Friday, August 31, 2012

The earth moved for me today




Blue Lagoon

I felt a 4.6-magnitude earthquake whose epicentre was about 20K away on the Reykjanes Peninsula as a strong jolt at noon today. I was working upstairs in the 104-year-old Pisa Guesthouse and Restaurant, in the downtown area, where I moved yesterday for my last few days in Reykjavik. It was initially graded as 3.9 but felt (and proved to be) stronger. But no harm was done.


I've had my feet well and truly on the ground in the past couple of weeks. I'd had high hopes of a good time (around 1:55) in the Reykjavik half marathon (enough with the two-hour-plus halfs, already!) and actually crossed the finish line in a net time of 1:53:38. It was my best time for a half since the Brooklyn half in 2009 and was good enough to get me third place in my age group.

The age group I placed in isn't the age group I've been competing in all year, though, and I haven't had a birthday recently. It seems in Iceland you're grouped according to the age you turn in that calendar year. I was grateful for the third placing (I wouldn't have placed in my usual 55–59 AG), but it freaked me out to find my name suddenly among the real golden girls...

I think I've covered most of the Reykjavik metro area now with Maggy on morning training runs of 10K up to 30K.

When I haven't been taking my feet out for a run, I've been run off my feet with work again. This is a good thing. I haven't sampled much culture apart from seeing a couple of Icelandic films ("101 Reykjavik" and "Jar City", with Maggy) at the fine arts cinema Bio Paradis, and exhibitions at the Museum of Photography, the Art Museum and the National Museum. I even missed the famous Culture Night (on marathon evening), when the city goes a bit wild. I went with Trine (whom I met on the trek) to the Blue Lagoon, which is a geothermal spa a little way out of town set in a lava field. Very blue and very impressive.



From an exhibition of photos of Icelandic women by Berglind Bjornsdottir

The days are already three hours shorter and significantly colder than when I arrived at the start of the month, and I don't do cold...








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