Paalo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek & The Road To Valhalla Cycling Tour

“Mind is everything. Muscle – pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.” – Paavo Nurmi

“Great is the victory, but the friendship of all is greater.” –  Emil Zatopek

Have you heard of Paavo Nurmi or Emil Zátopek? Helsinki connects these two remarkable people. I am here for the inaugural Road to Valhalla Cycling Tour which will take us from the capital city of Finland, Helsinki, to Stockholm Sweden, onward to Oslo, Norway and then past some amazing fjords to our final destination, the city of Trondheim. But this blog isn’t about cycling.

As is my habit when I come to a place I know little about, I take a walkabout. It is not that there is no cycling in Helsinki. The city has an extensive network as well as great routes such as the Seuirasaarenslka trail which is part of a 130 km long public waterfront system. This 14.4 km cycling and walking route runs through four delightful islands. To top it off, the city had just finished building the amazing Kruunuvuorensilta, or Crown Mountain bridge, for cyclists, pedestrians and light rail at a cost of US$373 million.

Oodi Central Library

So, if I am not writing about cycling, what else should I focus on? There is certainly no shortage of subjects here, starting with world-famous Finnish design. Since 2014, Helsinki has been a UNESCO City of Design and one could easily spend a day in the Design District and still be eager to have more time there. A blog or two can easily be written about Finnish cuisine, ranging from game – bear, elk, reindeer or grouse – to the Finnish staples of herring, smoked fish, or the iconic whitefish vendace, eaten whole and accompanied with tasty rye or sourdough breads.

Kampi Curvilinear Chapel

In Helsinki – a city designed for walkers – you can wander around, admire and write about architecture, ranging from remarkable churches such as the contemporary curvilinear wooden Kampi Chapel or the Temppeliaukion Kirkko church hewn from solid rock, to buildings such as the Oodi Central Library or the Musiikkitalo, the glass and copper fronted Helsinki Music Centre. And let’s not forget Finladia Talo, the landmark concert hall designed by world famous architect Paulo Alto, known for his concept of Well Being and Human Environment.

I could dedicate a blog or two to Helsinki’s 10 million metre underground network of sports fields, art installations, swimming pools, museums, tracks for go karting and running, tunnels, the metro, parking and much more, initially built during the Cold War. To get a feel for it, consider watching Architect Tapi Snellman’s film, Helsinki Underground.

Instead, I will write about a couple of long-distance runners whose achievements and personalities made an impact on their countries and the world far beyond running. Paavo Nurmi, considered to be a national symbol and know as the flying Finn, set 22 world records, won nine gold and three silver Olympic medals and was undefeated in 121 races. If you are interested in finding out more about his impact on Finland and its identity, check out the Wikipedia entry. Without a doubt, a truly legendary figure. And on my walkabout, I came across his statue in front of the Olympic Stadium where Emil Zatopek, a Czech runner – who visited my school when I was a kid – became a running legend at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Emil Zatopek won the 5 km and 10 km gold medals and, at the last moment, decided to run the marathon as well – for the first time in his entire life. To everyone’s surprise, he won that as well, the only athlete to ever win the three races in one Olympics. If you like sports, there are many fascinating stories about these two amazing athletes.

My favourite story, however, is not about running. Zatopek was an officer in the Czechoslovak army in 1968, by then retired from athletics, when the Soviet army invaded the country. Zatopek, along hundreds of thousands of citizens expressed his displeasure with the invasion. For this gesture, he was dismissed from the army and to shame him, the functionaries decided to make him into a garbage collector in Prague. It didn’t work out well for the party. When the public heard that Zatopek was collecting garbage, people waited outside their doors and didn’t allow him to touch the garbage. It was the functionaries who ended up looking embarrassed. So they gave Zátopek another job, as a forester, to keep him away from the public eye.

As a youngster, I was consumed by athletics and read the sport pages from A to Z. Neither Nurmi nor Zatopek have crossed my mind in decades but in Helsinki memories of distant times have come back. Paavo Nurmi became a cultural icon in his country, representing perseverance and excellence, and Emil Zatopek inspired many athletes and non-athletes and is remembered for his generous spirit and camaraderie with fellow athletes. These are good thoughts to have for our challenging cycling from Helsinki to Trondheim.

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Road to Valhalla

Valhalla, also known as the Hall of Heroes, was the goal for all real Vikings. Ruled by the Norse God, Odin, only the bravest and fiercest of warriors...