Not one to let a good race go to waste, we went out there anyway this morning and I switched my registration from the 5K to the 1K. That's the look of excitement 10 minutes before her first "long" race.
This is the look of apprehension 1 minute before her first "long" race!
And they're off!
Hanging in there ...
Almost home ...
Another medal! [You'd have flared nostrils too if you just ran the longest race of your life and someone makes you stand still and say "cheesey"!]
Going back to 5Ks, I ran this morning at a small race close to home. It started at a local high school track, ran around a light industrial area, and ended back at the track. It was for a good cause, Special Olympics, and was also held in memory of a local grad who passed away a few years ago. My string of ever-decreasing race times this year came to an end, and I finished in 24:36. 2nd best time this year; I'll take it.
1. The Swedes were fast! I was hoodwinked by this pic on their brochure of families and little kids running, because they must have run the 3.4K instead. The 10K was stocked with serious runners that all took off in a flash from the start. I came in at about my normal time, which is usually in the 30-40th percentile in the US, but I was past the 75th percentile in Sweden. :-(
2. No t-shirts, but I did get a souvenir coin at the finish
3. Gigantic race bibs, easily twice the size as ours
4. Race start at high noon, on a Sunday
5. No chip timing, although someone recorded our times manually
6. Almost everyone belonged to a running club
7. Race volunteers shouting encouragement in Swedish sounds just like what you expect to hear in a rowdy beer hall!
It was a fun experience, and I hope to have more, but I'm also glad to be back in the U.S. of A.
there were a lot of side trails and smaller ones that would disappear into the trees. About a mile in, I came upon a small water pumping station and stopped for a few minutes. I still hadn’t seen anyone. I pressed on, trying to keep to a generally counter clockwise heading because I couldn’t see above the trees to spot any landmarks. After a few false moves, I eventually/suddenly/amazingly/happily came upon the road that leads back to my hotel. The round trip took 40+ minutes.
I have no idea what Kvantumjoggen means, but I ran that 10K on Sunday. The trip there was almost harder than the race itself. Bus ride from hotel to Odenplan in the city, then subway to T-Centralen train station, then train to the town of Huddinge, then bus to Källbrinksskolan. Phew!Good thing the race started at 12:00 noon. Bad thing that the sun was out and it was actually getting warm. I skipped the warm-up aerobics set to Swedish rock music, although I almost reconsidered when they played a cover to "The Winner Takes It All".
We were in quite an idyllic track setting in the middle of a forest. From the infield, all you could see were tall trees along the entire edge of the track. Here's a google map with the reddish track in the center.
Close to noon, about a couple hundred of us gathered near the 200m starting line. Various announcements were made, and then we were off. The pace was fast in the beginning. I was just there for the ride, so I settled into a more relaxed pace at the back of the pack. We wound our way through a residential neighborhood shown in the bottom right portion of the map. There turned out to be a couple of nasty small hills and one long gradual uphill, made worse by the fact that it ended up being a double loop out and back!
By the second loop, I was ready for this to be over. Somehow I slogged through the hills one more time. For the grand finale, they picked an alternate approach to the finish, and had us go up this really steep incline to get to the track. At the top of the incline, I entered the track, ran 100m, and finished in 55:01. I’m glad I ran and I was glad it was over. I took the same bus and train back into town, grabbed some lunch, and then parked myself at a sidewalk café in Sodermalm. I had a cappuccino, and watched the afternoon and beautiful people go by.
Once into town, it was narrow streets and old buildings. I zig zagged my way south, knowing I would eventually reach the water. The closer into town, it started to get pretty busy on the sidewalks. I took some pics but of course left my camera cable at home, so here's a stock photo of Stockhom off Google.
If I didn't run, I think I'd go nuts. Thanks to 35F degree weather at the start, and maybe all that pent up frustration just waiting to cut loose, I was ready to floor it on this my 4th 5K of the year.
