Tunnel

At first glance it may seem that summer vacation trip means idle repose, but in truth time is never enough. And more so if your destination has bountiful attractions.

During my Norwegian trip, I had trouble even finding time to download my photographs, much less get enough time for replying emails. None of this is surprising, given the country's magic with so many never-to-be-missed experiences. Devoted as I am to the stamina of runners, I wasn't running that often in Norway. I didn't even fill my suitcase with running shoes.

Granted, this wasn't an excuse not to run, I told myself before dinner today. It was then I found the unique experience of running in Norway. Along a spectacular running route on the seaside, I came to the entrance of a tunnel with a warning sign of "no cyclists allowed." I had no idea what to expect inside the tunnel. If that's not the 24.5-kilometre-long Lærdal Tunnel (the longest road tunnel), I figured, it should be okay. Road tunnel conditions are generally good in Norway. I also heard about the dedicated air treatment plant removing dust and nitrogen dioxide. I ran into the tunnel without hesitation. With each step I was taking charge of the situation. Except, of course, it was nothing like that.

After a few minutes, vehicles rushed by, the whooshing sound of which being amplified inside the tunnel. There was a momentary sense of suspense as I could not even hear my panting because of those noises. Traffic wasn't heavy but the acoustic effect was enough to make me feel like Nemo tumbling inside a washing machine. I picked up my pace, trying to recover from the panic. Under these circumstances I decided the best course of action was to come out of the tunnel as quickly as possible. Mustering my remaining strength, I heaved my body forward at full throttle. As I glanced around the tunnel, I spied nothing but SOS call boxes at regular intervals. The greatest myth of tunnel is that it cuts short your travel time. In fact, time moves more slowly because of monotony - five times more slowly if you run, seven times more slowly in case you aren't sure the length of the tunnel. And the tunnel seemed to go on forever, man. There time didn't move forward at all. It just hung. So I had stacks of time to wonder how much the tunnel was shorter than Lærdal Tunnel. Maybe not much. Well, I never found out the answer; I decided to return after 10 minutes or so.

Upon completion of my run, my running apps recorded an average pace at 1.5 minutes per kilometres. Whew. I quickly discovered that such unbelievable record happened because the GPS wrongly tracked my distance, as if I was running up the mountain and not through a tunnel.

I blushed and chuckled at my embarrassing PB.