Having completed one marathon and two extreme marathons within a year, you might think there was nothing more to go for. I don’t know what I thought about that back in 2000. Now I know that there is no upper limit for what people can pull off in the marathon and triathlon. My performances in […]

New Millennium – new times   In late January 2000, a letter arrived from Oriental Tours – a subsidiary of Albatros Travel. They were ready to offer the latest version of The Great Wall Marathon and repeat the success of 1999. This time, the run would be bigger and more international, and they were expecting […]

Shoes are not just shoes   My training had become a regular routine, and I kept it up. But I had developed a problem with my feet. I had bought my first running shoes with no idea as to what I should buy and got no real guidance at the shop where I bought them. […]

My second marathon, my first big-city marathon, was Berlin 1999. I had of course been there the previous year as a spectator, and now I wanted to run. My experience of the race in China meant that I had a great urge to find out what it would be like to run a “perfectly ordinary” […]

Marital crisis   What I envisaged as a one-off challenge in life would soon turn out to be my new way of life. On my return from China, I was in no doubt that I would run another marathon. The Great Wall Marathon 2000 was already in my thoughts, but I also had to try […]

I have been asked that question many times in connection with writing this book, most recently by my “ghost writer” Dorthe Klyvø, who helped me to revise and edit the material. I wish there were a single answer to that question! But it is probably a combination of many things. On the basis of my […]

Journey to the Middle Kingdom   It was with considerable trepidation and “butterflies” in our stomachs that we arrived at Copenhagen Airport on Friday, 21st May 1999. We were supposed to meet at 13.25 but came in good time to make sure we didn’t miss any wonderful impressions.   At the airport, I could see […]

Like so much else in life, The Great Wall Marathon came into being quite by chance, and later, this resulted in the formation of Adventure Marathon.   One hot summer day in 1998, a group of staff from Albatros Travel met in an office on Kultorvet, a square in central Copenhagen, to develop new and […]

In 490 BC, while the Athenians were expecting an attack by the Persian army at Marathon, the oldier Pheidippedes was dispatched as a courier to Sparta to ask for help. He then ran on for two days to Athens to proclaim the news of the victory, and having done so, he collapsed and died. There is […]

It wasn´t sport I was interested in   The words above my cradle certainly didn’t say that I was to become a long-distance runner and would be taken round the world by this passion. I never was much good at sport, and nor am I now. But my running has meant so very much to […]