Being 42

Monday 2nd September 2013, 2.45pm (day 739)

I got pictures of a few Oslo landmarks today but I have chosen this one because, firstly, I sort of stumbled across the place, having taken a wrong turn on my walk back into the city after finishing work at the university (comfortably early, but that’s Norway for you, where they do things early — 11.30 is a typical time for lunch).

Second, this is the scene of something I remember watching at the time, and even then, aged 11, I thought it was quite impressive. With 32 years’ hindsight, what Sebastian Coe did on 10/6/81 must be counted as one of the most astonishing athletic performances of all time, setting a world record for the 800 metres (1:41.73) that was not beaten for 16 years and has still only been bettered twice. Which is quite mind-boggling, when you think about how records tend to fall in that sport. And here’s where it happened.

[Having checked these facts on Wikipedia I feel duty bound to point out that the women’s 800m record was set by Jarmila Kratochvila in 1983, which is, perhaps, even more amazing.]