Back in Bergen |
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7 December 2024 - Askøy
My kids, who I love more than life itself, are not so interested in seeing me. My friends, however, are overjoyed. Being back in Bergen it's punishing to know that my kids are nearby and too busy (Maxwell) or just hate that Trump won (Zara). Today I came out for the Mikeller run. It's a much bigger group than 3 years ago when I left. But the guys who were running then sought me ought when they heard I was coming. Guys like me who have run all over the world. Sure, we-ve followed eachother on Strava for years, but I was touched. The friends that you can just pick up with after years like you just ran together yesterday are the best sort of folks. We all struggle to keep our bodies healthy and functional. It's a battle we all will lose one day, but we meet the struggle as brothers. I also met a Brit from Leeds named Tom with whom I ran most of the time. He's been on Norway ih 15 years in various places as a fish physiologist. There's a niche job. And maybe the rare sort of person that can talk about salmon's prevalence on the southern Atlantic coastal rivers of Europe before they were fished out. He was especially interested in their presense in the Loire, a long, long river up which to swim and spawn. Another guy ran with stroller and his baby enjoyed lunch while we drank beers afterward discussing our common love of Korean cuisine. He actually gets to go there regularly! And his daughter's mother tongue is French, as his wife is. We reminisced about the potato soup Apollon served during covid to meet the silly Norwegian rules. And then there was the Spanish couple that laughed at us because they'd spent covid in Sweden with next to no rules. Tomorrow I will hike with other friends. Despite the great sadness of my kids' following their mother in rejecting me this city is still home.
After such a run I felt empowered to visit the Julemarked and do a little Christmas shopping. Gløgg, books and pinnekjøtt. I laughed when I saw a booth selling raclette. Americans ever conflated Scandinavia and Switzerland, but do we really need to encourage it? Then I went to grab more woolen underwear and running spikes. It still amazes me the other countries with a lot of snow haven't caught on to running with spikes. It seems that no one in Switzerland uses them, and in Canada a few years back on a winter run I saw so many people fall on ice that could have been avoided with spikes. I guess here they have walking spikes and running spikes, which makes the question not "do you have spikes?" but "do you have the right spikes?" But last month in Landquart (Switzerland) I saw two elderly women comparing the spikes they had on their walking sticks. One even had an oxygen tank connected to her face from her backpack. The Swiss never seem to accept that their hiking days are over. But neither had slipped spikes onto their shoes.
Today I also learned that a Mikeller bar has just opened in Zürich. Maybe a running club there soon as well? And also that there is an ultra in Medoc like the one I ran in Chianti five years ago with copious wine at the aid stations. That's definitely on the bucket list now! Still, I would gladly go back to running the Strawberry Stride in Portland, TN with my four kids again. At least I'll get the some of my extended family to run with me over Christmas.
