Reykjavik Marathon

On the Ground

In August, the sun in Reykjavik sets briefly around midnight and rises again before 3am. You will not sleep on a normal schedule and this is the correct response to the situation. The geothermal pools — not the Blue Lagoon tourist infrastructure but the neighborhood ones, Vesturbæjarlaug, Laugardalslaug — are where the city actually lives, and using them as a recovery protocol after the race is both physiologically sound and ethnographically appropriate. The hot dog stand by the harbor, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, has been operating since 1937 and has served heads of state and locals with identical indifference. Iceland is expensive in a way that will shock you each time you see a receipt. Go anyway. There is nothing that prepares you for what happens to the light here.