Tag: Stockholm

2018 week seventeen

Books Read:
21. Lost in Stockholm — Uwe Hasenfuss (ed.)
22. By Night in Chile — Roberto Bolaño

Kilometres Ran:
week seventeen — 60.5

To date: 764 KM

I going back to visit Stockholm in a couple weeks, and honestly one the the things I’m most looking forward to is running a complete loop of Södermalm. It’s about 10 KM. I normally wouldn’t consider Lost in Stockholm AKA Stockholm: Lost in City Guide AKA Lost In, Issue No. 10 a book insomuch as it counts towards an effort to read a particular number of books; however, (1) it is listed on Goodreads, (2) it has an ISBN, and (3) while only 68 pages, it has many more words than some (most?) of the poetry books I/we/they count as books. So it counts, I guess. It’s a very nice design, as one would expect for a periodical from Germany about Sweden. It gets me excited about going back. Following on the short reads, I picked up By Night in Chile. It reminded me of studying Beckett in undergrad. In a lecture on Molloy, the prof. Dr. Peter Murphy (!) suggest he read the first paragraph to the class and that I read the second. The similarities between Beckett and Bolaño extend beyond style, and I think that I should have liked By Night more than I did, or did not. It is one that I think I need to revisit, and it’s short enough that it wouldn’t feel like a waste my reading time (always a hazard). Plus I want to go to Chile one day.

Old kicks still have kick. Nearing 800 KM on these adidas Bostons.

One week until the BMO Half. Three weeks until Helsinki Half. All is coming together as well as I could have hoped. The weather for BMO Sunday looks ideal–sun with some cloud and morning temperature around 12 degrees (assuming today’s prediction holds). The BMO Half in 2016 was my first half marathon; I finished 1:46:00. I expect to crush that time next weekend. A great race and I could have a new PB, which will be bitter-sweet. I like that my current best is in Copenhagen last fall, and in the adventure that was less than ideal conditions. I have a chance to set personal bests twice in May. I’ve grown confident that it’ll happen next weekend. I think it’ll take an exceptional run in Helsinki on May 19. But anything could happen on race day.

weeks forty + forty one + forty two

Books Read:
52. Tropic of Cancer — Henry Miller

Kilometres Ran:
week forty — 24.48
week forty one — 21.52
week forty two — 40.22
to date — 1,598.83

I started reading Tropic of Cancer while I was in Barcelona in the spring and I didn’t finish it and so I picked it up again while I was in Scandinavia and still didn’t finish it and it looks like I’m probably going to Ireland in the spring so maybe I’ll finish it then. I read a lot of stuff, just not books. Probably the most interesting was the exhibition on housing in Stockholm at the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design. So many problems that Vancouver shares, and so many solutions that Vancouver would never think of let alone even attempt to implement. In many ways it was a frustrating exhibition. Unfortunately there was no catalogue, but I photographed the entire thing as best I could. With ten weeks to go it look very unlikely that I’ll get to 95 books this year.

Wind farm out in the Øresund in Copenhagen
Wind farm out in the Øresund in Copenhagen

I didn’t run all that much but I did really enjoy running in another place and trying to figure out running routes and new scenery and weather to contend with and it was really great. I ran more in Copenhagen than I did in Stockholm but enjoyed running in Stockholm more. We were lucky in both cities because the flats we rented had excellent trails right outside their doors. Stockholm was chilly but Copenhagen was really windy. I don’t much mind wet, but I’m not a big fan of wind. With ten weeks to go I need to run about 40 km per week to make it to my goal. I can do it.