Balthazar

Today, Eddie and I took the regional train to Skövde, passing Aspen with all its memories in magic morning fog. Though the original plan had been to go swimming at Arena Skövde, the kids ended up doing that already yesterday with Anna while I was out running, so instead Eddie and I decided to check out the Balthazar Science Museum. In contrast to the one in Trollhättan, this one turned out to be slightly underwhelming unfortunately, but we made up for that with a nice walk through the Boulogner Forest and some sci-fi book browsing at the public library before taking the high-speed train back to Gothenburg.

Recce

Yesterday, I met up with seven other seasoned ultra runners for a recce along the first segment of Halland Ultra Beach. A mere kilometre from Götaplatsen, I found myself at what was once the endpoint of an aerial tramway leading up to a faux lighthouse built for the 1923 jubilee exhibition in Gothenburg. With both the tramway and the lighthouse gone, only an abandoned concrete structure partly overtaken by vegetation remained, reminding me of my 2016 visit to Chernobyl. 

From there, we crossed Guldheden and continued into Änggårdsbergen which I have long been wanting to explore. Running on fairly technical trails, we eventually made it down to Mölndal and Sisjön which was glimmering as a morning shower gave way to sunshine.

Thanks to my trusted Hoka Speedgoat 5, I felt confident on the slippery trails, and happy to be out on my first longer run in almost two months. Talking to some of the others who had done the full 320-kilometre version of Halland Ultra Beach, I felt immensely humbled. Whereas most of the people around me keep questioning the wisdom of ultra running, here I could feel like a relatively junior and “normal” runner.

Approaching Särö, we met a group of stunning white horses which again reminded me of the forests of Chernobyl. Though my mother-in-law has mentioned Särö several times, I was still surprised by how beautiful the coastline was once we made a final loop around Västerskog. All in all, a fantastic run, and I look forward to joining the HUB people for another recce in the future.

Two more days on the rails

The last four weeks have been wild in terms of transportation. Almost every day, I have been taking the train to Halmstad and, somehow, I have also found time to run Helsingborg half marathon and visiting Sofi in Örebro. As such, it sure feels good to know that I will soon take a break from the commuting and not resume it until 16 October.

Looking at the photo from Helsingborg above, I am reminded of the joy I felt out on the course, and how much I look forward to running Varberg Half Marathon with Anna on the 19th of October. While I still have not given up on long-distance racing, there is something truly recreational and self-confidence boosting with just going out there and being happy rather than chasing down impossible goals. As for the latter, the qualifying times for the 2026 Boston Marathon have just been published and, again, the initial qualifying time is 3 hours and 20 minutes for my age group. However, in reality, one has to run faster yet, in 2025 almost seven minutes faster, to actually gain entry to the race.

Rainy days

After a seemingly never-ending Indian summer, the autumn and the rain finally arrived this week. Undeterred, I went for an afternoon run and swim, before returning home to learn that my co-authored article in the Journal of Social Work Education had finally been accepted for publication (after being under review since May 2023). As often in academia, patience has proven to be a key virtue.

Draken

Last night, I took my parents up the elevator to the 34th floor of the Draken hotel for a drink. Seeing a red moon slowly rising over the city, I appreciated this time together with my mom and dad, and being able to show them a bit of my new hometown, something that we followed up today with both Slottsskogen and a tour of the East Indiaman Göteborg.

Otherwise, I am excited to be able to do higher volumes again as I put behind me a week with 100k of running, 10k of indoor rowing and quite a bit of strength training. Considering how busy I will be next week though, I am uncertain if it is a feat that I will be able to repeat but at least it feels good to be back on pace after my cold.

Furmint

The other day, Ally recommended a Hungarian white wine made with the Furmint grape. While Hungary is mostly known for its sweet dessert wines that are made using the same grape, both Anna and I loved this dry variant. As often, I realize that it has been my own prejudices that have kept me from discovering how much some countries have improved as wine producers in recent years.

Today it is Saturday which of course means Parkrun. Running next to William, we had a great run in the autumn sunshine, including some wild downhill sprints in 2:50 min/km. And in three hours, we will pick up my parents at the railway station to make sure they know everything they need to know in anticipation of our big trip.

Aerolíneas Argentinas

While we still plan to take the high-speed ferry back to Buenos Aires, Aerolíneas Argentinas had some excellent fares for their morning flight to Montevideo in two weeks from tomorrow. As such, Anna and I will now make the 221-kilometre-long hop across the Rio de la Plata in an Embraer 190 belonging to the Skyteam member and state-owned flag carrier of Argentina. Having received almost 10 billion USD in subsidies from the government since 2008, Aerolíneas Argentinas is up there with Alitalia and SAS when it comes to losing money.

Anyhow, with SAS now having joined Skyteam, I promise to report on elite recognition and lounge access but, for the moment, SAS does not even appear in Aerolíneas Argentinas’ list of possible frequent flyer programmes, so the early signs are not that promising...

Nine years ago

Today, I have been writing Rawls & Me for 18 years. Though I will save any celebrations until 2026, assuming that both I and the world are still around, I thought I should post this flashback to 2015 featuring Eddie outside Kulturbageriet in Umeå.

Two weeks

In two weeks from today, Anna and I will take the bus to Landvetter Airport where we will start our grand adventure around the world, taking us first to Istanbuland the Bosphorus before catching a connecting flight to Bogotá the following morning.

For now, however, I am still in Sweden, where the supermoon and the mist turned my morning run into something out of the ordinary. Unlike yesterday, I did not spot any hedgehogs or foxes on my run though, but at least I got to see some deer.

Then, as I was taking the 7.40 am service to Halmstad, the morning mist delivered yet more magic at the railway station. On days like these, getting up crazy early is really not that difficult, but I guess it will be once we get later into the autumn. At least, I will not have to commute as much in November and December so, with a bit of luck, I will be able to do more of my running during daylight hours.

A case of Mondays

After a weekend like that, coming back to work is always a bit of a transition, and even more so when your first class is three hours of quantitative methodology. Yet, thanks to my lovely students, I soon eased into it and now I am genuinely looking forward to the remaining 4 x 2 hours of SPSS workshops later this week.

Nevertheless, having an unusual three-hour midday break in Halmstad, I changed into my running shoes and went about exploring “Östra Stranden” which I never got to run along during Halland Ultra-Beach back in August. To my surprise, the sea was just as warm as the beach was empty of people, and I got to jump into the water already at the halfway point without having to run all the way down to the far end.

Then, after a quick shower at Nordic Wellness, I got to listen to Tomas Wedin’s “docent lecture” on cultural equality. As always with Tomas, the lecture was highly scholarly and left me with a lot of food for thought. Sadly, I could not stay longer and listen to the other lectures as I had to take the train back home and take care of the kids.

Asphalt and churros

Taking on our own version of Göteborgsvarvet, Eddie and I got to have a fast-paced afternoon in the sunshine yesterday. Running 4:30 min/km whenever traffic permitted, I felt strong for most of the run even as the heat reminded me of why had decided not to race in Helsingborg.

 

Crossing Älvsborgsbron, which initially was supposed to be called “Västerbron”, I got to look out over the Western Sea, and think of the trip I made with my parents to Skagen in late July, before heading back into town where Eddie insisted on having churros with ice cream. Excluding the ferry crossing from Lindholmen to Stenpiren, our run turned out to be more or less exactly a half marathon.

Styrsö sleepover

Returning with the ferry to Styrsö for a calm weekend in September when all the other tourists have left, the kids got to have so much fun both in and out of the water together with their island friends. For the adults, there was a bottle of Grüner Veltliner from Niederösterreich and stone charcoal grilled salmon for dinner, but also quite a bit of activity, including one of my longer and more adventurous wetsuit swims around the islet Tjälmen.

With the water temperature already down to 16 degrees, it was great to have the sauna ready once back onshore, and the wood-fired hot tub certainly did not disappoint later under the stars either. Now back home, I am about to make up for some of the kilometres I lost earlier this week due to my cold by going for a long run with Eddie on his bike.

Back to business

Matador red

Watching the Trump-Harris debate, the “weirdness” of Trump was on full display, especially when he descended into repeating falsehoods of aliens eating cats (something that quickly invited numerous “Alf” memes). In the words of The Atlantic, Kamala Harris “broke" Donald Trump by making him see “matador red”.

As I visited Trollhättan Science Center with the kids today, I feared a somewhat similar reaction when asking why nuclear was excluded from its exhibition of clean energy sources. To my surprise, I was met by genuine curiosity, reminding me that, even as I apparently was the first person to ever ask such a question, the political landscape has changed a lot in the last decade. While the thought of having a museum showcasing nuclear energy and its historically unmatched potential to cut carbon emissions would certainly provoke the ire of Greenpeace and its allies, it may perhaps not be as outlandish as I first thought.

Beyond energy and a Tintin-style rocket, the museum also had oversized Lego bricks which the boys fell in love with. Add some excellent apple crumble to that and I would not be surprised if we return the next time that we are in Trollhättan.

Around the corner

With autumn temperatures around the corner, and thunder in the distance, I made the most of this Monday morning by running ten faster kilometres and swimming in the lake, before catching the train to Halmstad for another maxed-out week of lectures. First up, multi-level governance with the second-year students. 

Meanwhile, there is great news from the United Arab Emirates, where all four reactors at the Barakah nuclear power plant are now in commercial operation with a total capacity of 5,600 MW, thirteen years after work started on the first reactor. Supplied by the Korean electricity utility KEPCO, it shows what is possible if there is a serious commitment to decarbonization (as opposed to mere war over discourse).

Blue zone

Across Tågaborg and out to Sofiero castle, Anna and I got to take part in the HOKA Helsingborg Half Marathon today as the Indian summer peaked with the temperature climbing up to 28 degrees. Since I overstretched my right calf muscle ten days ago, and Anna has struggled a bit health-wise recently, we both decided to take it slow and treat the race like a low-heart rate training session.

 

With the race being completely sold out, parts of the course were quite crowded but that was made up by strong crowd support, live music, and the views of the sea as we made it out to Thalassa. Running 72% of the race in the blue zone on my watch with an overall average heart rate of 136 bpm, I felt as strong as when doing Göteborgsvarvet in May. Just like then, it felt fantastic to get a receipt that all those hours of volume building are really paying off and that I am still developing as a long-distance runner. Though I would of course had loved to go racing, the number of ambulances and paramedics taking care of heat exhausted runners made it clear that this was never going to be a day for PR setting. Also, thanks to taking it slow, I had zero pain in my calf throughout. And as expected, my new grey Clifton 9 shoes were just perfect for this kind of long slow runs on asphalt.

Indian summer

Yesterday, I had the privilege of welcoming a new class of more than 60 students down in Halmstad. Despite the Indian summer and the lack of oxygen in the lecture hall, their enthusiasm of starting a new chapter in their lives was not to be mistaken.

Today, however, I took the 5.59 a.m. service in the opposite direction towards Örebro. After working three hours on the train (only slightly distracted by the misty sunrise outside), I was greeted by Sofi and her flat-coated retriever Krut at the railway station. 

Together we drove up to Ramsjön where the temperature was well above 20 degrees and the lake was baking in sunshine, all making Kilsbergen feel very different compared to some ice-cold swims in the past. Having eaten our packed lunch on the bridge, we got to visit the small town of Nora as well before it was time for me to take the train back to Gothenburg and reality.

Afternoon canoe with the kids