I became acquainted with Thomas Thomsen on the very first day of my very first marathon trip to China in 1999. This would turn out from the very beginning to be a close and lasting friendship.
Thomas has from the outset been at the heart of Adventure Marathon runs. Together with Søren Rasmussen and Peter Fredberg, he has been on the organisation committee since The Great Wall Marathon 1999.
Thomas was born in Ulfborg in West Jutland in 1937 and trained as a draper and interior designer. As a young man, Thomas was a middle distance runner, with cross country as his speciality. Parallel with his own firm in the textile industry, Thomas has occupied various positions of trust in athletics and was elected chairman of the Danish Athletics Association in 1996.
In March 2004, I received an invitation from the Danish Athletics Association. After 24 years on the board of DAF, the last eight years as chairman, Thomas had decided that the time had come to retire. He would, however, continue as the Association’s representative at marathons organised by Adventure Marathon. On the occasion of Thomas’s retirement, I was invited to a reception on 1st April at Idrættens Hus (House of Sports) in Brøndby near Copenhagen.
Of course I would be attending; the question was what gift I would take along. The idea came to me quite quickly, and after that it was plain sailing. Thomas was to have a memento from each of the trips we had been on together. I put together a basket of Chinese stress relief balls; coffee from Kenya; and a packet of Greenland shrimps from which, for health reasons, I had removed the shrimps and replaced with a sum of money, so that Thomas could buy his own fresh shrimps. From Tibet there were two candlesticks with Danish Easter candles in them, and a bottle of rum from Jamaica. Because it was Easter, he also got a pot of daffodils; and from our family company, Wolle, I added a book and some health giving products. The whole lot was wrapped in cellophane and tied with yellow and green ribbons.
I got the impression that Thomas was pleased with his present. He has since mentioned it on many occasions. He did, however, have one scruple as he went through the contents. It was not because of the shrimps, but because of the true sportsmanship Thomas stands for, he wanted to be absolutely sure that the herbal products from Wolle were doping-free. I could assure him that they were.
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