Trondheim Marathon!

My crazy husband decided two weeks ago to run the Trondheim Marathon with basically very little training.  Well the big day was this past Sunday.  We were very interested in how a Norwegian marathon would compare to an American one....we weren't expecting there to be any real comparison since there are only about 150 people running the full and half marathon combined and the entry fee was inexpensive.  

Here is packet pick up.  One guy and a box next to the information desk at a busy mall.  Packet pick up lasted one hour.

Here is Jason's race packet.  Yes it is just his number and safety pins.  But the number is pretty cool.  There wasn't even a map available!
The full marathon started at 11am on Sunday and ran 3 laps on a relatively flat course.  Here is the full marathon start.  Yes they are standing behind a chalk line in the middle of a street.  The street was not shut down (nor where any streets along the course) and the start was the organizer yelling "go!"  The start line was about 5 rows deep- I think about 70 people ran the full marathon including some really old people and maybe 8 women.

Here is Jason along the course.  Notice how uncrowded it is!  I think this is mile 2 or so!

Jason finishing the first lap downtown

It was really nice to have laps since it meant that I could support Jason at 6 different mile markers by just walking across a bridge.  He did amazing - he finished in just under 4 hours!  Quite a feat without really training for it (he did run 18 miles 2 weeks before to ensure he could finish).  He didn't feel great at the end but recovered quickly and hasn't been too sore.  I am super impressed with him!

Here is Jason coming into the finish line "chute"

Here is the finish line - he is running into the local mall (which was closed).  Notice the guy on the left getting money out of the ATM!

The half marathon had more participants and more women which I was glad to see.  It was interesting though- I got the feeling most of these people were out for a Sunday run.  It didn't seem like a big deal to many of these people - and they were running fast!  I did see one guy finish the half in cargo jean shorts- great stuff!