Changes in Latitudes

Last night was the Knarvik Xtrem trail race - 10.7 kilometers of slippery, wet, muddy, rocky, mossy terrain. It is the first of three races in the Fjord Viking series; of which there are a total of 52 people are registered (12 of them women, including myself; 3 of us in our age class). The next race is a 10 km road race on September 3rd and a half marathon the next day. I took the bus after work to Knarvik, and had a bit over an hour to burn. I walked from the bus with another runner all dressed out in Salomon brand gear, I figured him for a brand fan...turns out he (Stian is his name) is a sponsored runner and won the race! He was very humble and gave no clues that he was so good. I got my number and tried to find a smart spot to leave my bag since they didn't have a baggage service - too many locals driving cars I guess. I was number 315. After a couple minutes of light jogging I watched everyone else warming up. They looked super professional: top brand trail shoes, good f...

M.Ytterstad We pulled into the so-called "Paris of the north" - Tromsø, on Friday night, and it was great to see land again. The views from the boat were pretty amazing. Saturday we moved everything from our boat onto another boat that would take the gear and samples back to Bergen. We were pretty efficient so I was able to walk around town as well as take a nice long hike. The weather was of course perfect for a long hike, and after a bit of research I opted for the popular trip up Fløya (671 meters above sea level). I ran from the boat and up a fair amount of trail before halting to a fast walk. It was really warm in the sun, and I was on cloud nine. After a long sleep I had a light breakfast before we had to all catch a taxi to our plane. We flew directly from Tromsø to Bergen, and I was greeted at the luggage carousel by Marius. It was a good survey, though, occasionally uneventful due to how the stations and our work shifts lined up. On Thursday I'm flyi...