午夜日光下的馬拉松
A marathon in the midnight sunshine
午夜日光下的馬拉松
A look of horror comes across friends’ faces when I tell them the grand plan for my second marathon. Fired up with enthusiasm after triumphantly collapsing over the Virgin London Marathon finish line in April, I was determined not to kick my running shoes off and leave them gathering dust for the rest of eternity, so signed up for another one happening two months later. In the Arctic.
當我對朋友們談到第二個宏偉的馬拉松計劃時，便看到了他們臉上恐懼的神情。在我得意洋洋地倒向四月倫敦處女馬拉松終點線之後，從便滿懷激情，因此也決定註冊參加兩月後在北極的另一場馬拉松，而不是將跑鞋丟棄一邊，放任它永久的埋上塵土。
Now, firstly, I should make it clear that I’m not a natural runner. While I feel like a gazelle sprinting gracefully through the streets of London, when I catch my reflection I am hunched like Quasimodo, dragging my feet through puddles and panting a lot.
現在，首先，我要清楚地指出，我並不是一名天生的賽跑運動員。我感覺自己像是羚羊一樣地穿過倫敦的街道，當我看見我的倒影時，感覺自己就像是卡西莫多，拖着腳步氣喘吁吁地穿過水坑。
But what I lack in grace and ability I more than make up for in enthusiasm and nervous energy, which is what I was hoping would pull me through as I stepped off the plane in the Norwegian city of Tromsø two weeks ago for their annual Midnight Sun Marathon.
而我卻願意用滿懷的激情和集中的精力彌補我所缺少的天賦和能力，這也是我在兩個星期之前所希望的，當我在挪威城特羅姆瑟下飛機，參加每年的午夜太陽馬拉松時，能夠幫助我通過的地方。
It’s the middle of the night. The sun is shining. There are more than 4,000 runners from 56 countries – 300 from the UK, but others from as far afield as New Zealand, Brazil and China – signed up for either a 10K, a half marathon, or the full 26.2 miles, and making a Lycra-clad invasion on the city whose position 200 miles north of the Arctic circle means the sun doesn’t set for a nine-week stretch during the summer.
午夜時分，日光爛漫。這裏有來自56個國家的4000多名跑步愛好者，其中300名來自英國，其他的分別來自新西蘭，巴西和中國。他們這些人要麼是報名參加一個10000米，半個馬拉松，要麼是參加26.2英里，使得萊卡入侵城市，這些城市在200英里以北的北極圈境內，在夏日期間太陽將直射長達九周。
Most of the city is located on the island of Tromsøya, surrounded by calm waters and spectacularly rugged snow-topped mountains, which – thankfully – we’ll be avoiding by following a route that sticks close to the water. But the scenery and terrain is already marking out Tromsø as something of a sports haven, with the Polar Night Half Marathon being held in January and the Sky Race Ultra Marathon in August.
大多數的城市位於特羅姆瑟雅島境內，四周環繞着平靜的水域和巍峨險峻白雪皚皚的山脈，謝天謝地的是，我們會在一條靠近水面的路線上躲避。但風景和地形也同時凸顯出特羅姆瑟作爲一處體育聖地，正如一月份舉行的極地夜半馬拉松和八月份的天空跑馬拉松。
譯文屬原創，未經允許，不得轉載。
