Tor Rønnow, Author at Tor on Marathon

New Technology and Old Spirituality

By Tor Rønnow on Saturday, February 4, 2012

One of my favorite books is the “Meditations” by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It’s fascinating to contemplate that the most powerful man in the World actually was a Philosopher. “Meditations” was written almost two Millenniums ago but is still ever so relevant. Just take this quote as an example:

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment

So easy to read and agree with, so hard to practise ! I guess we forget again and again that we filter the “Truth” ourselves, as brilliantly captured in the movie “Memento” and so powerfully explained in the sort-of scientific teachings of NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) and in the more spiritual ones by Seth/Jane Roberts, especially the book “The Nature of Personal Reality”. As described by Leonardo da Vinci we Humans are left with the powers of our Senses. NLP and Seth elaborate that we each create our own subjective, personal interpretation, an inner representation, based on the “data” from our senses. We tend to think that our experiences is the “Reality” or “Truth”. They are subjectively but not objectively, cf. Marcus Aurelius. Do dwell on this for a minute !

The Vision is perhaps the most powerful and persuading of our Senses. If we have seen something, it must have “happened” and it should be possible to establish a common Reality with others witnessing the same events. Right ? Wrong ! We are still filtering, we are still being Subjective. Intriguingly, take this piece of new technology as your aid: a camera that takes completely unfocused images ! See this example and play around with the picture (click around): https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/2325

Woo ! Imagine that our Mind could do the same. Refocus.

You were right, Marcus Aurelius !

Spirituality

2012: New Contexts, New Patterns, New Goals

By Tor Rønnow on Sunday, January 1, 2012

So a Happy New Year to you !

It is magic, isn’t it, how a simple new digit may change our outlooks towards Life. I guess that is one of the special things about the New Years Evening and the transition into January – that we put aside the disappointments from the Past and really believe that the Future will bring us new stuff. Well, it might. The interesting issue here is the mechanism itself: we adopt a change in our entire system. By the definition of a New Year we surrender to something that may fall so difficult in so many other circumstances, times and situations in out lives: we reframe our Worlds, we alter our interpretations and we twist our mind-sets on what is possible. Indeed, all these virtues are available each second we breathe. We should use them more often !

So why does it fall so easy on New Years Eve ? Perhaps the answer is: the context. It is “OK” to start again, you could even say that we feel that we are given permission to change, that it is OK to change direction and to set new goals. Indeed, Context is a great factor in our subconscious mind and I tend to believe that our interpretations of Life and especially our feelings are extremely driven by our abilities to perspectivate, i.e. to choose our Centext instead of feeling doomed or destined by it.

We all want to be HAPPY, don’t we ? Well, I think that Happiness is a point-of-view and as such an interpretation of what actually happens in the outer world. So where do the Context blend in ? Let me give you an example: yesterday, the entire Globe celebrated the New Year, many were probably both drunk, horny and happy and thus most people have a positive feeling connected with “New Years Eve”. For me, this evening is in the light of another Context: this is the Evening on which I in 1973 saw my Father die at age 31, makeing me an Orphan just aged 7, a situation I fully understood on that very evening and how this was to define my entire life. So: same evening, different contexts -> different feelings, thoughts and degrees of Happiness.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not begging for pitty here, I am trying to prove a point, perhaps one of the most important ones I can pass on to you: learn to Perspectivate, learn to understand the importance of your sensation of the Context of any given situation or argument you might be in. Understand your Life in a larger context Timewise, i.e. in the vast span of Eternity and in the modest and perhaps random age of the Civilizations. We are all merely Dust in Time and Space and exactly therefore is Context everything in our short lives. Everything. So be aware of yourself, of your Centexts and of your Choices, first and foremost your mental ones, they will define your feelings and thus your Experiences. Get it ?

Personally, I jump into 2012 with many and great hopes for the Future. Running-wise I will now interpretate everything I do, eat and train from the perspective that I am a 3.15 Marathon Runner. This is a very different position as compared with just a few months ago. I choose this Context for myself and thereby I define some of the important aspects in my 2012 must-do’s.

Also, I choose to welcome saying good-bye to a few People that obviously don’t belong in my Life, People whom have abused my Trust and my Love. I know I did the “right” things and should not go down due to the Others misbehaviour. So, I will choose the positive version knowing that “I can Love”, and leave the victimized version behind. I will choose the Context of not having met the really important people and partners yet. I have changed my interpretations and as such killed the love and the friendships that I thought I had – but never really had. In that Context the loss is now a gift. Thank you, Life, for making me understand.

So hello 2012, bring on Happiness, great races and lot’s of Love. For all of us.

Marathon

My Marathons 2011 – Part IV

By Tor Rønnow on Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The last Part of this series concludes on the best marathons in 2011, i.e. I give my you my take on the best marathons in 2011, i.e. amongst the ones I have participated in myself. Best does not necessarily mean ‘objectively best’ but does also emphasize the magnitude of the experience including ‘other’ factors such as city/nature facilities etc. not to mention my own performance.

I have divided the marathons into four groups and as always, you find links to the races via ‘My marathons’ in the menu.

Overall
1. New York City Marathon (USA)
2. Vancouver (Canada)
3. Thorshavn (Faroe Islands)
4. Madrid (Spain)
5. H.C. Andersen (Denmark)

City marathons
1. New York City Marathon (USA)
2. Vancouver (Canada)
3. Madrid (Spain)
4. Barcelona (Spain)
5. Copenhagen (Denmark)

Nature runs
1. Thorshavn (Faroe Islands)
2. LGT Alpin (Liechtenstein)
3. Rudersdal (Denmark)
4. Pihlsbech #100 (Denmark)
5. Furesø (Denmark)

Small races
1. Dr. Nielsens (Denmark)
2. Wedding Marathon (Denmark)
3. Holstebro (Denmark)
4. Kalundborg Vintermarathon (Denmark)
5. Sydkyst (Denmark)

These are lists based on my personal experiences, of course. To mentain memory of the best races ‘ever’, I have a category of the ‘all-time best’ marathons as well. Here, the big marathons do live up to their famous names !

Best ever
1. New York (USA)
2. Zermatt (Switerzerland)
3. London (England)
4. Rome (Italy)
5. Chicago (USA)

Marathon

My Marathons 2011 – Part III

By Tor Rønnow on Sunday, December 25, 2011

Performance has been a key word in several respects in 2011. The year opened with a series of talks on the book ELSK AT LØBE,

ELSK AT LØBE - Tor Rønnow & Bente Klarlund Pedersen

the most prominent being the evening at POLITIKEN where my co-author prof. Bente Klarlund Pedersen and I entertained several hundred people. The book contains a 7 step Marathon Management programme to secure a good marathon experience and I have personally applied several pieces of the advice myself, especially the stuff about an “optimal weight”, the metabollic fittness and the scientific core facts on why you have to train with high intensity.

Actually, I had proclaimed a 3.45 result as the goal for 2011 but honestly I thought that such a figure was quite unrealistic on my race list which after all said 207 marathons on plus-4 hours to none sub-4 entering the year. So imagine my delight when I finally booked the first sub-4 ! As written several times before, this came about in my marathon no. 218 and in stunning Vancouver, Canada, well paced by my friend Vagn Kirkelund.

Vancouver Marathon 2011 – pictures

Then came some months where no improvement seemed to occur all until the fairytale race at H.C. Andersen Marathon where I had the fortune to establish a brilliant cooperation with Anders Brandt. I think that those 10 fast kilometers we shared together laid the cornerstone to both our PB’s (Anders with 3.45 and I with 3.54) and it expanded my mindset for sure on what is possible.

H.C. Andersen Marathon 2011 – pictures

Thus, a series of sub-4 results now followed and even an elusive new PB 3.42.39 was booked in Amsterdam, this time under the secure guidiance from Mogens Pedersen. Three weeks later it was even possible for me to go sub-4 in New York running as Spiderman and my race list now features seven sub-4’s and 9 of my 10 best times are from 2011 (and 12 of my 14 best times – no. total races is 238). Cutting 24 minutes off your PB can’t be too bad, can it ?

Amsterdam Marathon 2011 – pictures

So what and whom have inspired me to this performance stunt ? Well, the facts in the book are for sure major drivers. But indeed so many of my already strong and well-performing friends are sources of inspiration too, some are already mentioned here and I could add a few more: some of my young facebook friends that run insanely fast and always criticize me for being too slow (Jonas Berg, Jeppe Farsøht), my VIP-guests at LøbeMagasinet Rudersdal Marathon Frederik Lassen (Danish Champion in 24-hours) and Erik Steffensen (an art professor that at age 50 is now running 5 k at 19.19 and the like) and some of my new friends on the Faroe Islands (Pól Sundskarð, Guttorm Sørensen and the very talented young Marnar Djurhuus).

I think Performance will continue to be on the agenda in 2012 – having declared 3.15 as the target !

Marathon

My Marathons 2011- Part II

By Tor Rønnow on Wednesday, December 21, 2011

In Part II of this series I will account for my races in Denmark. In case you didn’t know we have a zillion marathon races in Denmark each year, many of them being small local events. However, we do also have marathons with international class and appeal, first and foremost the two biggest events: Nykredit Copenhagen Marathon and H.C. Andersen Marathon in Odense. Although I really treasure many of my other Danish races, these two take a very special place and this year is no exception. Although I was a bit disappointed with my performance in Copenhagen I was extremely delighted with the organization of the race and also very pleased with the new route which I find very scenic and representative for our Capital.

Nykredit Copenhagen Marathon 2011 – pictures

“Organization to perfection” is also the phrase that comes to mind about H.C. Andersen Marathon. This year proved to be quite if not catastrophically rainy on the race day, nevertheless I managed to book a new suberb PB in Odense (more to come about this in Part III). You may browse the wet pictures here: H.C. Andersen Marathon 2011 – pictures

Before these events I had run the usual classic winter races in Kalundborg, Holstebro and the infamous Dr. Nielsen in Vejle and also seen some improvement in my form at Sydkyst Maraton in Greve where I actually ran my 2’nd best marathontime at the time. But the races that I will remember the most are probably those three where I was lucky to celebrate some of my friends on days very special to them, namely the Marathon Wedding (!) for Peter Buhr and wife Lotte,

Wedding Marathon – pictures

marathon no. 100 for Morten Pihlsbech and Susanne Gren,

2*100 Marathon – pictures

and marathon no. 500 for Anders Munch Madsen, the latter also being my own event at LøbeMagasinet Rudersdal Marathon on beautiful Zeeland.

LøbeMagasinet Rudersdal Marathon – pictures

The friendships are an important part of all this running and it is for the same reason sad to note that 2011 saw some abuse on that account, i.e. so-called friends clearly overstepping the “unspoken conventions”. Who knows, perhaps life needs to include some idiots in order for us to spot the fine people in our lives. Thus, I am actually pleased to scrap the garbage, cf. #1 in this fine list of advice: 30-things-to-stop-doing-to-yourself, but it is of course a little confusing if “trust” is not a common part of the marathon community anymore.

I will indeed enter 2012 with some rage in mind and body, but even worse: with sadness in the heart. Not so much for saying “f*ck-off” to these few assh*les, not at all, no, I am more concerned that other friendships may be at stake. I foresee divisions. I liked running more 4-5 years ago when the friendships were clean.