Training for and running the Knoxville Whiskey Run reawakened the old runner that I used to be. It felt great to train for something and see my body transform in a manner that allowed me to do it again. Being able to lift heavier weights over time is great and seeing your body composition change as you lose weight is amazing. However, nothing I’ve accomplished over the years has taught me more about what the body is capable of more than running.

When I finished my first 5k in 2014 (Knoxville’s Hot-to-Trot Thanksgiving Day 5k), I was on the verge of tears. I couldn’t believe my body was capable of doing such a thing. The same feeling came back when I crossed the finish line at my first 10k in 2015 (Knoxville’s The Man Run). And then again when I saw my face on the jumbo-tron at Neyland Stadium as I concluded my first-ever half-marathon in 2016 (Knoxville’s Covenant Health Half-Marathon). It wasn’t long before that I couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without being winded – suddenly I’m running 13.1 miles?

The body is an astonishing machine. And while I let my love for running grow stagnant for several years, getting back into 5k shape before my 40th birthday has brought it back to life and I’m eager to feel it again. 

So I’m going to play a game. 

For starters, I’m going to begin training for a 10K over the next six weeks, and if/when I finish, I plan to register for the Covenant Health Half-Marathon in April, 2025, and spend the next 12 weeks training for that.

That’s cool and all, but that isn’t a game.

Katie and I are eyeballing Norway as our next international vacation, so I thought it might be fun to do a little road trip through Norway on my own while we save up and make our plans. I found a fun 14 Day Self-Drive Norwegian Road Trip itinerary that includes multiple stops starting and ending in the capital city of Oslo. Wild idea, but what if I ran that road trip?

Itinerary looks like this:

• Oslo to Lillehammer (184 kilometers, 114.332 miles)
• Lillehammer to Roros (264 kilometers, 164.042 miles)
• Roros to Trondheim (154 kilometers, 95.6912 miles)
• Trondheim to Kristiansund (195 kilometers, 121.167 miles)
• Kristiansund to Ålesund (151 kilometers, 93.8271 miles)
• Ålesund to Geiranger (108 kilometers, 67.1081 miles)
• Geiranger to Fjaerland (178 kilometers, 110.604 miles)
• Fjaerland to Flam (109 kilometers, 67.7295 miles)
• Flam to Bergen (247 kilometers, 153.479 miles)
• Bergen to Geilo (244 kilometers, 151.615 miles)
• Geilo to Oslo (233 kilometers, 144.779 miles)

That’s 1,284.3739 miles. No big.

My plan is to maintain a regular running routine through my half-marathon training and beyond while following a mild strength training regiment and daily (non-run day) walks. I’ll be adding up my running mileage until I round out the whole trip.

To make it more fun, my plan is to celebrate reaching each of the individual destinations by whipping up authentic Norwegian dinners at home that may either be just 1:1 with Katie, a celebration with family if they’re nearby or maybe even a full-on dinner party, who knows.

I’ll also be restarting my Norwegian language lessons. Learning, staying fit and eating well? Jeg er smart! Everybody wins!

My goal is to check in bi-weekly with updates and percentages toward each individual goal as well as the trip as a whole. And of course, I will feature the dinners as they happen.

So let’s start with the kickoff dinner: 

Menu:

Cocktail: Fjellbekk (Mountain Stream Cocktail)

The Fjellbekk cocktail is crisp and refreshing, a true reflection of its namesake (fjellbekk is Norwegian for “Mountain Stream”). The classic recipe calls for equal parts Akvavit, vodka and lime juice, then finished with a lemon-lime soda. Akvavit is a staple spirit throughout Scandinavia and is usually distilled from potatoes or grain. I’d hoped to score some Linie Aquavit Liqueur from my local Total Wine but they were out of stock. Instead, I picked up a bottle of Stockholms Branneri Akvavit (obviously from Sweden) that claims to be a combination of Akvavit and Gin, boasting flavors of dill, juniper and elderflower among other things. Overall, the cocktail was very refreshing and easy to drink.

Hovedrrett (Main Course): Smoked Salmon with Sandefjord Butter and Leeks with Ertestuing (Stewed Creamed Peas)

Sandefjord Butter (better known as Sandefjordsmør) is a French-inspired cream sauce that is said to have first been made in a small hotel in the Norwegian town of Sandefjord. At it’s most basic form, sandefjord butter is made by melting butter into heavy whipping cream and seasoning with fresh herbs and lemon. The main course recipe I chose was written by a chef who wanted to put a new spin on the classic Sandefjord butter recipe by smoking the butter, but if I wanted to do that, I would need to set up the smoker to slow-and-low smoke a saucepan of cream.

Silly.

Instead, I made the cream sauce as-written (though without the smoke) and instead did a cedar-smoke on the salmon on my grill. Setting up the grill for two-zone cooking can be done in no time and I just happened to have cedar planks in the kitchen. This gave us the smoked flavor while also saving a bit of time on dinner.

Fun fact: I’ve never once cooked with leeks until this dinner and it was a great introduction. A simple sauté in butter — they were delicious! The recipe called for a garnish of edible flowers and (optional) caviar. We’re quickly approaching the dead of winter here in East Tennessee and we didn’t preserve any of our edible flowers this year, so I just garnished with some fresh thyme and eschewed the caviar because that’s just unnecessary.

The dinner was rounded out with the Ertestuing and they were lovely. “How good can peas be?” you’re probably wondering and I did as well. They were wonderful, though. Just perfectly buttery and smooth. I started with dried split peas that had to be reconstituted, then simmered on low for an hour and seasoned. A simple, yet delicious way to enjoy peas.

Dessert: Pavlova

Pavlova is not a traditional Norwegian dish but it is a very popular dessert. It is widely associated with Norway’s Constitution Day — a day that celebrates the country’s nationhood (May 17). If I wanted to go true Norwegian for this dish, I could have used fruits that are more unique to Norway including Cloudberries and Lingonberries, but instead, I went foraging … at my local Ingles … and went with blueberries and strawberries, which are also Norwegian Pavlova staples. This was another first-time dish for me and I was very happy with how it turned out. I’d normally eaten pavlova in cookie-sized portions but this was a full-on cake. It was light, airy, just a tad sweet and packed with those fresh berries. We were big fans.

As for the first-of-its-kind run tracker update:

Road Trip Tracker
Road Trip Mileage	Total Mileage	Percentage Complete
1,284.37	9.63	0.75%
Miles to Lillehammer	Leg Mileage	Percentage Complete
114.332	9.63	8.42%
Date	Type	Distance (Miles)
12/09/2024	Strength Day Walk	1
12/10/2024	Training Run	3.1
12/11/2024	Strength Day Walk	1
12/12/2024	Training Run	2.03
12/13/2024	Strength Day Walk	1
12/15/2024	Training Run	2.5

There it is, fellow Heathens! I’ll see you in two weeks when I’ll update my stats and detail my first phase programming. Until then …

Alltid Videre!

-JTF