Midnight Sun Marathon
Tony White travelled with daughter Steph to Tromso in Northern Norway at the weekend to take part in the Midnight Sun Marathon.
Tromso is 400 km north of the Arctic Circle with over two months of continual daylight in mid summer. Described as the most northerly marathon in the world, runners from over 80 different countries travel to this remote city to take part . The marathon starts at 8.30pm in the evening with most of the 3000 runners finishing well after midnight. Starting in the city centre the runners almost immediately have to cross the enormous Tromso Bridge( when built it was the longest in Europe) linking the city to the mainland for a 20 km loop, then back into Tromso where the half marathon runners join the race at 10.30 pm, the route then following the coastal roads around Tromso Island surrounded by snow capped mountains.
Unfortunately the midnight sun decided not to make an appearance, with it raining most of the weekend. The roads looked more like the Norwegian Fiords at times with the amount of rain falling and combined with temperatures of around 6 degrees it was a rather cold and damp evening. Still, it was an amazing experience in such a beautiful country with really friendly people, just a shame the sun wasn’t shining. I was happy finishing in 4 hours 17 mins.