The Gotaleden Trail Route The Gotaleden trail is a 77 km hiking trail which connects Gothenburg and Alingsås, and several smaller towns in-between. The route is largely through forest trails, but includes some on-road sections. It is divided into 9 separate stages, of between 6 and 11 kilometres distance per stage. The terrain varies from …
Haga parkrun 6th July 2024
Although I have lived in Sweden for over 4 years now, and am a regular parkrunner in Gothenburg, I have done very little in the way of parkrun tourism here in Sweden. It’s harder to do this than in Scotland, where there are maybe 40 or 50 within a couple of hours drive. In Sweden, …
Vårruset Gothenburg 10km – Tuesday 28th May 2024
This was my first 10km race in Sweden, and my second official, non-virtual race here, and in a lot of respects it mirrored the first official race I ever took part in – the Glasgow Women’s 10km race in 2005. Much like my first race, this was a women-only race, and was a 10km event. …
Jönköping Halvmaraton 26th August 2023
This was my first official race in Sweden, and my first official race in almost 4 years. I did do a virtual half marathon in October 2020, but we ran that as part of a long training run with Solvikingarna and treated it as a comfortably hard training run, until the final mile when I …
Achieving my 100th parkrun – Or, how I settled into life in a new land
I did my 100th parkrun during the long Easter weekend on Saturday 8th April 2023, and I wanted to reflect again on the impact parkrun has had on my life. This is partially a run report. But it is also about the parkrun community, and how it can help make even emigrating easy as a …
Billdalsparken parkrun on a wintry morning. Or, how I learned to run on ice.
Cancelling parkruns There are always tough calls to make when you are a Run Director or part of the core team at a parkrun. Whatever you decide, not all participants will agree with the decision. When to cancel, and when to make that decision, are strongly debated. At Skatås, we made the decision on Friday …
Billdalsparken parkrun on Sweden’s National Day
Parkrun in Sweden After living in Sweden for 2 ½ years, I finally got to do a bit of parkrun tourism. Billdalsparken parkrun started up in September 2021, shortly after parkrun in Sweden resumed after a break of over 18 months due to the pandemic. However, due to a combination of being on the Core …
Not the Berlin Marathon: Virtual Gothenburg Marathon 2021
Sometimes things don’t work out as planned. And sometimes that’s okay. Last weekend I should have been running the Berlin Marathon, alongside Bekele. I mean, not literally alongside. On my best day I couldn’t even enjoy the breeze he leaves in his wake. Instead, I spent it enjoying the uncharacteristically warm and dry weather in …
Virtual West Highland Way Race 2020
I don’t think I’ve ever been more de-trained for a race in my life. I ran more miles in the 8 days I spent completing the Virtual West Highland Way than I did in the preceding 8 weeks. When races started getting cancelled in March due to lockdown, some races went the virtual route. I …
Road to nowhere? – Or, training for cancelled marathons
This morning I should have been on a flight to London. Instead, I am writing this whilst feeling a little sorry for myself. I have a cold and haven’t slept well in a week. There’s no grand story arc – like with a race report, or a training journey that actually culminates in reaching the …