Day Four---Recovery Day and the Blue Lagoon.....

....Post-race day, the final full day before we head back, consisted of an all-day tour commonly referred to over here as the "Golden Circle Tour." While the previous tour had gone west then south and back to Reykjavik, this tour headed north along the western coastline then went into the interior and featured some just absolutely amazing views of waterfalls, canyons, glaciers and geysers--plus it ended with a two-hour session in the famous Iceland Blue Lagoon geothermal health spa!!!

As a group, we reviewed our race day results and we did pretty well. There were 117 of us staying in three hotels and, during the race, nobody got injured or hurt which is always a primary concern. Only one person dropped out and didn't finish and that was due to a serious sinus infection which obviously limits a runner's ability to breathe.

Record attendance was set in almost all events: 684 marathoners; 1852 half-marathoners; and over 10,000 participated in several running events of shorter distances. Over 1400 international runners participated--another record. One of the women in our group ran the marathon in 3 hours 21 minutes and placed ninth overall in the women's group. One of the male runners with us finished 21st. Devin set a goal of under 4 hours and finished it in 3:57. I set an unofficial goal of under 3 hours and finished it in 3:03 but had the time of my life.

The Golden Circle tour started at our hotel--we used a bus for each hotel--so everybody knew everybody by now. Must have been funny watching all these people groaning and limping onto the bus with sore legs! The tour started with a two hour drive up through the countryside into an area where historical earthquaked have created a continental rift--a valley about 6 miles wide with a very deep lake.

It was here at Thingvellir National Park that the Vikings created the world's first democratic parliament in the year 930. Although the parliament is long gone--a newer one is located in Reykjavik today--it is considered the oldest parliament in the world. The tectonic plates are unusual here in that they don't shift against each other as in North America, but separate away from each other. In this valley the North American Plate is today separated about six miles from the Eurasian plate mean that Iceland is slowly spreading out at the rate of 2 cm/year.

After hiking around in the valley (and up and down wooden stairs on sore legs), we visited some canyons and lake sides before heading back to the bus feeling like our legs had really loosened up well on the hike.

Leaving Thingvellir, we drove more eastward to Gullfus--one of the most amazing spots we had visited all week. Gullfus is a giant waterfall that has been purchased by the government to protect it from speculators who wanted to use it to create an electrical generation facility.

Getting off the bus, we realized our legs had tightened up again (something that just kept happening throughout the tour), but the sights were well worth the stretching and hiking up and down stairs and out to the overcrop of the waterfall.

We had a beautiful day which meant the sun was creating rainbows and the water was literally sparkling.

After spending some time on the outcrop, we hiked up to a restaurant and ate lunch. While eating, the clouds darkened but quickly the sun came out again. From the restaurant, it was possible to look north and see the second largest glacier in Iceland. In this photo, the ice and snow look like clouds but if you look directly below the dark clouds in the center of the picture and between the low mountains, you can see the ice.

After lunch we drove over to the famous geothermal park that features Iceland's most famous tourist attraction--Geysir.

Until the 1950s, Geysir used to erupt nearly a football field length into the air but sometime shortly after World War II, tourists threw large rocks into the pit to try and get it to erupt and blocked it. It still erupts but at irregular intervals and nowhere as spectacularly as before. In 2000, an earthquake shifted some of the blockage but the Geysir of old is no more.... Geothermal geysers seem to be centered in Iceland, North America and New Zealand but all geysers in the world (different spelling) are namesakes of this once-mighty spectacle of nature.

The area, however, is a park full of these geysers and several do erupt on a regular basis.

The water is heated underground to steam-like temperatures and when the conditions are just right, a huge blast occurs. As the boiling water is erupted into the cooler air, the temperature of the water drops as it falls back to the earth. Each geyser has a pool that has been formed around the hole and the returning cooler water settles into the pool and drains back into the hole where is is heated up again. When the temperature and conditions are right once more, another eruption occurs.

While I was looking forward to this, I wasn't really excited about it but it turned out to be a real highlight of the tour.

The area south of Reykjavik is relatively new and consists of lava fields. This area is thought to be about 23,000 years old which is "young" by geological standards. Lava rock is extremely sharp and will tear your feet to shreds very quickly. Years ago, the government came in an hollowed out a "lakebed" in the lava rock and began pumping in a mixture of geothermally heated freshwater with some saltwater from the ocean. The result was an artificial "lake" of water very heavy in minerals and silica. While lava rock is very porous, the silica in the water clogged it and created a surface very similar to a ceramic coating--allowing people to bathe and walk around in the shallow lake.

Today, it is a world famous spa with the mineral/salt water being around 100 to 103 degrees. We spent two hours in it just floating around and relaxing. Those Icelanders are pretty clever--they give you a bracelet with a microchip and then built a bar over the side where you can order a drink, pay for it with your bracelet, then relax in hot, soothing water. Very civilized.....

After two hours, we got out--nobody was limping around or groaning at this point--and headed back to Reykjavik and the hotel. That night, we kind of split up into smaller groups and eight of us walked downtown and ate one last meal together.

The weather was perfect all four days--plenty of sunshine and temperatures up to 54-55 degrees during the day. The only two brief rains we experienced occurred when we were riding in the bus.

The last morning, however, was dark, colder, gloomy and very overcast and windy with occasional rain. The "rain gods" truly blessed this trip for us. Devin went swimming with a group in the last morning--another geothermal pool but not a spa--and the two of us later walked downtown in the rain and did one last walking tour of the city.

We walked down to the harbor and took some pictures of the Viking long ship sculpture then returned to the hotel, met the group, and headed to the airport. The flight back was long but uneventful and we got hit with 93 degree temperatures back in Houston--at 10:00 pm!!!

Excellent adventure........

Race Day and Culture Night in Reykjavik......

.....Woke up to a rather brisk but absolutely beautiful day to run!!! By race time at 8:40 it was around 50 degrees and probably hit a high of around 54 with beautiful baby-blue sky and a few wispy white clouds. Just absolutely perfect (Houston, by the way, had yet another triple-digit temperature setting a record for consecutive days).

Our hotel is about ten minutes walk down into the city center and a small group of us from our tour walked down together and warmed up.

Since Devin was doing the full marathon, we had separate routes but started together. We had agreed earlier to separate early so I was on my own in a giant crowd of people as the race got going and people started jostling for position and the race began spreading out and runners could set their own pace.

I didn't have a specific goal since this was a "destination" run but I did kind of want to come in around the three hour mark. Devin had set an unofficial goal of under four hours for the full marathon. Since the course was marked in kilometers, I was constantly converting to miles in my mind but at the 7 km point (1/3 of the way through the race), I was well ahead of my goal. The course went from downtown Reykjavik south over footbridges at the city lake and then wound through residential neighborhoods to the coastline. While distance running is not as popular In Iceland as it is in America, we still had residents out cheering us on and several bands were playing--one band was playing the theme from the movie "Rocky" and I heard later they played it non-stop for about four hours. There were some considerable hills involved which I knew about and anticipated but they still hammer this Texas "flatlander."

The coastal run, however, was flat and worked around the sweeping curvature of the bay with just breathtaking views (no pun intended). For some time, I had been pacing with a guy from Chicago and when we got one spot along the coast where there is a modern sculpture of a Viking longship, we stopped and he got a picture of me.

After that, he pulled away from me and later I spent some time pacing and talking with a Canadian girl who was running for Team Diabetes. That's what I enjoy about this--for three hours you meet and talk with the most interesting people. At the 14 km point (2/3 of the course), I was still ahead of my pace and feeling pretty good. At one point along the road, the full marathoners had looped up into the countryside above Reykjavik and were coming back on the other side of the road and I looked up and saw an orange dot bouncing up and down ahead of me. Even from that distance, I knew it was Devin with his Dynamo jersey and when we met, we high-fived as we passed.

My course then looped around in the industrial ship area and returned toward the city. At this point my legs were starting to feel tight and the course was slightly uphill for quite a ways. I knew I was losing pace but still felt pretty good. As is always the case, the last 5 km (3 miles) were the toughest but I ran it in and crossed the finish line at 3:03:46--three minutes over my stated goal of three hours but I was happy with it. I received my medal and just walked around the festivities in the downtown area until around the 4 hour mark when I got on a small hill above the finish line and videoed Devin crossing the finish line. His time was 3 hours and 57 minutes--just under his stated four hour goal.

After he walked it off, we joined up with a couple of other tour members and waited for another runner--a woman from Houston who was aiming for the five hour mark--and she came in at 5:18. After she got her wind back, we headed back up to the hotel. After showering and resting a bit, Devin and I headed back down and by that time the race was ending and Culture Night was starting. We eventually ran into two members of the group and walked up to the Reykjavik Cathedral and looked around. It is very distinctive and a city landmark. Iceland is predominately Lutheran so this was much plainer inside but still very impressive with its soaring ceiling and distinctive "wings" that are fashioned after the six-sided Cobalt columns like we had seen on the beach yesterday.

A group of us had made dinner reservations at a nice restaurant and it ended up seven of us having dinner together.

We then walked around in the city. Stages were set up in most large street intersections and bands were playing while street vendors were selling food. Kind of a Icelandic Renaissance Festival.

Everybody was just having a good time--no problems or anybody really drunk and looking for trouble but at one point some guy walked up to Devin and grabbed his medal from the race. Devin is a big guy but this guy was much, much larger and had huge arms covered with tattoos and was sporting about a three-day beard. He said something to Devin in Icelandic and Devin kind of looked strange and said "What?" The guy then laughed and said "good job."

Around 10:30--just as it was getting dark--they turned on colored lights in the brand-new opera house. The building is not completely finished but is very unique in that the outside is shaped like a giant fishing net with colored glass panes. We headed back up the hill towards the hotel and were almost there when we heard explosions and turned around and could see the fireworks display literally over the city lake.

When we did make it to the hotel room--I was tired and my legs were getting sore but I really didn't care.

Best birthday ever......

Day Two Was An Amazing Day Trip to the Southern Most Point of Iceland.....

.....After a really good night's sleep (no jet lag here), we ate an early breakfast then joined about fifty people from our group on a day tour from the hotel. After boarding a Greyhound-type bus, we set out from Reykjavik and took a leisurely trip for about two hours out through the lava fields surrounding the city and passed through some geothermal processing plants and a small town that is basically a community of greenhouses where they grow everything from tomatoes to bananas. It's interesting that they have to basically create an artificial night/day and light/darkness for the greenhouses here. On June 21--summer solstice--there is basically no darkness and they have to shade the plants part of the time while on December 21--winter solstice--there is less than two hours of night so they use artificial light. Last night, it got dark around 11:oo pm and started getting light again about 4:30 am. It does take some getting used to except that I was so tired last night that I went to sleep around 8:00 and slept through until nearly 6:00 so I basically didn't have any nighttime yesterday.

Our first stop was at a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. Although not a huge waterfall, it was spectacularly beautiful. The water drops 130 feet into a shallow pool and we were able to work our way around behind the water and up around the other side. As you might not expect from a place called "Iceland,", the landscape is lush and green everywhere here. At this point on the second day, small groups are forming within the larger tour and people are starting to get to know each other. This is really neat in that everyone here has one thing in common--loving to be outdoors and running.

After spending some time at Eljalandsfoss, we continued on with the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajokull in the background. We could see it fairly clearly but it was just too far away to get a good photo. We did, however, stop at a large farm that had been the scene of a famous photo during the eruption. In the photo, the house and buildings were nearly covered in ash and the sky was so black the photo looked like it had been taken with black and white film. The owners had nearly abandoned the farm afterward but as time passed, everyone around here began to realize that volcanic ash makes a great fertilizer so they cleaned the buildings up and today it is one of the lushest, green farms in the valley.

There are several volcanoes active in Iceland right including one that is expected to be at least ten times the destructive force of last year's whenever it does blow. As our guide pointed out, Iceland is relatively new island--about 23 million years old--which is far younger than the Rocky Mountains. We saw some islands off the coastline including one that was created when an underwater volcano eruption sent lava into the saltwater and a good-sized island was formed in the 1970s. The Iceland government declared it a human-free zone and today only scientists are allowed access and they are studying how plant and wildlife develop in new environments. Already there are birds, plants and even small animal colonies developing on it.

We continued on southeastward and stopped at a beach location near the southernmost point of Iceland called Reynisfjara. By now it was very windy and the temperature had dropped to the "jacket" point. After a short walk to the beach, we explored some basalt column formations and caves that included a colony of Puffins. These are small birds that I think look like miniature flying penguins. The geological columns were formed int the side of a small mountain and were usually six-sided and very large. At times, we literally had to lean into the wind to walk. This is usual here and, especially back in Reykjavik, we've had excellent and beautiful weather on this trip.

In a distance, a small peninsula marked the southernmost part of Iceland and included a rock outcropping with a small hole in it. Southernmost maybe, but we're still not very far from the Arctic Circle right now.

On the way back, we stopped at a larger waterfall near the tiny village of Skogar. The waterfall, called Skogafoss, is situated above a recreational and camping site. The water falls 200 feet into the River Skogaa. Unlike the earlier waterfall today, we couldn't walk behind this one but we could climb a series of steep stairs and view the waterfall from the top.

We then returned back to Rekyjavik and stopped at the Expo center and picked up our race packets and shirts for tomorrow's race. In the evening about 30 of us walked downtown and ate at an Italian restaurant. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and I was asleep by 10:00.

Race Day tomorrow......

It's As Beautiful Here As I'd Imagined......

The flight was six hours from Minneapolis which isn't bad by Asian and African flight standards but neither Devin nor I really got any sleep. We arrived at 6:20 am which is broad daylight here and were met and bussed into town. Iceland uses the old US air force base in Keflevk as it's national airport now and is located about 45 minutes from the capitol.

One of the first things that hits you is how clean everything is here. Even the airport seemed so clean and pristine. Just outside the front door is a modernistic sculpture of a giant dinosaur egg.....and Reykjavik has literally hundreds of sculptures and statues everywhere.

Most of the statues in the city are of poets, writers and famous politicians which is different than most places where the heroes are all generals or soldiers. Of course, since the Viking era, Iceland hasn't really had a military legacy and since the Cold War, doesn't even have an army today.

There are 117 of us in all with this tour and we're staying in three different hotels, so the group has already broken up into three separate groups but we travel together and it's really neat meeting these people and hearing their running stories which are from all around the world. There are people in the group doing the marathon, several of us--including myself--are doing the half marathon and a considerable number are doing the 10K and 5K. It's a really neat mixture about half male and half female and young and old. I'm by no means the oldest in the group (today was my 66th birthday) and most of the older ones are doing the full marathon Saturday.

Reykjavik has only about 100,000 population which is 1/3 the population of the entire island. The city is very open, slow paced, quiet and, like I said earlier, very clean. Because of the geothermal springs, every house and building is heated by the underwater geysers. There are basically no hot water heaters here and they have run pipes below the streets so in the winter they stay free of ice and snow (and warm).

The building construction is basically wood covered by corrugated iron and the downtown area is really small with narrow streets but very well maintained and beautiful.

On this, our first day (Thursday) we met as one large group and had lunch together before setting out on the city tour. We ate at a waterfront restaurant in the harbor area and, as I anticipated, fish is the most popular food over here. That's just fine with me and lunch today consisted of ocean trout.

In the afternoon, we joined one of the three buses and did a tour of the city. The first stop was the Hofol House which was made famous in 1986 when President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev held their summit meeting here that is generally credited with bringing about the end of the Cold War. The architecture is typically Icelandic and the house stands kind of isolated along the shoreline.


From there we went to the Saga Museum which celebrates the Viking heritage here. Iceland is very proud of their history--as are all nations--but the Vikings and especially their seafaring traditions are really prominent here. It is claimed that the modern Icelandic language, which is somewhat close to Old German, has changed so little over the centuries that modern Icelandic children can read most of the old Viking manuscripts.

In true Icelandic tradition there are geysers here as well. One is outside and is basically a tourist attraction.

But the other is located INSIDE the museum and basically provides all the heat for the building.

After that we visited the National Museum but I think at this point half the group was falling asleep from jet lag. Devin and I had gone about 36 hours without any real sleep.

After returning to the hotel, we showered and changed clothes and felt better so we walked the ten minutes or so back downtown. There are two large lakes in the city center and our hotel is located just above one of them.

We walked around a bit and met up with some of our group that were staying at our hotel and ended up eating hot dogs of all things! Believe it or not, this hot dog stand is listed as Reykjavik's most popular restaurant--I'd even read this in guide books. It's just a little shack that dates back to 1937 but people are lined up to buy his hot dogs. Drivers were literally blocking the street by parking to get in line. The guy uses lamb for the hot dogs--which was a first for me--and covers them with caramelized onions that have been sauteed in brown sugar then saturates the hole hot dog with dark German mustard and mayonnaise. Believe it or not, they were pretty good. As we got to the front of the line to place our orders, the guy had a picture of Bill Clinton in front of the shack eating a hot dog! Reagan comes here to negotiate an end to the Cold War. Clinton comes here and all he wants to visit is the famous hot dog stand....

After that, we split up and Devin and I hit the Dubliner Soccer Pub to see if I could stir up any trouble since I was wearing my Dynamo jacket. Funny, but the only guy who took exception to it was a sailor from Boston who was a New England Revolution fan--and he was good natured about it. We had a pint of Iceland's local brew--Gull Beer--and headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Was this a great birthday or what? Tomorrow it's off for a tour into the countryside and Saturday is race day.....