{"id":4772,"date":"2021-05-23T13:49:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T11:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tree-athlete.org\/?p=4772"},"modified":"2021-05-23T18:16:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T16:16:01","slug":"danish-tree-athlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.tree-athlete.org\/en\/danish-tree-athlon\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap of my Danish Tree-Athlons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

8 months in Denmark have come to an end. It was an active time. I ran more than 4.000 km and cycled about the same distance. The gained elevation was just above 0, but especially on the bike it felt more like 10,000 m, because, when sitting on my good old Albatros every smallest hill feels like a mountain ;). This means that I added 40 trees to my Activity Forest during my stay in Denmark. The map gives you a little overview where I ran and cycled (green: and red: bike).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"Run
\"\"Bike<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flora and Fauna:<\/em><\/strong> When I arrived in Denmark, everything was still lush green, and I fuelled myself mostly with blackberries and raspberries. It made my runs very slow and sometimes I believe I consumed more calories than I burnt. However, winter arrived soon and also nature changed. Still, it was so nice to run on the leaves from all the deciduous trees which make up for about 45 percent of Denmark\u2019s forests. The forests look a lot healthier in comparison to Germany, but non-indigenous conifer trees still dominate the forests composition with about 50 % of the total forest area. Despite the fact that Denmark was originally covered with forest, Denmark only has 14.1 % forest cover today. This is however a progression since 1800 when Denmark had just 2-3 % forest cover left because of intensive and uncontrolled logging in favour of agriculture. Efforts to increase the forest cover were initiated in 1805 with the Danish Forest Act and the forests continue to expand today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the fauna, I spotted plenty of Denmark\u2019s mammals like roe, red and fallow deer, foxes, squirrels and massive hares. Sometimes I even confused the hares for a small deer, that is how big there are. There are more than 300 bird species, but to be frank, I wouldn\u2019t be able to recognise more than 5 of them. However, I really enjoyed the company of many ducks, geese and swans on most of my runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terrain:<\/em><\/strong> A lot of places are called Bjerge in Danish, but there is not even a single mountain in the country. The most significant hill in Denmark is Himmelsbjerget, which is 147 m high and has the highest elevation drop with just over 100 m. However, the terrain was still pretty diverse with a lot of rolling hills, beaches, dunes, trails along rivers and beautiful forest trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n