Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.
It has been Bragdið’s custom to have someone officially start the Flag Day Run. Government ministers, mayors and others have given speeches and counted down to the start. This year it was one of the true stalwarts of Faroese athletics who got to step up to the microphone. Niels Jákup Jakobsen helped re-found Bragdið, and was also one of the initiators of the first Flag Day Run. On top of that, he also became its first winner. Niels Jákup, who recently turned 50, has been a board member of Bragdið all these years until he stepped down at the last annual general meeting, and is now “only” a substitute member.
Niels Jákup has proven a dedicated team leader at many Island Games. Here he is once again at a microphone, celebrating with Bjørk the bronze medal she won in the half marathon on the Isle of Wight in 2011.
Niels Jákup has also been a long-serving figure in our federation, and at the annual general meeting on 18 April he was re-elected as vice-chair of FÍF for two years. In the article about the Flag Day Run itself here on the site, I hinted that the speech Niels Jákup gave before the start ought to be given space here. Niels Jákup has been kind enough to send me his words, which I am happy to share with you:
Dear runners, spectators and helpers!
It is wonderful to see all these eager runners ready for the start, now that it has fallen to me to start the 27th Flag Day Run, and on that occasion say a few words.
Late in 1986 Bragdið was re-founded, and plans were made for which events should be organised in the run-up to the Island Games in Guernsey in September 1987.
Runs were organised in Tvøroyri, in Toftir, in Saksunnardalur and in Vágar. But the first event organised by the re-founded club was the 1987 Flag Day Run.
Those of us on the board at the time were more than a little anxious about how it would go.
Would anyone sign up for the run?
How would this new event fit in with the traditional Flag Day celebrations, which have been held on Vaglið for many a year?
And what about the traffic out on the route, etc.?
In our estimation the turnout was good: 39 participants turned up at the start. That doesn’t sound like many today, but bear in mind that the fitness wave had not yet washed over the Faroese cliffs in 1987, and running was not common then – indeed, running around the streets in tight trousers was more or less considered abnormal.
That day in 1987 there were two distances, 10.9 km and 21 km. It was going rather far to choose a distance as long as 10.9 km. And then a distance that was twice as long as that.
Everything went well, though, and I was lucky enough to win the shorter race. So for all time I will be the first winner of the Flag Day Run.
Absalon, who was the better runner, won the longer distance, but the photographer would have had to wait too long for those running the longer distance. So I got all the attention. And a big front-page photo of me appeared in the papers. Mum had cut one of them out and hung it on the wall.
The headline was very poetic – He ran and won.
We in Bragdið have faithfully organised the Flag Day Run all these years, and it has grown into the fine event we are witnessing today.
Together with other events, the Flag Day Run has been a locomotive for athletics in the Faroe Islands. Gradually, as more and more people have taken part, it has become clear to the authorities that there is great potential in athletics.
Tórshavn Municipality, which at the time unanimously approved the project for Tórsbreyt, is a good example of that, and they deserve great thanks for their positive attitude towards athletics.
Today, 26 years after the first Flag Day Run, one can say that a lot has changed. From being a sport that more or less did not exist in the Faroe Islands in the mid-80s, athletics has grown into one of the major sports in the Faroe Islands, and today there is competition in every athletics event.
Many of you standing here eagerly waiting for the start have set yourselves some goal for the 27th Flag Day Run.
Some want to run the course faster than last year.
Someone wants to finish ahead of his wife.
Some wife wants to finish behind her husband, to avoid hearing about how incredibly badly injured he was that day.
Someone just intends to have a pleasant run, and there is room for all of these fine folk.
Racing is very simple, but hard. So I can tell you that there are only two important things a runner needs to remember.
No. 1 – Remember that you are only human, so don’t set yourself inhuman demands.
No. 2 – Remember that your rival is no more than human, so it is only a matter of time before he cracks and lets you past.
Now we’ll get ready for the countdown. Thank you for listening, and have a good run.
