Marathon

Copenhagen Marathon 2011 in Pictures

By on Wednesday, May 25, 2011

So Sunday 22th of May was indeed the very day for this years’ Copenhagen Marathon in, well, Copenhagen, Denmark. It turned out to be a great experience with tons of spectators in the streets and a cheerful and quite international atmosphere around the Capital. I had the honor of being a VIP runner once again and ran with a live-tracker device. Thus, you can replay my performance on www.copenhagenmarathon.dk, it’s funny to see the dots move about in different speeds.

Anyways, I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the other invited runners, the young American woman Scout Bassett, a charming woman taking a big applause for  her efforts, truly an inspiration for us all ! Nice meeting you, Scout !

The Marathon itself was in the secure hands of SPARTA headed by the perhaps 2012 Olympian runner Dorte Vibjerg, you all did a great job to pull off this fantastic event for all us participants out here. Thanks !

The weather started out almost too hot and humid but after a short but intense shower the air cleared up and it all ended to our delight: sunshine and blue sky. I’ll be back to Nykredit Copenhagen Marathon next year for sure !

You find the pictures from the entire route here.

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Marathon

Historic Day at Scenic Vancouver Marathon 2011

By on Thursday, May 5, 2011

Sunday 1th of May 2011 is a historic day !

For Vancouver Marathon, the race celebrated its 40th year anniversary. For me personally because I finally broke the sub-4 hours in a marathon. It only took me 218 attemps, kind of a Chaplin approach to that 3.xx.xx feat. Historic for the World because this was the day that Osama Bin Laden was killed – EKIA – on the orders given by President Obama of the USA thus hopefully putting an end of the terrorism by the Al-Qaeda (sooner rather than later).

Anyways, back to beautiful and stunning Vancouver Marathon where I had the pleasure of chatting with Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to participate and complete the legendaric Boston Marathon (as written also in “ELSK AT LØBE”).

Lets use the words with prudence: Vancouver Marathon 2011 was FANTASTIC ! It was an extremely scenic route with superb views on the City skyline, the distant mountains, the blooming fruit trees and passing the proud Stadion for the Vancouver Canucks, the city’s ishockey team still playing for the Stanley Cup here in 2011. I took so many nice pictures thus it is difficult to single out a few… but take a look at this one:

and this one:

… the latter giving credit to my running mate Vagn Kirkelund for acting as my personal pace setter this day, indeed an invaluable part of the outcome for my part. Vagn is a very strong runner with several sub-3 hours (!) marathons, +210 km in 24 h races and a completed Spartathlon, so thanks, Vagn, for slowing down and running Vancouver together !

You find the complete picture and photo story from Vancouver Marathon 2011 here, including footage from the Capilano Suspension Bridge and skiing at Grouse Mountain. What’s not to like ?

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Spirituality

Flux of Life

By on Saturday, April 23, 2011

What immense power of imagination and vanity to think that anything will be remembered.

What incredible force to put meaning and purpose into the small doings we have.

What blindness to forget the span of Time and the forces of Nature, the powers of tens that outnumber all Human creation and leaves but historic relics to witness the moments of yesterday. Our attempts to manifest are desperate, yet pleasing, are in vain, yet our destiny.

The Flux of Life is brutal and seperate from our Thoughts about it. Life is short, yet each moment eternal and accessible.

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Spirituality

The Incredible Power of Art

By on Thursday, April 21, 2011

Surely, I am no artist myself. I do not have anything to offer you, nor do I need to, I just live my life from birth to death as most people do. Unknown, unimportant, never remembered and thus never forgotten – John Doe, DOA.

But. I have been blessed with one thing, though, the gift of thinking and the gift of being excited. One of the things that has always excited me is the arts – paintings, sculptures, music, literature. I have nearly photographic memory from very early age and still remember quite vividly the impressions of one of the first museums I visited, the Pompeii Musuem and Ruins in Italy which made me realize the brutality of both Nature and Time and the shortness of a human life. Oh – I was four years old.

Similar realiazations followed on museums like Villa Julia in Rome (the Etruscans) and The Britsh Musuem in London, and step by step many other musuems have been added to my inner map of art, kind of similar to getting to know new friends or taking on a new point of view or picking up a nice idea. I would not be the person I am without.

Still, sometimes the arts gets in the behind in the rumble of the everyday, duties and stuff. So much greater my enjoyment of the three incredible museums in Madrid, Spain, this past weekend, namely the over-worldly collections at the Prado Musuem, at the Thyssen-Bornemisza and at the Reina Sofia museums. Especially the Reina Sofia is a magical place where you enter as one person and leave as another: Transformed, enlightened and full of wisdom, love and humility. And the artists to bring you in this state count amongst others three of the great sons of Spain, namely Juan Miro,

Salvador Dali

and the maestro himself, Pablo Picasso and his eternal Guernica.

Oh oh oh, behold the masterpieces of these artists at Reina Sofia,  OMG !  Actually standing face to face with these paintings that I have known for a lifetime from books and movies, that was taking a quantum leap backwards in Time in my own life and perhaps into the Future as well. It was like putting fire on that inner map and burning down the roads to Le Louvre, to the Vatican, to MOMA, to Louisiana and to all the other museums and exhibitions I have seen, it was like seeing it all in one glimpse, it was a moment of transcendence and peace – it was stopping Time with the Incredible Power of Art.

It was getting my eyes back.

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