Quick ‘ Detour ’ to Iceland
Reykjavik Marathon , Iceland Marathon # 164 / 16 September 2017
Uniquely Icelandic
Iceland is a fairly large island with a very small population , under 340,000 , making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe . Also , Reykjavik is the northernmost capital city in the world . Emigration and immigration are really minor , which means that gene pool diversity is a bit of a problem . In fact , there is genealogy database of all the country ’ s known inhabitants , which can be installed on your phone , so when you meet someone in a bar , you can quickly check not if , but how closely you are related to them , before proceeding past first base . The Islendiga-App allows you to simply “ bump phones ” and if you ’ re too closely related an “ incest alarm ” goes off .
Iceland ’ s most famous export is singer Björk , and the Icelandic national football team famously knocked England out of the UEFA European Champs in 2016 , but when telling someone that you ’ re going to Iceland they tend to look at you quizzically , and then ask one of two questions :
1 . “ Isn ’ t that the country that went bankrupt ?” Answer : Yes , they went bankrupt in 2008 , but are subsequently back in the black after jailing their errant bankers and benefitting from a subsequent tourism boom . In 2017 , the year I visited , they expected to get over two million tourists , which is seven times their population ! Tourism is now significantly their largest industry , with fishing and aluminium smelting rounding out the top three . Although they don ’ t have any minerals to mine , Iceland ’ s volcanic core provides free energy , so other countries send their unsmelted aluminium there .
2 . “ Isn ’ t that the country with the volcanoes that shut down world travel ?” Answer : Yes , the volcano Eyjafjallajökulle ( no , really !) erupted in April 2010 and the resultant ash cloud shut down European ( rather than world ) travel for an extended period . Ironically , at one stage the only international airport open in Europe was Reykjavik as the ash was ‘ blowing the other way ’ and you could still fly to America from Reykjavik . The volcanic eruption also led to a major boost in tourism for the island , which proves that no publicity is bad publicity !
One of my paradoxical mantras is that “ Every holiday should include
a marathon .” Last year , with some exceptional planning , I managed to fit three marathons into a one-week holiday in KwaZulu-Natal . Unfortunately , young kids and the steadily declining Rand mean that international holidays ( and therefore international marathons ) are something of a rarity these days . However , August 2017 saw a mini-family reunion scheduled in the Lake District in England and I hoped that this would provide the opportunity to increase my international marathon count ( which at the time was sitting at 26 ).
Travel dates were fixed around the Johannesburg school holidays and I expected to be spoilt for choice with interesting English marathons to pick from , but I was devastated to find nothing in the race calendar . It ’ s obviously far too hot to run summer marathons in the UK – damn global warming ! Undeterred , I decided to cast my net wider ; and was relieved to find the Reykjavik Marathon in Iceland , where it never gets too hot to run marathons .
I successfully sold my wife on the idea of a “ fun weekend in Iceland ,” and my dad on a “ fun weekend with the grandkids .” And thus the first transaction of our overseas holiday was processed – R1,200 for a marathon entry at their early bird price ( which increases to about R2000 if you enter later ), with the rest of the holiday being planned around the marathon !
An 8:40am start allows for a nice relaxed morning
Healthily Popular Pastime
Before entering the marathon , I was not sure how big running was in Iceland . In South Africa , we can easily train all year round , with our biggest worries being athlete ’ s foot in summer and chafed nipples in winter . The biggest danger for the Icelandic marathon runner training through winter is a painful bout of snowballs .
However , roughly 10,000 locals managed to survive the winter training regime and joined 4,500 foreigners from 87 countries for the various distances on offer : 42.2 , 21.1 , 10 and 5km , as well as George ’ s Wacky Outfit Race for under-8s . The marathon is actually the least popular distance , with less than 1,500 starters , while the 10km is the most popular with over 6,000
Images : Courtesy Stuart Mann
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