Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my Harry Potter Fan running group, the Potterhead Running Club. It’s my safe place to be a nerd and openly love that part of myself. I am in Hufflepuff and, true to the book, we are fiercely loyal to our friends (we also love to eat sooooo ( fit right in). Each house has their own group on Facebook that is only open to self professed members of that house. We are there for each other through thick and thin. They are my people and we’ve all helped each other get through some really tough stuff. I can’t imagine life without them.
All that said, several times a year, the admins of the over all PHRC group plan challenge weeks. This past week was our favorite week of the year: when we join up with our fellow Slytherins to knock some mileage out of the park against the combined team of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. The way our groups work is that we all have our respective teams in the Charity Miles walking app. The app tallies your miles and for every .1 of a mile they donate money to the charity of your choice. That’s how we got our tagline “I solemnly swear I’m up to so much good” For this week, they combined all of the totals from Slytherin with ours to see if we could beat a set goal by the end of the week. And this, friends, is how I began my journey of accidentally walking 50 MILES this week.
The first couple days of the challenge week, I got in smaller walks of about two miles each. The third day, I thought I would do something crazy and walk from my house to a lake that is near-ish. This decision turned out to be a life changing revelation! As it happens, the small lake I walked to is actually one of three inter-connected lakes called Utterslev Mose. The first day, I walked around the largest and in total got in 6.9 miles of walking that day. I was stunned at the beauty of the place. It was FULL of birds of all flavors. Swans, greylag ducks, mallards and the ever present magpies and hooded crows. To my surprise there was a huge nesting area for terns in the middle of the lake on one side which was oddly entertaining to watch. The end of my day was capped with three swans swimming in regal splendor next to a picturesque willow tree. That day alone I got in 9.3 miles which put me at 13.1 miles the first three days.
Saturday and Sunday were spent in Århus going to a concert and exploring. We had a great time seeing The Cordovas (who are totally awesome and you need to listen to them), visiting the ARoS museum and the quaint Den Gamle By open museum. All in all I got almost 8 miles of walking. At that point I was up to 20 miles!
Monday came and I was raring to go. I drove down to my favorite new spot and walked around the middle sized lake. This lake has a path that’s a bit more wooded and the lake itself is heavily filled with reeds. That made for even better birding as I walked! I was treated to more swans and the lovely, serene walking path through the woods. The next day, I vowed to walk around the second lake AND the first. Now I was up to 28.3 miles.
The final official day of the challenge was arguably the best. I made one final push for a big walk and planned a 10K around all three lakes. I walked around all three lakes and then did an extra loop around the smallest to get me to 10K. The smallest of the lakes treated me to flocks of greylag ducks, geese, crested grebes, a grey heron and ALL THE SWANS IN DENMARK. I’ve never seen so many swans in one place in all my life. I know they’re jerks but, darn it, they’re so nice to look at! Another 7.4 miles in the book and I was up to 35.7.
I capped the whole week off with two trips to Bispebjerg Kirkegård which has a grove of cherryblossom trees in full bloom. It may sound odd to head to a cemetery for a good time but Denmark treats their cemeteries more like public parks and it’s a lovely place to go to for a stroll. Add in some smaller walks, errands, and a lunch time meet up with a fellow PHRC member and I ended yesterday with a total of 50.2 miles over the span of ten days.
Sadly, the Slytherpuffs didn’t win the challenge (even though we clocked a combined 23,338 miles) and my legs are jello BUT I feel great and I’ve found a few new beautiful places to visit when I need some sunshine. Which will now be every day.
Faking It in Denmark 