Norway is great, I can confirm this right now, after my third trip there! From many more that are about to come, but this is not the point of the article. The point is purely sports, mass-sports. What does this mean? Mainly… how healthy & how educated, in the end, is the population. The main shock came at the end of Oslo Marathon 2024, when I’ve made the analysis of my result, and while waiting for Anca to finish her 10K. Now, the idea for me to go to the Oslo Marathon came out of nowhere, but had all the logic in the world, given the affinity I have for Norway. Being a Saturday event, very unusual for a big city popular run, added more value to my decision in the idea of also visiting the city. To be honest, I’ve realized only after subscribing that it will be a 2 x 21.097 km loop, and had a significant ascent. How much? In the end, 342 meters – more than in Athens, for example. A great challenge, but with the best weather possible for my run. So, then, I had the steadiest marathon from my life, at 3:21:08, with a very very flat pace, and with 100+ places recovered after kilometer 30!
Oslo time, good for top 100 in Bucharest!
In the end, my position was 572, out of slightly more than 3300 male participants. Not great, not terrible, as the replica from the series says, but enough for me. What followed, though, was much more important. Participating in the Bucharest Marathon 2023, I just wanted to compare and project my time in that raking, if I would have achieved the same time for the marathon. With 3:21:08 in Bucharest I have finished in top 100, because only less than 700 males had participated. I did not run the 42K than, but the 10K, and this was revealing also, because it was my first time when I’ve marked a 10 kilometer run in less than 40 minutes and who knows when I would repeat that. In Bucharest I’ve finished in a good spot, as less than 40 males finished under 40 minutes. How would I have finished this distance in Oslo, if attending it? Well, I think not under 40 minutes, at least not in 2024, and for sure not with the ascent from Oslo Marathon.
10K in under 40 minutes, something average in Oslo Marathon
Still, Anca attended this race, and I’ve waited for her personal best to be completed. But while expecting her finish, I was shocked of ho many people finished the race in less than 40 minutes. I’ve counted at the end: 460 in total (!!!) Around 400 males, so then 10 times more than in Bucharest, even though the 10K was just the third race as importance in the event, after the main show – the marathon – and the half. The order was, exactly like in Bucharest. I am not using this comparison by default, it has a lot of logic, apart from my participation to both, and I’ll develop a little bit why in a few moments. What’s the catch? Exactly like Bucharest, Oslo Marathon is not a very marketed event outside Norway’s border, so I don’t think the participants were more than 15% from abroad. I would say even 10%, but let’s keep a optimistic ratio. The winner of the marathon was a 40 years local guy, that obtained a 2:25 time, not great at all for a marathon, even with this ascent.
Let’s not forget about the population difference
No African runners participated. This means that the even was more dedicated to masses. Apart the fact that the participation of males (I am analyzing my own category) was around five times higher than in Bucharest, the results where 5 to 10 times better, and the majority were, as said, locals. Why is this important? Because Romania has 19.000.000 population, while Norway 5.500.000, as an estimate. Professional sports is not a key tool in Norway, not something spectacular, with some exceptions, but regardless amateur or half-amateur runners have way better results than the ones from Romania. This is a proof of both lack of infrastructure, but mostly of education and desire to perform. Here, in my country, if you have some decent results – judging at arbitrary not so accurate scale – you become very easy cocky and “specialist”, but in reality, you are among the few “good” results in a country that is tens of years behind others.
We don’t have infrastructure, but neither do we have the correct approach
It doesn’t matter. My feeling was from last year that finishing a 10K under 40 minutes doesn’t serve me too much in any way, neither would be a sub 3-hour marathon (a possible thing, but with a lot of great organizing and training from one to two years and with ideal conditions). And so I’ve realized, running in Oslo that I am fitting the their culture, in any way, but my results there are far from being spectacular – not that I consider them spectacular, but projecting myself 350 places or even more in the rankings, provides mixed feelings. Can anything be changed? Not likely. David Popovici, Romania’s swimming Olympic champion explained clearly what infrastructure we DON’T have, so if he says it, that voice is the most powerful we can have. I know it is true, but I also know that many people just pretend to be runners, or to actually do sports. In Romania, there are more and more nutritionists, and personal trainers who have no clue what these things are, and most of them who had all kind of problems in the past, problems incompatible with their current “offer”.
Oslo Marathon shocked me, but not really
There are lots of people that have no clue what running is, what sports are, what a healthy lifestyle means, but they pose in achievers, by participating in pointless running events – I cannot even name those races, because it will be ridiculous. The mentality plays the biggest part, more important than infrastructure and everything, and the mass sports culture in Bucharest is far behind what I’ve seen in Oslo. Projecting the population of the two countries, then it is 20 times behind. Almost shocking, but not really, if we analyze how we think. All this state was winded for decades of incompetence, neglecting important things, and thinking fake shortcuts are the answer. It seems they are not, and these events compared, are speaking for their selves. It is true I had an initial shocker seeing the numbers, but analyzing more in depth my overall experience, this supports only to offer a clearer picture of what we stand exactly. Far behind.
Fair comparison between Bucharest Marathon and Oslo Marathon
And I am not talking about Berlin Marathon, Valencia Marathon, Athens, or even Prague. These had a bit of more glimpse of internationality and some of them didn’t have all the runs that matched Oslo with Bucharest: 42 – 21 -10. I just used a clear apple-apple comparison and the result can be checked easily. If we try to fix this, we will for sure improve, even in a minor percentage, the wellbeing and health of the population. Maybe not over night, but at least in some decades. It is shocking how things can look like in a place where the population sees life in a correct form and acts upon that, exactly like they should. For sure, an under 40 minutes 10K in Oslo would represent for me even less that it represents in Bucharest. But there you won’t feel it like an achievement, but as a failure if you don’t do it. Metaphorical, of course, because nobody seem to actually care about race time there. Everybody was enjoying the ride, because sports seem only a part of life in Norway.