playful things can be sometimes.

An hour later, I was back at work, preparing some International Relations lectures that I will give in December. While I used to teach IR a bit in Korea, this is still somewhat new territory for me in terms of teaching which is always exciting.

Back home again, I found the first issue of the Monocle Winter Weekly, fresh off the printer in Konstanz. Somehow, I feel that this winter will be alright.

Lucky day

I am not someone who usually takes part in or wins sweepstakes but, today, I learnt that I won a pair of New Balance shoes from Göteborgsvarvet after completing their virtual seeding race a couple of weeks ago. That is great news as most of my running shoes are already beyond the 500 km mark and rapidly approaching retirement.

Today I was also able to run my second-fastest half marathon along the Ume River in thick mist together with Elin. It is really motivating to have someone to run with even when you are not racing. The only problem is that my own insecurities (and the fact that she is in much better shape) make me run too fast and outside of my low-heart rate training window (which I guess would ultimately be preferable in terms of aerobic base building and injury prevention). Anyhow, for now, it is just fun to keep setting new PRs :-)

Fagioli neri

As the November darkness thickens, I am back looking for marathons at the Mediterranean and making comfort food to stay warm. Inspired by the latest COOP magazine, I mix some smetana with shiitake mushrooms and black beans into a vegetarian stroganoff to go with yesterday’s Italian wine after which it is hard to feel anything but bliss.

Today at work I had a long meeting with the police education unit which was really encouraging as they seem to be very happy with the work we have been doing. Afterwards I went to a lunch event about progression and generic skills which gave me some new ideas for my teaching. Research-wise, it has been more difficult as I am struggling with motivation after finishing my book chapter on rewilding. I know I should not think like that, but somehow I am doubting that more words are really going to make much of a difference given how intractable some of these debates have become. Nevertheless, Scopus keeps sending me updates about new citations so at least someone out there is reading what I write.

Find me

After completing the Strava running distance challenge for November in the worst possible meteorological conditions, I felt like retreating indoors with a new book by André Aciman that continues the story arc of “Call me by your name”.

It is funny with books and blurbs though. I would for instance never buy a book that had a blurb like this one that promises “unforgettable characters” and explores how “love can ripple out from the past and into the future”. But, given how much I liked his first book, I am willing to overlook the blurb clichés, especially since I remember how little control my co-author Jon had over these things when he was publishing his books.

While Piedmont tends to be about white wine and bright summer nights here on Rawls & Me, I found a new red wine from Dogliani in Cuneo at Systembolaget today that proved seductive. There is clearly danger and play to speak with Nietzsche, but of course also a serious side.

Any surface, any distance

Drinking some strong coffee from Alila Ubud while eating the first “lussekatt” of the year, I am already feeling much better after the ultra intervals. Borrowing the motto of Sage Canaday, yesterday really inspired me to mix different kinds of races for 2020. Unfortunately, however, I will not be able to make it up to Tromsø for the Polar Night Halfmarathon in January since the logistics with the kids turned out to be too complicated. Instead, my next race will now be the South Devon Ultra but after that I am open for all suggestions.

Among the more crazy options that I have considered, I should mention the Baikal Ice Marathon but since Turkish does not fly to Irkutsk (which otherwise would have been a fantastic redemption since all of Russia is in the Europe-zone) I guess that is not really an option.

Two marathons

Yesterday, I ran 86.5 km or two full marathons in the snow. At 83,985 steps, it was my most active day ever recorded and I can feel that my Achilles tendons are pretty tight and my quads are kind of trashed. Yet, compared to how I usually feel after a marathon, it is still nothing to talk about so clearly all those breaks and beverages really made a difference.

With this behind me, I plan to take a few rests days. I now have just 210 km more to run until I reach my overall 2019 target of running 3,000 km, something that I think will help come 1st of February and South Devon Ultra...

En mil var tredje timme

I am now halfway into the Ultra Interval Challenge. As expected, there was quite a bit of snowfall as I ran through the night but otherwise all is going according to schedule. Since I have been running closer to 11 km every interval, I am currently at 43 km, meaning that I have already run more than one full marathon. Though I am beginning to feel a bit heavy in my legs, the experience is completely different from running a real marathon, in part because my pace is much slower (about 6 min/km) but mainly because I have been able to rest or even sleep between the intervals. Next interval starts at noon and the last one will be at 9 pm tonight. 

Carb loading

It is 10 am on Saturday morning and it is -8 degrees outside. In about 14 hours I will start the #ultraintervalchallenge so right now I am preparing a hearty Italian lunch, Gennaro Contaldo-style, as a form of carb loading. For tomorrow, I have also stocked up on blueberries and maple syrup since I think I will be making one or two pancakes before the day is over...

Right now, the weather forecast suggests that it will get milder overnight but with some heavy snowfall in the morning hours. Perhaps it would be fun to make a Youtube video in order to document the upcoming madness, what do you guys think?

Mauer

Thirty years and a week tomorrow since the fall of the Berlin Wall. This morning, I had somewhat of a brainstorming session with my new PhD student which made me think anew about time in politics and the limits of possibility.

Otherwise, this week has been one of admin and faculty meetings, which is slightly stressful as it should have been prime research time. Hopefully, next week will be better as I really need to make some progress on my different article projects and grant applications before the teaching starts again in January.

As for Berlin, I realized the other day that I had already missed the registration deadline for the 2020 Berlin Marathon so I need to look for other races to put in my racing schedule. At least I am almost certain now that I will start the year with the Tromsø polar night half marathon on the 4th of January.

Scrubland

From the scrublands of the Beqaa Valley to the icy shores of Nydalasjön, there is a special charm in bringing worlds together. After a long day of faculty meetings, I make some tabbouleh for dinner which was much appreciated even as I forgot to get pomegranate at COOP. Now, it is time to read Tintin for Eddie and put the black suitcase back into storage.

Linköping

I cannot recount the number of times that I have gone in front of an audience knowing that I would get toasted for expressing contrarian views on everything from climate policy to global development. While some may secretly agree, it is surely not popular to challenge received views about how poor people should live or the risks of nuclear energy. As such, it was such a treat to have a two-hour seminar where everyone was just happy and enthusiastic. In fact, it even made me briefly consider a career in pedagogical research :-)

Now I am at the station in Linköping, eating the first saffron bun of the year and drinking too much coffee. The yellow book by Olga Togarczuk is keeping me company as I wait for the high-speed train to take me north. After all the travelling, I am very much looking forward to coming home and making some tabbouleh.

All politicians

One of the recurring chants of the Beirut demonstrations has been “all of them means all of them”, as in that all politicians should resign. Not only do the protesters want to eject the entire existing political class but they also seem to share the belief that “neutral” technocratic experts would be better suited to govern the country.

As a political scientist, it is not difficult to see where this is coming from given the endemic corruption and mismanagement associated with the current confessional system. Still, thinking of good old Max Weber, one may be forgiven for having doubts about the possibility of value-free politics. Once in place, it is also likely that those technocratic experts may soon find themselves engaged in exactly the same kind of dodgy deals and rent-seeking behaviour as the politicians before them.

The talk about “clean” experts somehow reminded me of Paul Romer’s idea of “charter cities” which has rightly been criticized for its neo-colonial overtones. Still, there is a genuine need for political reform and a window of opportunity here but, more than neutral experts, I see a need for political ideology and a long-term vision of social progress.

2019 Gold List

It is shortly before eight and I am waiting in the first class lounge of the Swedish Railways for my train to Linköping. Seeing all the Very Busy People eating breakfast at Scandic, I felt thankful once again for not having to be part of this world but rather having my green bike and my Nydala running trails.

While I could not resist some black coffee from Beirut Café, I have no international travel planned until 30 January next year when I am off to London and South Devon Ultra. As it stands now, this means that I will be in the UK when the new Brexit deadline expires on 31 January but I would not put too much into that ;-) Regardless of that, the fact that I am done travelling for 2019 also means that I can now put together my customary annual Gold List (click here for the 2018 and 2017 lists respectively). In total I travelled 73,909 miles, visited 13 countries (of which Ghana and Lebanon were new) and four continents. Here are some of my favourites.

Best Coffee: Kalei Coffee, Beirut
Best Independent Hostel: Somewhere Nice, Accra
Best Chained-brand Hotel: Alila Ubud, Bali
Best Airport Lounge: Polaris Lounge, SFO
Best Award Value: Upgrading Istanbul – San Francisco r/t to business class using my annual TK Elite Plus Vouchers

Bamboo

As I had some Scandic hotel points that were about to expire, I decided to redeem a free night at Sjöfartshotellet in Stockholm to have somewhere to sleep before I take the train to Linköping tomorrow morning. After the last days of post-continental decadence in Beirut (picture above), I was also in search for another kind of redemption so, once at the hotel, I jumped on the treadmill for five kilometres in my new #ultrainterval bamboo shirt.

However, since Anna is going away for a conference later this week, it will not be possible to run the real thing on Saturday as originally scheduled. Instead, I am planning to postpone my 8x10 km of ultra intervals with 24 hours, i.e. the madness will now start at midnight of the 17th rather than the 16th of November. Regardless, I think I am in for a challenge.

3x Beirut

Layers and hierarchies

While the past is always multi-layered and ambiguous, Lebanon, just like Israel, comes across as particularly steeped in conflicted history. From the French Mandate up to the present, I struggle to make sense of all the factions and confessional identities. At the Sursock museum yesterday, there was a room-sized installation called “the problems of metaphor” which sought to investigate the formation and breakdown of order, “be they bodily, linguistic, or political”.

In my newspaper, I read that there is talk about having a referendum on whether or not Lebanon should become a secular state. Harder to grasp are all those other legacies of domination; how both our passports are returned to me, how people speak past Ally as if she was not there, or, and this obviously bites deeper, how I take on the role of being the one who “knows” the way or “explains” things.

As we enter Romanian airspace, I am still somehow sorting all these impressions. When I close my eyes, I see the elderly women waving with Lebanese flags as they gather to protest, the smiling soldiers with their machine guns, and the Russian bodyguards waiting for their bosses to finish their Sunday family meals before being whisked away in black SUVs.

Tomorrow I will be in Linköping and talk about gallery walk seminars and after that I will take the night train back to Umeå. Once again, I find myself simply overwhelmed by how much one can actually experience over the course of a few short days. I am also grateful for the fact that Ally and I did not cancel our trip when the protests started but instead ventured into what, for us, was the unknown, but which now has become a place that I am already thinking of returning to.

Old Beirut Matters

After eating a late Lebanese dinner in a 18th century villa up in Achrafieh, our Sunday morning came off to a slow start but eventually we made it over to Geitawi which seems to be somewhat of an epicentre for the tensions between new and old in Beirut. Luxury condominiums with infinity pools coming up next to blown out concrete skeletons and the loveliest of citrus gardens. As much as everyone in the world talks about growing inequality, it is hard to find a more material manifestation of the contradictions of “development” than here in Eastern Beirut.

Later we got to see a Picasso exhibition at the Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum of Contemporary Art and drink some more mint lemonade before it cooled off enough for me to run at least a portion of what would have been the marathon course. Everywhere along the planned course there were signs saying, “run for unity”, “run for diversity” or, the most equivocal, “run for modernity”.

Stadtbummel

From the breakfast bagel at Sip through 12.6 km of walking along the seafront and across Hamra, the sense of normalcy remains the defining impression of this our first day in Beirut. Here and there, one can see deep scars going back to the Lebanese Civil War but, everywhere else, there is construction and yet more construction, often of new upscale residential complexes. For those following the Monocle trail, the backyard garden of Kalei Coffee is definitely something to dream of on cold winter nights in Umeå.

On the ground

After a long circling approach, the wheels hit and held on runway 17/35 of Rafic Hariri International Airport and we were suddenly in Lebanon. The airport could not have been any calmer and immigration was over in minutes. I do not know what I had expected but within an hour we had checked in at our hotel on a backstreet in downtown Beirut. Though the hotel seemed completely empty (with the predictable exception of some other Swedes on the rooftop terrace) there was no mention by anyone of what is obviously a very difficult time.

This morning, as I woke up before Ally, I could not resist the temptation of my signature move and go for a city morning run. Until I know the city a little better though, I decided to stay fairly close to the hotel but, again, I must say that what really stands out is the normality of things.

Flights

In an act of bravado, I decided to not take my winter jacket and instead travel light as it is currently 29 degrees in Beirut. However, at 5 a.m. in Umeå, it was definitely not 29 degrees as I waited outside for the airport bus and then later to board SAS Boeing 737-700 “Tyra Haraldsdatter”. Now at Arlanda, I am slowly thawing over some coffee and Olga Togarczuk’s appropriately entitled book Flights. In 40 minutes, Ally will be here and we will head over to the Turkish Airlines check-in counter in Terminal 5.

Seeding race

After checking in for my flight to Stockholm tomorrow morning, I went down to the river for one last attempt to get a better qualification time for Göteborgsvarvet 2020. Together with Elin, whom I got to know when running Tvåälvsloppet back in September, I raced ten mad kilometres, ultimately setting a new PR of 43 minutes and 44 seconds (an improvement of about 25 seconds compared to Umemilen). Now, I just have to wrap up the last things at work before it is time to return to the Middle East.

Ice

Last year, I finally got around to buy a pair of ice skates. While Eddie quickly learned to master ice skating, I guess my own progress has been somewhat… ehh… limited. However, with Nydalasjön freezing over, I was eager to head out, if nothing else to briefly test a new activity type in Strava ;-)

As for activity types, I have recently been adding some indoor rowing to my gym routine as I figured it would be a good way to engage more muscle groups in a low impact way. Looking back on October, it is all kind of wild with 356 kilometres of running and 43 activities in total. Most likely, November will be the first month in a while when I do not set a new distance running record but yesterday I at least received my #ultraintervalchallenge t-shirt...

Ally

In 96 hours, Ally and I may or may not be on our way to Beirut via Istanbul. Judging from Al Jazeera and the information provided by the Swedish Foreign Ministry, central Beirut should still be fine but we will not make any final decision until our actual day of travelling.

After Tel Aviv last year, this will be the third longer trip that Ally and I make together. We first met 16 years ago when we were sharing the same student dorm in Cambridge and she has figured quite a bit here on Rawls & Me over the years. As such, it is not surprising that someone finally asked me:

I guess that is what you would call a good question.

How far is far

There are people out there who run a marathon every day. There are others for whom running 10 km would be an insurmountable challenge. This summer, 100 kilometres per week seemed to be somewhat of a barrier for me but, after all the training I have done this fall, it appears as if my body has adapted to increasingly higher volumes.

While the stars were still out, I went for a final 16 km run this morning along my favourite dirt roads, pushing my weekly mileage up to a record of 108 kilometres. Despite the accumulated distance, I was feeling just great as I took in the countryside at dawn’s early light. As for America, today is Sunday the 3rd of November which happens to be day of the New York City Marathon. I have already downloaded the app and will keep my fingers crossed, both for Andreja and Seth :-)

Resan

From my own time in pre-school I remember that I loved playing the board game “Resan” (the “journey”). Finding the same game at a second hand store here in Umeå, I was surprised by how simplistic the game actually was and how my imagination had added many new layers of meaning beyond the dry rules of the game.

As an adult, I often get to play the real-world version of this game as I have become somewhat of the travel agent for the extended family. Just this morning, I got to book a trip for Anna to Tennessee in March with BA as she is attending a conference at Vanderbilt. For my own part, I think I will stay mostly on the ground after Lebanon. The only trip I have booked right now is South Devon in February but I am thinking of heading up to Tromsø from Kiruna in early January to run the Polar Night Halfmarathon.

Pace on Earth

Clearly, Strava is no good for me. Last night, my friend Niklas told me about the podcast Pace on Earth and their “Ultra Interval Challenge” which is a virtual event on 16 November consisting of eight 10k intervals spread out over 24 hours. Within minutes, I realized that this was something I really wanted to do, especially now when Beirut Marathon got cancelled.

With the official race t-shirt ordered, I ran down to USM for some strength training, again trying to keep my heart rate between 140 and 145. Heading back home, I was treated to the most beautiful sunrise over the Ume River.