I somehow managed to complete GARMIN Rudersdal VII just after a week of near-dying of a flu. I guess I felt compelled to make the try, being the Race Director of the Event and welcomming almost 100 runners from the entire country. The short story is… I made it… and the participants had a great day on the tough route, the permanent marathonroute ‘RudersdalRuten’ just north of Copenhagen.
You find the story and the pictures here.
I have to confess, I am not the guy reading too much Poetry these days. I did when I was younger, lots of different things and of course the unavoidable stuff like the Danish Poet Michael Strunge and the French Arthur Rimbaud. Well… who hasn’t ?
Anyways… one of my favorite poems is actually by a very unknowm Norwegian, Arnulf Øverland, whose poem “Til en Misantrop” I discovered in a very remote hut when hiking the Norwegian Mountains… my primary occupation when I was a kid and in early manhood… actually, the simiar kind of quest as running marathons. Long hard days in Nature, beautiful eyesights, lots of struggle…
I often think of this Poem, “Til en Misantrop“. My snobby and hilariously self-righteous neighbours remind me. The News on the Television reminds me. The loved ones that I have buried remind me. My own history reminds me. The Poem itself reminds me.
This past weekend was another ‘wellness’ thing with two marathons in a row. Yum-yum.
First, on Saturday, we were a rather large group of Danes visiting Kiel marathon in the Northern Germany and we were lucky to have ideal running conditions with no wind and almost warm winter temperatures. The race was rather easily run, even though the route became a bit boring after a while. However, as always in Germany the organisation was suberb and we enjoyed a fine and professional day at the habour in Kiel.
Pictures from the race can be seen here.
Then Sunday and back in Denmark, we ran a small Halloween-kinda run near the little town Horsens in Jutland and many we dressed up for the occasion… just for fun… but do not mistake: the race was extremely tough to get through.. not because we had run the day before… no, to the very muddy and slippery conditions on the also partly hilly route. Thus, it really demanded some serious will-power to endure… and I was personally quite happy to actually finish in a fine manner closing the last 12 k in sub 75 minutes.
On the picture you see some of the strong runners, including my doublet-collegues this weekend Mogens Pedersen (cow) and Michael Hein (outmost left). You find the full story here and below a small vid with a happy but also rather tired Tor passing by.
Listen to this tune from the Musical ‘Hello Dolly’…
Touching, isnt it.
Why ? Well, to me it hints and refreshes the feeling of Grace, and it points to the existence of eternal and spiritual love, to the fact that we as humans can live in happiness through a lifetime based on a few sacred moments… and as Dostojefskij pointed out in his epic Novel ‘The Karamazov Brothers’ these moments might better fall in the Childhood to make the deepest impact. States of Grace are highly personal, of course, for me they have most often involved Nature, music, love, sex, sport, spirituality, chess, travels, activity, children and in the latest years… running.
I have sensed the Moments of Grace since I was a very little boy. I have ‘recorded’ them in my mind and soul… and I can replay hundreds if not thousands of mental filmclips from my life. I bet you can too. An important point is too: maybe the very next moment or expericence is one ‘for a lifetime’. Why not ? Always keep an open mind… and always stay hungry for fresh meat.. em.. spiritually, of course 😉
You know… this it ‘it’… the peek experience in life ! The State of Grace.