Iceland

Hello,

I recently went on a holiday to Iceland and what a great holiday it turned out to be! If you’re able to get over the price of things over there it really is a great place to visit. We were lucky though as it was summer and so the Sun never really set and the darkest it got was dusk for half an hour or so. I saw some fantastic sites like the waterfalls of Gulfoss and Godafoss and some geysers including the original Geysir!

However this is a jogblog, so what about my jogging? Well it was a record setting holiday for me on the running front.

The first run I managed was along the harbour front with the mighty Esja mountain dominating the view. It was a lovely run, with the sun shinning and a slight breeze. The map is below with a photo of Esja too. My two travelling companions know me well enough not to bat an eye lid now when it comes to me and running, but it caused some surprise to our Canadian room mate in our hostel who was far to sensible to bring running gear on holiday with him!

The second run I managed was up a hill I do not know the name of. This hill was behind the hostel we were staying in near Akureyri. Anton, a seasoned hiker, reliably informed me it would take about 20 minutes to walk up, I was a little suspicious but bowed to his superior experience in this field. I set off up the hill and for the first 6 minutes or so I managed something akin to running given the conditions, after which I looked up and was no where near the top! After this I was reduced to a fast hike and made good progress, but after 20 minutes there was still a fair bit left. I turned round and saw Anton half way down the slope after having set off 5 minutes before me and it was at this point I realised the size of this challenge had been underestimated. Make no mistake, this was one steep slope, and in parts got about as steep as slope could go whilst still being able to walk it. It was about 2.2 kilometres to the top, and it took me 34 minutes, a real thigh burner! At the top was a cairn and having conquered this peak I felt it was only right to contribute and added a stone, did a Rocky pose (from Rocky IV at the top of the mountain in Russia) and then came down which was thankfully quicker, though still hard. This constituted the most Northerly run I’ve ever done with the highest latitude of 65°49'2.33"N

The next record I set was my most Northerly lap of a 400 metre athletic track (I’m sad I know!) at a town called Sauðárkrókur at roughly 65°44'43.24"N. I managed an OK 1 minute and 11 seconds, but I wasn’t in running gear, and hadn’t done any warming up so that would add a few seconds on.

My last run was along the harbour front again back in Reykjavik and helped round off a brilliant holiday.

In short, Iceland is a great to place to visit during the summer if you like outdoor type holidays and I recommend it if you get the chance, but don't expect to drink to many beers!

Cheers

Andy