… only bad clothing” is a famous Swedish saying. Sweden is a country that has a beach culture and snowy mountains, and whose northernmost point is in the Arctic circle. It is not surprising that the Swedes take bad weather in their stride.
It is the time of year now when the weather starts getting less pleasant to run in (I’m not going to say “worse”), and the mornings and evenings are dark. Which means that it is time to dig out the running gloves and fluorescent running tops – good clothing so that you can get out an run all year round. Many Swedes instead start skiing (of course). Cross-country skiing is popular here, and thousands of people have now training for the world’s biggest cross-country skiing race, Vasaloppet in February. This means that out on the roads at this time of year, you’re nearly as likely to see someone doing roller-skiing as running.
It’s quite hard to believe it, but I think that the Swedes are even more obsessed with the weather than the Brits. And unlike the optimistic saying “There is no such thing as bad weather..”, they are often take a quite gloomy view. They always grumble about the bad weather, and when the weather is nice, they grumble that it won’t last. A typical standing joke is “Swedish summer – the best day of the whole year!” Another complaint is “isn’t it typical that it rains on Midsummer?” (the day when most Swedes have outdoor strawberries and aquavit parties). Neither of these “jokes” is true of course. The summer can actually be quite nice, and offer many days where you can go to the beach and swim in the sea. I have been in the sea more times since I moved to Sweden than probably the whole of the rest of my life before that.
Another complaint is that the weather-forecasters never get it right – a complaint I recognise from Britain. Many people grumble to help them get through the day, and the Swedes could be world grumbling champions. “Well, at least we are number 1 at something!” they would sarcastically say.
When they are more optimistic, they might see that in November, the trees are amazing. And there are a lot of trees here. The running paths through the forests get covered in wet mushy leaves, making it tougher, but no-one is looking to run fast at this time of year. I for one think that the beauty of autumn outweighs any downside – even when it’s dark and rainy.
I am not sure I totally agree that there is no such thing as bad weather. But I can agree that Swedish weather is definitely not boring.
Running around Sweden 
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