Christine Currie

I’ve been a closet knitter for nearly two years now, since I found out I was expecting Emma. Unfortunately for her, I honed my skills on a cardigan and some bootees for her, which she might have worn once. Both her grandmothers are excellent and prolific knitters so after that I thought I’d concentrate on knitting for other people’s babies instead.

My latest project has been a teddy bear for some Czech friends’ baby boy. It looked easy in the pattern book but took me months and months - it’s only just finished and he’s nearly 3 months old. It’s probably the best thing I’ve ever made, which isn’t saying much as I’m not really very good with my hands. Despite some frustration, it was very satisfying to finish it off and parcel it up. I’ve yet to hear what the baby thought of it though!
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It was good to finish my Norwegian orienteering for the year on a high note today with a good result in the O-Festivalen relay. I was running second leg for Heming-Njard on the women’s open, as the two best runners were saving themselves for JWOC next week. The second leg was one of the two shorter legs at 4.5km and that suited me fine. Marte finished in a pack so I was running with people most of the way round. That made me realise what had been slowing me down yesterday - I need people to make me keep trying, otherwise I just drift along.

Our team was 18th overall and I was 18th on my leg. Unfortunately, at the end of it, I took a couple of minutes to locate Ragnhild in the changeover box so she had some work to do to catch up time, which she seemed to do pretty well. I felt pretty satisfied at the end of it - a good day’s work for once!

It was my turn to come last today at O-Festivalen. Dave ran early but had to jack to get back in time to take over babysitting Emma from me. I was then off quite late. Everything started well and was going OK for at least 2 controls. Then it seemed to be one 5 minute mistake after another.

I remember back in the UK I used to be slightly above average at orienteering so I really don’t understand what’s going wrong here. Maybe I’m still using my sloppy southern technique of run and hope on a vague compass bearing, which can lose you a lot of time when the forests are thick, the hills are steep and the terrain is tough going. I used to enjoy and be good at Scandinavian terrain but I think I’d need a few more training weeks out her before getting some respectable results. Sadly tomorrow is my last o event out here so there’s no chance of that.

All I can say, is that the 1hrs 51 I spent out in the forest may well have helped my marathon training.

Today was my first and last long run before the marathon. I was out 2 hrs and 7 minutes. I think most of the schedules suggest having a longer run than that before the race, but not 3 weeks before the race. Anyway, beggars can’t be choosers and it’s going to have to do.

It was pretty wet here in Oslo this morning and got quite cold when I was on top of the hill near the ski runs so I was glad I’d taken Dave’s windproof jacket with me. I felt fine when I got back home, just a bit sleepy, apart from a big bash on my knee - I managed to bash it on a rock after about an hour of running. Luckily the rain seemed quite good at washing the worst of the blood away and keeping it cool. I have an extra lump on my knee and a bit of a graze but nothing to stop me running a marathon. That’s good as I have finally entered!

Dave was running the Nordmarka Skogs (Forest) Marathon today so Emma and I were required to act as cheerleaders. It turned out to be a really fun day so we’d both be happy to do it again. We were in a better state than Dave at the end of it as well.

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We drove over to the end of Maridalsvannet for the Nydalten event, run by Nydalens OK on Sunday. It was another scorcher of a day and the assembly field was smallish and shadeless. The focus of the day was on the Trimtex Cup, a series of races for juniors. They were having a Chasing Sprint and were just finishing the prologue when we arrived. Possibly because of the style of their races but maybe also because of the small number of entries, the start block for the rest of us was pretty short. Consequently, we ended up with 80 minutes between Dave’s start (first) and mine, with mine being right at the end of the normal people. With Dave’s course being 10.5km and hilly and the start being 2km away, it was always unlikely to work. In the end, he was out over 100 minutes so I didn’t have a hope of getting there, not that I felt much like it after a couple of hours of entertaining Emma in a hot and dusty car park.

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It’s been a blindingly sunny week again here in Oslo and Emma and I have been taking advantage of it. Thursday and Friday saw us outside most of the day, with a trip to Sognsvann on Thursday with a friend and her daughter and a swim in Bantjern with some more friends and babies on Friday afternoon. The swim was brilliant, with my Norwegian friend estimating the water temperature at about 20 degrees. Emma has taken to the outdoor life very well and had a great time climbing over roots and rocks on the lake shores both days. She’s not quite as keen on the water. Obviously it’s attractive looking as she crawls over to it at great speed, but when she’s got her hands wet she generally moves backwards. I think it’s still a bit too cold for her.

Anyway, the tadpoles … There were lots of fairly big tadpoles swimming about in Bantjern - not something I’ve seen before but it’s always been later when I’ve been lake-swimming.

Apparently it’s going to cool down a bit next week and might even rain. I think I’m ready for it as everything seems hard work in the heat and the marathon training is best not mentioned!

I’ve now settled on the Unionsmarathon as my aim for the next few months. I’ve been trying to find a marathon to run for ages and this one seems pretty convenient and hopefully quite pleasant. I have to admit that the training’s been pretty sporadic with no runs over 100 minutes in the past few months. Despite my tired legs from yesterday’s uphill race plus jog down the hill plus sprint at the end to catch the bus, I managed another 100 minutes today, bringing this week’s total to 4 and a half hours training. I’m hoping all of the exercise I get with Emma will stand me in good stead, but it’s a marathon not a buggy-pushing race!

Yesterday was the first Grefsenkollen Opp and I was there, running my heart out with about 200 other people. The organisers claim it’s the steepest race in Oslo with a gradient of about 6%. The first thing that struck me was that the field seemed to be about 50:50, male:female. I haven’t checked the results to see if this was correct, but it made a nice change from the normal male domination.

Was it steep? Kind of. It didn’t compare with the steepness of most fell races I’ve done in the UK: on no occasion did I feel the need to walk. However, it felt very hard the whole way and I wasn’t really pelting it (25:30 for 4.5km and 255m of climb according to my Polar watch). Finishing 5th out of 7 in my category (23-34 or something like that) didn’t seem great and I was whopped by some old women. Why can they run so fast up hills? Will I get better as I get older?