Eco-Trail

Every year in spring Oslo arranges an eco-trail run offering different distances: between 20km (for the little bit crazy ones) and 80km (for the totally insane ones). In 2016 our boss Franck was challenged by a friend for the 20km run. Though not being a regular runner, he liked it and thought it was a good idea to forward this challenge on the 2017 newly introduced 10km distance to his team at work - to a team composed of (diplomatically said) 100% non-runners and sports-wise not the most active ones :-) Also me I have, with one single exception, never in my life been running/jogging more than 1,0 km. Not only because I could never find the pleasure in runnning, but rather with my background as asthmatic (especially when I was younger) I wasn't really able and partially not even allowed to carry out much cardio and endurance training. So I'm quite a dead loss when it comes to running. However, since all my colleagues decided to subscribe for the 10km, I had basically no other choice than doing so as well. So: challenge accepted! I paid 500 NOK...to RUN! Who would have thought that I would ever in my life PAY to RUN (= to suffer)!? But well... group pressure... or is that what people intend with teamwork? :-)
Anyway, it was end of 2016 when we all subscribed and the date for the eco-trail was 20th of May 2017. So: time to train! From now on I went more or less regularly for running training - but inside, on a treadmill. Not only because running on ice or snow and with minus degrees wasn't my favourite, but especially because the only way for me to run for more than 10 consecutive minutes is to be distracted. And watching some German TV series on my mobile phone seemed to work well, but was of course only possible indoors on a treadmill. So by watching myself through the various episodes of "In aller Freundschaft", "Der Bergdoktor" and "Die Bergretter" - yes, I know, very high quality series, but perfect for running :-) - I eventually made it to run my first 10km beginning of February :-)

Next step was of course to try running also outdoors as well. So I bought some outdoor running equipment and met a couple of times with my friends Ginta and Hadrien for running.

For example around Sognsvann and then down to Torshov.

Then also when my friend Sarah from Germany came to visit me end of April, we went for a run together and actually ran along the real route of the eco-trail in order to know what I had to expect in May. Sarah is a regular runner, even one of the crazy ones running marathons :-) So she needed her dose of exercise while in Oslo and was so nice to slow down her speed to accompany me.

Then 20th of May was the day.

Franck was running again the 20km and had another starting point and time. Aurélie, Stéphanie, Caroline, Emmanuel and also another colleague with her husband, we met at the central station to go together to the starting point in Lysaker by the Oslofjord.

 

Then at 13:00: ready, steady, and GO!

At 14:14:55, after 10km, I finally and proudly passed the finish line, after 1 hour, 14 minutes and 20 seconds of running :-) I know, it's really not fast, but I didn't aim on finishing in a particular time, I was just happy to manage 10km at all without walking (except for a few metres uphill) :-)

The team Terra Nova: happy and pround :-)

Franck's deal to give us an incentive to run was actually "if you run 10km faster than I'll run the 20km, I'll pay you a beer" (keep in mind the price of a beer in Norway!) - LOL :-)
And guess what: we ran 10km faster than Franck his 20km. So: let's get the well-deserved beer - at "Vippa"!

Thank you, Franck, not only for the beer/wine, but especially for this challenge you gave us which was a great experience to accomplish as team :-)

Let's see who's still in for the next year's eco-trail!